Pestalozzian Method

The Pestalozzian method is the educational approach of Swiss reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, summarized in his own motto of learning by head, hand and heart, developed across the schools he founded and credited with helping Switzerland come close to eliminating illiteracy by 1830. It is child centered and individualized, treating every aspect of a child's life as shaping personality, character and the capacity to reason, and it favors sense perception and the child's own activity over rote memorization or appeals to external authority. Pestalozzi argued that education must be broken down into its elements so it can be fully understood and taught, building instruction from a series of psychologically ordered exercises simple enough for any teacher to use, and he organized the aims of education around four spheres of a child's life, family, individual vocation, the state and nation, and an inner spiritual sense, alongside physical exercise and outdoor activity meant to develop the whole person in harmony.