ABSTRACT
For two centuries Germany has been the classical land of pedagogy. Basedow founded at Dessau, a school which received the praise of the philosopher Kant gained entrance into German pedagogy. Pestalozzi, born at Zurich, his life is intimately related to his educational work. He was about to take charge of a school, the plan of which he had organized, when events called him to direct an orphan asylum at Stanz. The asylum for poor children at Neuhof is the first step in the pedagogical career of Pestalozzi. The teaching of Pestalozzi was in reality but a long groping, an experiment ceaselessly renewed. In 1781 he published the first volume of Leonard and Gertrude. Francke founded two establishments at Halle, the Poedagogium and the Orphan Asylum, which, in 1727, contained more than two thousand pupils. Pestalozzi recommends the Socratic method, and he indicates with exactness some of the conditions necessary for the employment of that method.
