ABSTRACT
Pestalozzi was concerned mostly with the education of the middle and lower classes. In his 'schools' at Neuhof and to some extent at Yverdun many of his pupils were poor children, in some cases orphans who had lost parents in a war or who had been abandoned; others came from the middle class. Furthermore, his theories were much concerned — though not exclusivelywith the earlier years of education; they sought to lay a foundation, in cognitive terms, for later developments — or at least provide a minimum education necessary for children in their depressed circumstances. Yet his ultimate purpose is the production of a moral being who will express his freedom through the autonomy of his will and who, in a manner reminiscent of Rousseau, will be a 'man' rather than a social being: transcendental aspirations clash with social realism in his theorising.
