ABSTRACT
This chapter points that the idea of school is based on the belief that there is value in following an organized pattern of instruction in order to learn effectively. Museums and schools have this in common—like the idea of the museum, the idea of school admits of huge variety. According to the instructions that Comenius gives in the Preface, children will learn their letters first by looking at a picture of an animal. A century later, the idea that education should be designed to build on children's natural sensory tendencies was taken up and expanded by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who famously made the case for "education according to nature". One such educator was Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Strongly influenced by Rousseau's philosophy and by his own deep sympathy for orphans and children in poverty, Pestalozzi spent a lifetime developing an educational philosophy that aimed to educate children's "hearts, hands and minds".
