The education of Karl Witte; or, The training of the child

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Editor's Introduction .... . v

I. For Whom this Book is Written . . 1

CHAPTER I For Whom this Book is Written

People may think that I am writing especially for teachers and educators proper, but that is not the case. Since the latter as a rule consider themselves, for good reasons or no reasons at all, to be my opponents, I cannot be writing for them in particular. Their objections to me are that I have not done things the way they do them, — which is bad enough, — and that at times I have done the very opposite from what they do, — which is much worse! Then, the public have been unkind enough to say: "If Witte did that with his son, and at the same time assures us that equally good results may be obtained in the case of every child not directly neglected by Nature, why do not our schoolmasters accomplish the same?" Nothing could be more unjust than this request, and I have made vain endeavors to stop it. Meanwhile the offensive accusations against the honest teachers make them impatient with me, who — truly against my will — am the cause of these accusations.

My whole work is intended to prove to the intelligent person that the schoolmaster, no matter how well endowed with knowledge and the ability to teach, is, in spite of his best wishes, unable to accomplish anything, if others have previously worked against him, or still continue to work against him.

Teachers and educators, for the above causes, are generally hostile toward me, at least so long as they have not become acquainted with me or have not in some way, from me or from others, learned of my convictions.

For these I write only in so far as they are also fathers and mothers who sincerely love their children, or the children entrusted to them, and out of their tender love for them have resolved to look closer at the educational experiment of a man who more than once has given them unpleasant moments.

If they do that, I shall be writing for them, as for all well-meaning parents who wish to get the best results for their children's bodies,

For Whom this Book is Written 3

minds, and souls. Many parents have attentively followed my methods of education, have in writing expressed their sympathy for me, or have treated me and mine with high favor. The proofs of their noble well-wishings have frequently touched me to tears. I may, nay s I must, say that they have often assisted me, as occasionally will appear in the course of my writing. My warm thanks and the thanks of my family will follow them to their graves.

I have been urgently asked by a great number of them to write in a simple manner, just as at their request I have been telling them about it, an easy, simple story for the world at large, as w T ell as for them. As they had cleared away all the reasonable objections which I could bring forward, I was obliged to give them my word of honor that some day I would do so.

One of my best-founded objections was this, that some malicious persons would say, "Is there any real need of such a book?" To these my friends answered, "Even so! If others do not want it, we demand it of you, — write it just for us!"

And so I keep my word. I know full well that others will not succeed exactly as I have, and I believe that it is not necessary for all children to be educated just like my son. But I am convinced that much of what I have done may be repeated, and that an intelligent application of my method will be of no small use.

Pestalozzi became interested in me at a very early time, and with his clear vision and warm, unprejudiced mind naturally foresaw the plant, and even the fruit, while it still was in its tender bud, and so, while but very few paid any attention to what I was doing, expressed himself about it with great sympathy and even emphasis. Here are his words:

Dear Friend:

Let me tell you once more, while you are still in our neighborhood, how much I am interested in the method of education which you are applying to your child, and how much I find our pedagogical ideas essentially the same. Let me say more than that: I have more than once been afraid that the rubric of my form, number and word, like the external form of my elementary books, at first sight seems to lead far away from the simple course of artless Nature and its best adherents, from the plain forms of common sense. However, this is certainly only an appearance, for in the execution our activity universally and most surely resembles every educational method in which the experiences of a father capa-

For Whom this Book is Written 5

ble of strict observation and the heart of a truly loving mother find their pure expression. What of it, if this does not appear in the dead tables and heaping numerical series? It cannot appear there! But if Kruesi, guided by these forms, becomes all child to the child's mind, and the child finds himself in every word of Kruesi and, for the sake of his educational method, must find himself there, even as he must find himself in the simplest word of his mother, whose sense has become clear to him through a thousandfold experience, — then our real activity is indeed something quite different from what may seem from deceptive appearances. It is this, my friend, that you have seen better than any one else, even because you have been working essentially in the same spirit. You did not know it, but at the base of your activity lies the same matured natural feeling out of which, after endless seeking, my pedagogical forms have evolved.

