Pestalozzi's ideas

Pestalozzi's main ideas are reflected mainly through the work "Lienhard und Gertrud" (Lienhard and Gertrud), which was firstly published in the "Education Magazine" (January 1935-February 1936) by Fu Rengang according to an abridged translation of the English version under the title "The Wise Couple"; and then translated by the Beijing Translation and Translation Society according to the Rothfels Publishing House Zurich in 1959; and then published in the first volume of the German version of the complete collection (eight volumes) in 1946 in the "Pestalozzi Anthology of Educational Essays" (Volume 1). In 1946 the first volume of the German edition of Pestalozzi's complete works (eight volumes) was translated and included in the first volume of Pestalozzi's Anthology of Educational Essays. The latest Chinese translation was published by People's Education Publishing House in November, 1984. According to the translation in 1959, it was slightly modified and included in the series of "Masterpieces of Foreign Education", which is divided into the upper and lower volumes with 948 pages and 684,000 words. The upper volume is preceded by Xu Ruling's text "Pestalozzi's life, educational ideas and one of his masterpieces <; Linhard and Gertrude >;", and the lower volume is accompanied by Xu's edited "Chronicle of Pestalozzi's life".

The novel expresses Pestalozzi's educational tendencies and ideals through the description of the heroine Gertrude's words and deeds as well as her activities for children's education, the concern and support of the prefect Yarner for education, and the reforms and explorations of Poona town school principal Gruffy, etc. It also earned him an international reputation, and the legislative assembly of the French **** and the state had awarded Pestalozzi the title of "French Legislative Council of the French **** and the State" with this book in 1792. Pestalozzi was honored by the Legislative Assembly of France in 1792 with the title "Citizen of France*** and of the State".

The important educational ideas put forward in this book are mainly as follows:

1. He sharply criticized the national education system with its hierarchical nature. He figuratively compares this system to a building whose superstructure is very fine and inhabited by very few people; whose middle floor is inhabited by a larger number of people but has no staircase leading to the upper floor, and even if someone attempts to climb into the upper floor, he will be mercilessly driven down by those who live in the upper floor; whose lower floor is inhabited by a large number of people, who only have the right to enjoy the sunlight and the fresh air with the inhabitants of the upper floors*** and who, with their eyes blindfolded, live in the darkness. Pestalozzi thinks that this kind of feudal education serves the privileged children of a few and that the working people in general have no right to education, whereas the children of the poor are intelligent and capable, and he expresses his extreme indignation at this state of affairs. In the book, through Gertrude's education of her children and other children of poor peasants and their achievements, the path of new education is shown: education is combined with productive labor, education becomes the wealth of all people, and the school becomes a powerful lever to transform the society.

2. The aim of education is the full and harmonious development of all the natural strengths and capacities of the human being. It requires that the influence exerted by the educator on the child must be consistent with the child's nature. Teachers should under no circumstances suppress the natural development of the new generation, as was done in the schools of the time, but should direct that development in the right direction, removing obstacles and influences that would hinder it or divert it from the right course. He described the relationship between education and the development of the child graphically, arguing that education should build its edifice (form the human being) on a huge and solid rock (nature), and that it can only achieve its stated purpose if it is always in close union with this rock and stands unshakably on it. Accordingly, he sought to create new methods of education and to use the art of education to promote the development of man in accordance with his nature. Therefore, it can be said that the main principle of education is to follow nature and conform to the natural order of human development and the eternal and unchanging laws, so that he can be exercised and developed.

3. The theory of elemental education was created. It is believed that the educational process must begin with some of the simplest factors and gradually move to the complex ones. In this book, it is only a preliminary matter, lacking in depth, until "Gertrude how to educate her children" has made a systematic expression. In this book the elements of physical, moral and intellectual education are mentioned. It is argued that the simplest element in the physical development of the child is the movement of the various joints, since only the movement of the joints ensures the possibility of human action. Therefore, physical education should be carried out through the completion of the simplest actions in daily life, such as walking, eating, carrying things, etc. Such gradual practice not only develops the body, but also trains the spirit of labor and learns labor skills. He also emphasized the important role of military drills, military games, and various combat activities in sports. Pestalozzi also believed that the aim of children's sport was to develop and improve all the physical strength and possibilities of the child, that sport had a great effect on the formation of the personality, and that adults could use sport as a primary form of rational influence on the development of the child. Pestalozzi has asserted that sport should be carried out in close connection with moral education.

