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This is a single-place modified Pitts Special.

The young man who wandered aimlessly, dabbling in philosophy, writing, and local politics, would eventually become one of the moral and pedagogical giants. Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi would rise from relative obscurity to national and world fame. The Switzerland of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was not the orderly and idyllic country we know it as it is today. It was a turbulent, war-ravaged country teeming with refugees and neighborhoods of poor and impoverished people. The sight of these children of these communities must have made a great impression on Pestalozzi; the establishment of boarding schools for these children would become his life’s work and legacy.

Writing a book on Pestalozzi in any language is a daunting task. While studying in Basel, Polis educator Janusz Korczak read Pestalozzi and modeled his own orphanage after him, no doubt because the two great educators shared a concern for poor and cast-off children. Korczak had intended to write a biography on Pestalozzi but was unable to complete the task. Kate Silber, writing in English, thus faced an even greater challenge, which would explain while this book is rather difficult to follow and, second, why this 1973 book still remains the definitive authoritative biography of Pestalozzi in English. The main points of this book are as follows:
•A good education is essential for self-reliance, a healthy family life, and the well-being of the country.
•The ability of being able to make moral decisions is even more important than academic reasoning.
•A good moral education begins at home, during the child’s earliest years; it is then the duty of the school to build
on this moral foundation.
•Security at school and home are fundamental ingredients of national economic well-being and security and world
peace.
•The bond between the teacher and pupil is a very intimate one and one built on love, trust, and high moral
expectations.

This book is not easy reading, in part because it gives an extraordinarily detailed account of its subject’s life, work, and thought. Readers looking for a simple synopsis will be disappointed; however, anyone willing to take the time and make the effort will gradually form an understanding of who Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was and why his philosophy is ever relevant today.

Although the Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was famous for his novels that conveyed contemporary sociopolitical themes, a large part of his pedagogical writings are in the form of letters. In this volume, first published in 1827, the letters are addressed to an attorney in London, J.P. Greaves; this collection comprises 34 letters. As the title suggests, the letters cover the very early years of childhood, what contemporary society would be referred to as the infant and toddler years. Then, as now, it was the mother who was primarily responsible. Pestalozzi stressed the importance of nurturing, as manifest in the forms of faith, hope, and love. Oftentimes, love is in the form of the moral education of the child—that the child will know right from wrong and use that as a moral compass while growing up to be a self-sufficient person. Pestalozzi noted that among the poor, poverty resulted not only from a lack of money, but also a lack of formal education. (Though he did not mention it here, a central part of Pestalozzi’s philosophy was that education was critical to fostering productive citizens which, in turn, was critical to the welfare of the country and democracy, a view that would become the centerpiece of John Dewey’s philosophy.) Here, the mother’s role in laying the foundations for the emotional, moral, and intellectual development of the child must not be overlooked. The same would apply to the child’s first teachers, a message as relevant then as it is now.

Janusz Korczak read Pestalozzi and greatly admired his nurturing philosophy on teaching and rearing children. He mentioned that he had plans to write a biography on the Swiss educator, but World War II intervened, and his plans were never realized.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Letters on Early Education. (London: Charles Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate Without), 1850. Reprinted by Nabu Press, LaVergne, TN.

A Humvee as a School Bus. I do not know what to make of this. Is it an irony? A paradox? Social commentary? Anyway, this 2001 model does make an interesting addition for anyone collecting model buses or school buses. The bus is about 3 in. (72 mm) long. Hero City? Must be post-9/11!

A monster truck as a School Bus. I do not know what to make of this. Is it an irony? A paradox? Social commentary? "School Is Cool" - does it take a school bus to say that rather than learning meaningful material from something more than a shallow curriculum? Anyway, this 2004 model does make an interesting addition for anyone collecting model buses or school buses. The bus is about 3 in. (72 mm) long.