My friend! Your work is very important. At this time we need more than anything else the proving of the work of education by matured experiences, and such experiences are calculated to rectify any views that are held in regard to my method. Under these circumstances you, my friend, must feel how important it is for me that you should continue the circle of your educational experiences and, if possible, should expand it. You have been invited to take up this career, independently from my wishes. Permit me, therefore, to add my wishes to those of your nearest friends, and urgently to ask you not to reject any opportunity that may offer itself to you. Much may be done by men like you, who with their astuteness grasp everything that presents itself to their minds, and who are able consistently to act in conformity with what they thus have abstracted, as agreeing both with the essence of human nature and the circumstances of human situations. I consciously count you among men of this sort, and at all events rejoice in advance at the chance of hearing from you about the progress of your experiences with the sincerity and definiteness that characterized you during the pleasant hours which I passed with you in discussing this subject.

May your journey across our mountains be happy, and may you be assured of the continuance of my sincere and lasting attachment.

Your loving friend,

Pestalozzt.

August, 1804.

He has remained in this opinion for fourteen years, and has even lately urged me in private to make the story of my son's education as detailed and universal as possible. In this he was joined by his worthy friends and by the well-known French savant, Julien of Paris. They thoroughly met all my objections, which chiefly arose from timidity, and Pestalozzi wrote to me on the very day of my departure from Yverdon as follows:

My dear Mr. Witte:

You, no doubt, remember the pedagogical conversation which we had fourteen years ago at Buchsee. You then gave us hope that, in accordance with your peculiar principles, you would carry your son's education much farther than is usual. Now the excellent progress made

For Whom this Book is Written 7

by him has far surpassed what you then dared to hope and utter.

The question arises, in how much has this progress been produced by your method of education, or been induced by it? The question arises, whether his progress is the direct result of his superior talent, and to what extent it is the result of pedagogical principles and means which, applied in the case of other children, would produce at least approximately similar results.

My dear Mr. Witte, you ought to put the friends of education in a position to judge with some degree of certainty, by giving them a detailed account, which would definitely enter into all the particulars, of how you have led your son from one step to another. There can be no doubt of your son's superior powers. But in how far your pedagogical skill seized these powers with psychological certainty and thus caused their rapid evolution, that can be made clear only by a very circumstantial story of what is peculiar and distinguishing in your method. It is important that this be done, and it is certainly the pleasantest business to which you may devote yourself.

Goodby, and may you be assured of the extreme consideration with which I have the honor to call myself

Your most humble servant and friend,

Pestalozzi.

Yverdon, September 4, 1817.

CHAPTER II Was my Son Born with Extraordinary Aptitudes?

I HAVE been told so an endless number of times, and should let it rest at that, for it is exceedingly pleasant to be able to say that one has been particularly favored by the Deity, or that one possesses a gift that enables him to do what nobody else can do. But to tell the truth this is not the case.

There are more than a thousand persons to whom I have denied it, and I must say that most of my friends and acquaintances were of this opinion. Only one man, Pastor Glaubitz, who had known me intimately in my childhood and who from 1788 to his death — that is, for a period of more than twenty years — had been a close friend of mine, used to say:

"I am convinced that Karl has no extraordinary aptitudes, and I am not one of those who marvel at his progress as at a miracle. On the contrary. I tell myself, you, and all

Extraordinary Aptitudes 9

who wish to hear it, that his aptitudes are only mediocre, but that his progress could not help being what it is, and the results of your education will in time appear even more brilliant. I know your educational plans and your way of doing things. They must succeed, unless God wants to hinder them."

Shortly before the birth of my son there were in the learned schools of Magdeburg (Kloster Liebenfrauen, Kloster Bergen and the Domschule) a number of young instructors of great ability. Other young men had lately taken positions as preachers in the neighborhood, and stood in friendly relations with these institutions. They all formed a fine circle which zealously occupied itself with man's most exalted business, that of his education. My friend Glaubitz had joined it, and through him I had been introduced to its meetings every time I could be there.

