Johann Pestalozzi Quotes

You can drive the devil out of your garden but you will find him again in the garden of your son.

The circle of knowledge commences close round a man and thence stretches out concentrically.

In its purity this life [in the home circle] is the highest, the most exalted that can be thought or dreamed of for the education of our race. It is unconditionally true: where love and the ability to love are found in the home circle there one can confidently predict that the education it affords almost never fails.

Learning by head, hand and heart

It was a perfect school for Einstein. The teaching was based on the philosophy of a Swiss educational reformer of the early nineteenth century, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who believed in encouraging students to visualize images. He also thought it important to nurture the “inner dignity” and individuality of each child. Students should be allowed to reach their own conclusions, Pestalozzi preached, by using a series of steps that began with hands-on observations and then proceeded to intuitions, conceptual thinking, and visual imagery. 56 It was even possible to learn—and truly understand—the laws of math and physics that way. Rote drills, memorization, and force-fed facts were avoided.

On August 26 the Assembly responded by conferring French citizenship upon Joseph Priestley, Jeremy Bentham, William Wilberforce, Anacharsis Cloots, Johann Pestalozzi, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Friedrich Schiller, George Washington, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.

Ele estava ali — foram se aglomerando em volta dele —, e um disse: "Então você se tornou mais um pintor! Teria sido bem melhor se ficasse remendando nossos sapatos". Ele respondeu-lhes: "Eu os teria remendado, teria carregado pedras por vocês, por vocês teria ido buscar água — teria morrido por vocês —, mas vocês não me quiseram e no vácuo forçado de minha existência espezinhada não me restou nada senão aprender a pintar".

Johann Pestalozzi, a Swiss education reformer, once described teachers as ‘God’s chosen profession’. Teachers are well paid and revered in Swiss society.