The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-03-14


pressing a profound sadness, and now
again the most peaceful happiness
his speech either slow or hurried,
either soft and melodious or bursting
forth like thunder; imagine the man
and you have him whom we used to
call our Father Pestalozzi. Such as i
have sketched him for you we loved
him; we all loved him, for
he loved US all; we loved him
so warmly that when some time
passed without our seeing him we
were quite troubled about it, and
when he again appeared we could not
take our eyes off him." Love anu
faith, then, lie at the very foundation
of PestaloZZian theory and practice.
PestaloZzl again: ''If / look back
and ask myself what / have really
done toward the improvement of ele-
mentary education, / find that in
recognizing observation as the abso-
lutte basis of all knowledge L have
established the first and most impor-
tant principle of instruction" And
again: Conservation is the absolute
basis of all knowledge. In other
words, all Knowledge must proceed
from observation and must admit OF
being traced to that source" Bnt the
English word observation very made
quately represents the German word
anschauung, for which it here stan,is.
1 should use the word intuition, but
this word, in English, seems to bs
losing the very meaning which obser-
vation expresses, and that is an essen
tial part of the meaning of
words to express the meaning of the
one German word. Let US take, In
connection with this, an aphorisnl
from his "Evening Hour of u
Hermit": mature develops all the
human faculties by practice, and their
growth depends on their eXercise.n
In "How Gertrude Teaches Her Chill
dren," he says that education consists
in "a continual benevolent superin-
tendence with the object of calling
forth all the faculties which Provi-
dence has implanted" Ramsauer,
first a pupil, then an assistant, gives
us a glimpse of PestaloZZi's method of
applying these principles in the
school room. He says: 1.-THE eXer-
cises in language were the best we had,
especially those which had reference
ITO the wainscoting of the school
room. He spent whole hours before.
that wainscoting. very old and torn,
busy in examining the holes and rents
with respect to number, form, position
and color, and in formulating our OBJ
developed. Then PestalozZi would
ask US :: Boys, what do you see p
Il see hole in the wainscoting.'
FNery well, repeat after me: 1 see
hole in the wainscOting, and so On.'"
Vuillemin tells his children that "at
Yverdun language was taught by the
aid of intuition (observation); we
learned to see correctly, and through
this very process to form for our
Of l1 70
tions of things. What we had
conceived clearly we had no diff
Guilty in expressing clearly" Again:
1--WE were made to invent geometry
by having marked out for us the end
to reach, and by being put on the
route. The same course was followed
in arithmetic" PestalOZzi applied
these same principles in moral educa-
ton. He says of StanZ: / made use
of the impressions and experiences of
their every day life to give my chill
and duty. When the neighboring
town of Altdorf was burnt down, i
gathered my children around me and
said: Altdorf has been burnt down
perhaps at this very moment there
are II hundred children there without
home, food or clothes will you not
ask our good Government to let
twenty Of them come and live with
u.s. j still seem to see the emotion
with which they answered: 90, yes,
yes - But. my children i said,
think well Of what you are asking.
Even now we have scarcely money
enough, and it is not at all certain, If
these poor children came to us, the
Government would give us any more
than they do at present, so that Won
might have to work harder and share
your clothes with these children, and
sometimes, perhaps, go without food.
Do not say, then, that you would like
them TO come unless you are quite
prepared for all the consequences,
After having spoken to them i'm this
way, as seriously as / could, / made
them repeat all / had said, to be quite
sure that they had thoroughly uIider-
stood what the consequences of their
request would be. But they were not
i'm the least shaken in their decision.
and all repeated Yes, yes; we are
quite ready to- work harder, eat less.
and share our clothes, for we want
them to come
"Some refugees from the Grisons
having given me few CROWNS for nv
poor children, / at once called them
and said 'These men are Obliged to
leave their country; they hardly know
"hNlN bhCy wiz Ii0 a tlOiiIh IODlOF-
row, yet, in spite Of their trouble, they
have given me this for you. Come
and thank Them And the emotion
of the children brought tears to the
eyes of the refugees.
" 1t was in this way that strove to
awaken the feeling of each virtue be-
fore talking about it, for / thought IL
unwise to talk to children on subjects
which would compel ihem to speak
without thoroughly understanding
what they were saying"
To begin with the child's own ex-
periences and tirst-hand ideas aud
emotions, and to build upon this foun-
dation through the self activity of the
child, under the supervision of the
teacher, this is the substance of the
ppSfaIOZZiau method