With regard to moral education, Pestalozzi believes that the foundation for the child's moral education should be laid in the family, but that further consolidation depends on the school. The simplest element of moral education is the love of the child for his mother; in the school the teacher has to establish this parent-child love for the child and to integrate the school into the social family. So the main task of moral education is to develop in the child a positive love for people - from love of parents to love of brothers and sisters, to love of all those around them, and then to love of all mankind and to realize that he is a member of the whole of mankind. Moral education should not be taught through talk, but rather through the development of emotions and the training of moral behavior in daily life, i.e., "first we create a moral feeling, then we talk about it, and then we work on the child's self-control in the context of that feeling". The best way to practice moral behavior is to let children do more to help others, while the teacher's example has a good modeling influence on children.

In intellectual education Pestalozzi first of all demanded to know the characteristics of human intellectual development, especially of children's intellectual development, because this is the basis of intellectual education. The simplest elements of intellectual education are "numbers", "shapes" and "names", and the corresponding intellectual tasks are "counting The corresponding intellectual tasks are "calculation", "measurement" and "language". Intellectual education should enable the child's understanding "to go from vague and confused to more certain, from certain to clear, and from clear to very clear", and emphasized in particular that "it is necessary to concentrate on the improvement of the intellect, and not merely on the extensive increase of ideas". As a result, he made bold and creative explorations in the subjects and contents of teaching, teaching programs and methods, and made remarkable achievements.

4. About teaching. Pestalozzi started from the general purpose of education, closely combined intellectual and moral education, physical education and labor education, put forward the idea of pedagogical teaching and pointed out that teaching in school must become a means of education and be required by the strictest psychological art in order to reach "the highest state of simplicity, consistency and harmony".

Pestalozzi advocated the learning of the native language, mathematics, history, geography, music, etc., as well as the promotion of the development and prosperity of handicrafts and agriculture, which was undoubtedly of great historical significance compared with the "theological" centrality of feudal education at that time, and which fully reflected Pestalozzi's boldness. Pestalozzi's bold spirit of innovation.

Pestalozzi's teaching methods are characterized by the following: (1) Practicality. Pestalozzi advocated that children learn by "working". For example, Gertrude taught the children to spin while teaching them to read, sing and count, and Gruffydd taught the children to measure in the meadow, which greatly facilitated the students' application of what they had learned to the practice of production. Compared with the old pedagogical tradition of feudal education, this undoubtedly opens up a new direction, and that direction is to strengthen the practical nature of teaching. (2) From simplicity to complexity. Its theoretical basis is the theory of elemental education, and it is the application of the theory of elemental education in the teaching of subjects. For example, Gertrude taught children to recognize words, "letters" written on the blackboard, sometimes writing lowercase letters, sometimes writing uppercase letters, taking turns to teach them to read and write, and then use intuitive pictures to let the children learn the names of primary history, geography, nature, etc., to master the "nouns", and on this basis, they can learn to recognize words and write. ", and on this basis add adjectives in front of the nouns so that the students can understand the meaning and attributes of the words. In this way, students follow the order from simple to complex step by step, in line with the law of children's understanding. (3) Attention is paid to the development of the intellect. For example, when teaching arithmetic to elementary school children, Grüfi used tables to allow children to practice arithmetic as a way of developing their judgment and reasoning skills. (4) Emphasis on practice. For example, in the teaching of arithmetic, in order to make the students master the ten basic numbers 1 to 10. He advocated that through various methods to let children practice these ten basic numbers of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, through repeated practice to make students master the calculation of these ten numbers.

5. Combining education with handicraft and agricultural production. This is the core of the book, the historical value of the book and Pestalozzi's unique contribution to the history of education. It is done in the following way: the children have to be engaged in weaving in the school; the school has to have an arable field and each child has to cultivate it in his small border; the school also has its own animal husbandry and the children have to take care of the animals; the pupils also have to learn the processing of flax and wool and to get acquainted with the best farms and handicrafts workshops in the countryside. In their work and free time, the teachers teach the children literacy, arithmetic and other knowledge necessary for life.

Pestalozzi especially points out that children's work has a wide educational value, "work teaches one to despise language that is out of touch with the truth", helps one to develop qualities such as precision and honesty, and contributes to the formation of sound human relationships between children and adults and between children and each other. Properly organized labor promotes the development of children's intellectual and moral strength. Both the practice in the Stenz Orphanage and the ideals in Linhard and Gertrude fully reflect this idea. He also emphasized: "My starting point is: to combine learning and labor, teaching and factory, so that the two are integrated with each other. At the same time, I think that this kind of labor is not to harvest some fruits of labor, but to learn the ability to labor and harvest the fruits of labor through physical practice."