Early Years Pioneers - Johann Pestalozzi

Johann Pestalozzi (1746- 1827) was born in Zurich, the middle of three children. His father died when he was five years old and the children were brought up by their mother and a family servant. The servant had promised Pestalozzi’s dying father that she would continue to support the family, and this she did until her own death 40 years later. Pestalozzi’s view of the world was significantly shaped by the contrast between home life and holidays spent with his grandfather in the countryside, where many people lived in dire poverty.

Although he was academically able, the relative isolation of Pestalozzi’s upbringing meant that he encountered difficulties at school, being teased by other children. Unhappy with academic life, Pestalozzi turned his hand to farming. He had been heavily influenced by the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose much-praised book Emile had been published when Pestalozzi was 16 years old. Rousseau’s central philosophy focused on freedom, self-reliance and reverence for childhood as part of nature. So impressed with the work of Rousseau was he that Pestalozzi named his only son Jean-Jacques.