"I wish to wrest education from the outworn order of doddering old teaching hacks as well as from the new-fangled order of cheap, artificial teaching tricks, and entrust it to the eternal powers of nature herself, to the light which God has kindled and kept alive in the hearts of fathers and mothers, to the interests of parents who desire their children grow up in favour with God and with men."

John Pestalozzi took up Rousseau’s ideas and explored how they might be developed and implemented. Pestalozzi laid most of the foundation of modern elementary education.

In 1774 he opened an orphanage where he tried to teach neglected children basic skills so that they could begin to lead productive lives and be able to depend upon themselves. Pestalozzi experimented with innovative ideas of education at Neuhof where he ran into problems, and unfortunately the orphanage failed, but this failure lead him to begin to write. He soon began to teach again and the Pestalozzi Method came to fruition at his boarding school in Yverdon (established in 1805). This school was extremely popular and contemporaries such as Froebel and Herbart visited the school.

He believed that children should learn through activity and through things not just words. Children should then draw their own conclusions.

Where Pestalozzi surpasses Rousseau is in his research. He offers ways to achieve the “Pestalozzi method” based on concrete research. Pestalozzi’s book How Gertrude Teaches her Children, published in 1801, elucidated the ideas of pedagogy through actual practice. Pestalozzi sought to establish a “psychological method of instruction” that was not in line with the laws of human nature. He believed, like many of us today, that children should not be given ready-made answers but should arrive at the answers themselves through their own ability to investigate, judge, analyze and reason. He tried to keep hands, heart, and head in equilibrium, and felt that there was definite danger in attending to just one of these elements.

There are 6 principles that are found in Pestalozzi’s ideas of school:

1. Personality is sacred.
   
2. Each child is the promise of his/her potentiality.
   
3. Love of those we would educate is the sole and everlasting foundation in which to work.
   
4. Anschauung - direct concrete observation. Get rid of the verbosity of meaningless words.
   
5. Life shapes us and the life that shapes us is not a matter of words but action.
   
6. Out of the demand for action came an emphasis on repetition - not blind repetition, but repetition of action following the Anschauung.

Pestalozzi’s ideas are still important today. He was concerned with social injustice and had a commitment to work with those who had suffered in society. He felt that education was crucial to the improvement of social conditions. Pestalozzi argued for the school as the central educational force (here he differs with Rousseau who argued for educational tutors.)
Pestalozzi was the quintessential “reflective practioner.” He was committed to reflection and observation, elements that are crucial to the success of education.

His ideas from Neuhof, appealed to Ghandi and many others. Pestalozzi believed that if the school was combined with work, in essence a production enabling children to finance their own learning, then they would not be obligated to anyone, and could operate “their” school free from government regulation and interference.

Pestalozzi’s major educational contributions:

1. applied many of Rousseau’s ideas in ways that were workable within existing schools
   
2. promoted the making of education accessible to the poor, he desired to get away from the classic curriculum, that was perceived to be elitist, and teach more practical subjects.
   
3. taught by getting students actively involved in learning through the use of all their senses.
   
4. Defined education as the harmonious development of all the powers of the child, especially the intellect.
   
5. the social environment of the classroom should be modeled after the family and should be characterized by love and affection.
   
6. He conducted research on teaching and developed teaching methods.
   
7. he ran an orphanage, wrote books, trained teachers and taught many young people.