Although Pestalozzi is always viewed or contested as the founder of modern education, there has been a lack of relevant publications in this area in recent years. Neither Pestalozzi's education nor his school education concepts have been the focus of publications – let alone the difficult subject of the relation of his education to his school education, that is, the relation between his «integral» education "in the living room of the home" and his «mechanical method».

One of these topics – Pestalozzi's school education – is treated in detail in Volume 3 (1997) of the journal «Beiträge zur Lehrerbildung» (BzL), put together by editor Kurt Reusser and guest editor Fritz Osterwalder.
In the first article, Daniel Tröhler examines the concept of teacher education during the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) and shows how Pestalozzi's promises regarding methods brought him political protection. Tröhler points to a problem in both Stapfer and Pestalozzi's educational concepts: the desire for a school capable of providing both moral education and transmission of rational knowledge. The second article, contributed by Osterwalder and Reusser, takes a detailed look at Pestalozzi's «method» in its double layering of religious morality and empirical psychology. It examines both Pestalozzi's ideals and Pestalozzi's real teaching practice at Burgdorf. The authors also provide a comprehensive list of contemporary source materials.

In the third contribution, Heinz-Elmar Tenorth discusses Pestalozzi's influence on the professional ethics demands of the German teaching profession in the nineteenth century and shows that the «pathos of sacrifice» expressed particularly in the «Stans letter» on up to Hartmut von Hentig's «Socratic Oath», which he proposed that every teacher swear to, was influential.

In the fourth article, Hans Gehrig investigates the question of the extent to which a «Pestalozzi continuum» can be found among the Swiss directors of the teachers' seminary of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and shows, without suggesting that this held for every case, that this was the case for some important exponents.

In addition to these articles, Daniel Winter describes the Pestalozzi cult in the Year of Pestalozzi 1896, Toshiko Ito tells of the influence of Pestalozzianism in teacher education in Japan after 1875, and Max Furrer presents the CD-ROM edition of the works and correspondence of Pestalozzi. Volume 3/97 of BzL can be ordered from:

Universität Zürich
Pädagogisches Institut
Christine Hartmann
Rämistrasse 74
8001 Zürich
Switzerland

Very frequently visited by tourists interested in education or by curious school practitioners but relatively unknown in the scientific discussion is the «The Records and Research Centre Pestalozzi Yverdon (RRCPY)» in Yverdon-les-Bains, founded by Jacqueline Cornaz-Besson in 1977 on the occasion of the 150-year anniversary of Pestalozzi's death. The reason that the centre has stood outside scientific discussion has less to do with the fact that there is no university in Yverdon-les-Bains and more to do with the fact that the French-language educational tradition – since Pestalozzi's times – starts out from completely different premises than the German-language tradition dominated by idealism and has accordingly developed in a different direction.

That this is case is evidence by the fact that Pestalozzi is generally unknown in the French-speaking world – there are significantly more Chinese or Japanese translations of Pestalozzi's works than French translations!

The Centre, under the direction of Cornaz-Besson (up to 1987) and then Françoise Waridel (up to 1997), attempted to bring Pestalozzi to the attention of scientific discussion in education in French-speaking regions by means of some excellent translations by Michel Soëtard; however, it was shown again and again that the institutional basis for establishing such a discussion was not strong enough. In view of this situation, the Centre revised its statutes in 1997, setting up a «Conseil scientifique» with the purpose of encouraging and animating the scientific spread and debate about Pestalozzi's life and work in the context of the beginnings of modern education around 1800.

As its most urgent task, the Conseil realized that first of all, further important works by Pestalozzi needed to be translated and annotated. On the basis of the texts, courses, and later, symposiums will be conducted for discussion of Pestalozzi in the context of the emergence of modern education. In view of the different nature of French education science, this will also provide important substance gains for German-language history of education.

The first meeting of the Conseils was opened in December 1997 by the new president of the Centre, Jean-Jacques Allison. Presiding over the conference was the doyen of French-language Pestalozzi research, Michel Soëtard (Université Catholique de l'Ouest in Angers). Further members of the Conseil are: Jean-Christophe Bouquin (president of 63743; SGBF), Pierre Philippe Bugnard (Université Fribourg), Loïc Chalmel (l'Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres d'Alsace), Rita Hofstetter (Université Genève), Martine Ruchat (Université Neuchâtel), Daniel Tröhler (Pestalozzianum Zürich/University of Zürich), and co-ordinator Lisiane Berney (Centre de documentation et de recherche Pestalozzi).

For more information (in French and German):

Centre de documentation et de recherche Pestalozzi
Château d'Yverdon
1401 Yverdons-les-Bains
Switzerland