Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-04

and learned what has been accomplished
there in educating the boys and girls of
that country into efficient men and
women. Denmark is about the size OF
Switzerland, although its inhabitants are
a million less. 1t has neither gold nor
silver copper nor iron, yet it is rich.
serene and contented. I asked friend
in Stockholm for an explanation OF Den
marks happiness and material pros
perity. 1t is because of the unequaled
education and the quality of the educa-
ton given in its Schools he replied.
DO you attribute Germany's efficiency
to PestaloZzi?' DIR. ClaXton was asked.
Il do" he answered. although educa-
ton in Germany was compulsory before
anything was known there of PestaloZZ1
and his methods. Saxony heard of him
through his published story and sent an
expert to Switzerland to investigate his
work. Pestalozzi's novel, which he called
.Lienhardt und Gertrud. elm Buch fur
das Volk, or. in English, Lienhardt and
Gertrude, a Book for the People,
showed what good woman could ac-
compliSh.
1.-The heroine of the story, by her in
dustry, common sense, frugality and
kindness. changed a family and then
village. Pestalozzis ideas about teach
ing spread all through central Europe
and had profound influence in Ger
many, Holland, Denmark and Switzer-
land Little was done before his DAY
to test the developing theory OF educa-
ton He reduced the theory to pracuce-
"Pestalozzi. Swiss OF Italian plooa;
taught self-respect, self-support and
self-reliance.
Born at Zurich. in 1746. he lost his
father in his childhood and was brought
up by his mother. He married at the
age of twenty-three, and. leaving the
ology and the law, took up farming,
having purchased piece OF neglected
land near Aargan, on which ne pur-
posed to cultivate madden he laileo'
however, as an agriculturist, but, open
ing his house as school for poor chill
dren, he gained much experience or
value as a teacher. He lived with his
pupils, worked with them and really
starved with them. The school had to
be closed for lack of funds.
About this time Pestalozzi published
his first book. He called it The Even.
ing Hours of a Hermit. The story or
Lienhardt and Gertrude was written
when he was thirty-five years old. The
French invasion of Switzerland, in 1898.
left many homeless children on the
shore of Lake Lucerne. Some OF them
were taken by PestaloZZi to deserted
convent.
~ was he wrote afterward, in an
explanation of his teaching methods.
from morning until evening almost
alone in their midst. Everything that
was done for their body soul pro-
ceeded from my hand. Every assist
ance every help in time of need, every
teaching that they received. came i'm
mediately from me.
".My hand he said, lay in their
hands my eye rested on their eyes, my
tears flowed with their tears and my
laughter accompanied theirs. Their
soup was mine, their drink was mine
I had nothing / had no housekeeping,
no friend, no servants around me; 1
had them alone.
~ slept he wrote, in the middle of
them. 1 was the last who went to bed
at night the first who rose in the morn
ing Even in bed / prayed and taught
them until they were asleep It they
wished it to be So.
Here, then. is description by the
good PeStaloZZi himself OF the nrSt No-
cational school
For twenty years he taught and
toiled the shore of the Lake of
Neufchatel. Hundreds of people visited
his school, among them Were Nine. de
Stael and Talleyrand. Friedrich Fro
bel, who established kindergartens for
children between the ages OF three and
seven, learned Pestalozzfs methods
from the master himself, as did Carl
Ritter, the geographer.
The training of the whole man was
the first principle of Pestalozzis sys-
nation, skill and knowledge. In his
youth, largely through the influence of
Rousseau. the Swiss-French philoso-
pher, he came to think that the meth
DDS of popular education were wholly
and radically wrong. Society was not
to be composed in the future of pro-
fessors, lawyers, doctors and preachers.
No society of that kind had ever ex-
listed. Most men, as always. since the
dawn of civilization were to be farm ers,
shepherds, orchardists and mechanics.
why not get them ready in child
hood. Pestalozzi asked. for the lives
they mean to follow? 1 told a young
teacher once" DR.. Claxton continued.
that it was well for her to remember
that most of her pupils would follow
in the footsteps of their fathers and
mothers.
"'Oh. don't say that she exclaimed
in horror. I hope many of them will
go to India as missionaries.
1.-The time is coming. 1 feel certain,
when. nobody will look down on any
body else and no one will cringe in
the presence of another because of the
silly belief that occupations are graded