Juan Enrique Pestalozzi Pestalozzi Also called Juan Enrique Pestalozzi; Zurich, 1746 - Brugg, Switzerland, 1827. Swiss pedagogue. Reformer of traditional pedagogy, directed his work towards popular education. In 1775 he opened a school for poor children in Neuhof inspired by the Emilio model, the famous educational treaty that Jean-Jacques Rousseau had published in the previous decade. The project failed, as well as another similar one carried out in Stans. In 1797 he published My research on the course of nature in the development of the human race, his most important work. He resumed his pedagogical practices in a castle ceded by the government, in Bern, experience that he reflected in his work How Gertrud teaches his children (1801). Pestalozzi was born on January 12, 1746, in Zurich, Switzerland. His father was a surgeon and ophthalmologist who died at 33, when Pestalozzi, the second of three children, was 6 years old; It belonged to a family that had fled the surroundings of Locarno because of its Protestant faith. His mother, whose maiden name was Hotze, was a native of Wädenswil on Lake Zürich.The family also had a maid, Barbara Schmid, nicknamed Babeli. After the death of Pestalozzi's father, it was only through Babeli's help that Pestalozzi's mother could financially support the family. On holidays, Pestalozzi was going to visit his maternal grandfather, a cleric in Höngg. Together they would travel to parishioners' schools and homes. It was through these visits that Pestalozzi learned the poverty of the peasants. He saw the consequences of putting children to work in the factory at an early age and saw how little Catholic schools did for them. Their ignorance, suffering and inability to help themselves left an impression on Pestalozzi, an impression that would guide their future educational ideas. Pestalozzi was based on teaching children to distinguish the shape of each object, that is, its dimensions and proportions. Enrich children's memory with simple explanations of objects and materials. Teach and realize describe their perceptions. Teach the child, through drawing, to measure all the objects that are presented to him and acquire skills to reproduce. Pestalozzi thought that by drawing the child was exercised in his writing. He taught to consider each of the objects that are known as a unit, that is, separate from those with which it is associated. Use of tablets with letters, which he accumulated one at a time so that the child knew the relation of the numbers, at the same time that he served to learn the letters. Familiarize them as early as possible with the set of words and names of all known objects.
