PESTALOZZI, Johann Heinrich.
Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt, ein Versuch den Muttern Anleitung zu geben, ihre Kinder selbst zu unterrichten.
Bern & Zurich, Heinrich Gessner 1801
Octavo, contemporary half calf and marbled boards, black morocco label, engraved portrait of Pestalozzi + (1) + 390pp, an excellent copy.
Printing and the Mind of Man, no.258.
First edition containing an exhaustive exposition of Pestalozzi’s principles of education and the book on which Pestalozzi’s fame rests. “How Gertrude teaches her children” proclaimed something entirely new in the field of popular education – the principle of self-activity in acquiring and using knowledge in its first stages. The most important and forward-looking of his ideas, which he stressed continually in practice as well as precept, was that the true method of education is to develop the child, not to train him as one trains a dog. The pupil must be regarded as more important than the subject and the ‘whole man’ must be developed.
£3,250