The conversation once turned upon this, that teachers and educators with their best wills at times could not accomplish anything, whereas, in my opinion, too much stress was put on man's natural aptitudes. In accordance with my observations, I was obliged to contradict them. I spoke as follows:

io The Education of Karl Witte

"The natural aptitudes have less to do with it than the child's education in his first five or six years. Of course, there is a difference in regard to the aptitudes, but, as a rule, that is, with such as most men are born with, infinitely more depends upon education than is usually believed."

To have a great authority on my side, I quoted, when pushed to it, the statement of Helvetius, "Chaque homme communement bien organise peut devenir grand homme, suppose qu'il soit eleve comme il faut." Everybody was against me. When Mr. Schrader went home with Glaubitz and me, we still discussed the matter, and I repeated what I had said more than once in the meeting, where I was outvoted:

"Now I naturally must keep quiet, for there are thirteen or fourteen of you against me. But I hope to prove to you in fact that I am right. If God grants me a son, and if he, in your own opinion, is not to be called stupid, — which Heaven forfend, — I have long ago decided to educate him to be a superior man, without knowing in advance what his aptitudes may be."

They had taken me at my word in the meet-

Extraordinary Aptitudes 1 1

ing, and Schrader did the same now. Glaubitz had previously only indicated that he was not averse from my views. Now he attempted to convince Schrader that I would certainly keep my promise. But the latter, like all his friends, asserted that such a thing was impossible.

Shortly afterward Schrader learned from Glaubitz that a son had been born to my wife. He informed his friends of the fact, and they all watched me and my boy. Every time I came to their part of the country or Glaubitz came to see me, I was asked of the state of affairs, and heads wagged suspiciously whenever he or I gave hopes of fulfilling my old promise.

When Karl was four or five years old, I took him to Klein-Ottersleben. Mr. Schrader saw him and became very fond of him. Although he felt that the boy had no extraordinary aptitudes, he was sure that I should succeed in making much of him. Thus it went on until the year 1810. With every succeeding year Schrader convinced himself more and more that I was solving my problem, and in the latter year he so expressed himself in writing to me.

The letter is the more striking and remarkable since his personal observation and the information received from his and my intimate friends compelled him to admit that what I had promised and he had doubted had actually taken place, although he none the less could not make up his mind entirely to give up his prejudices and that of his friends. He remained to some extent my opponent. It, therefore, does his intellect and heart honor when he enthusiastically admits what has taken place, although he previously considered such a thing to be impossible. Here are his own words.

Langenweddingen, June 3, 1810. Honored Friend:

You have kept your word! Your Karl has become what you promised before his birth he would become, nay, he has done even better. When, ten years ago, you declared to me ecstatically in the presence of our deceased friend Glaubitz that you were hoping soon to be a father and that you fervently wished to be the father of a healthy son, you added the unforgettable words, "If my son will be healthily organized, I am determined to educate him to be a superior man."

I then contradicted you, saying that the success of your favorite plan did not depend alone on the health of the boy you were expecting, but more especially on his natural aptitudes. To this you replied: "Chaque

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homme communement bien organise peut devenir grand homme, suppose qu'il soit eleve comme il faut." I continued to express my doubts, but Glaubitz assured me that you had already transformed a boy in Switzerland in a short time into a more than common man, although he had been given up by his former educators as almost stupid. I then promised you that I would delay my judgment until your boy should some day appear himself and speak for or against your assertion. Here he is, your boy. I see him in manly maturity, with childlike innocence and goodness in a rare union, — a charming picture of ennobled humanity ! O lead me into a room filled with such men, and I shall deem myself to be removed from earth and in company of higher spirits!

Yes, my friend ! You have not merely kept your word, you have accomplished more than you had promised. I feel myself under obligation to declare so in writing, in order to do you due justice. However, brilliant as the success of your endeavors has been, you will not be able to convince the pedagogues of the truth of your fundamental theory. They will say on all sides, "How happy is the father to whom such a son was born!" They will ascribe the boy's advantages more to the nature and aptitudes of the child, than to his father's art and deserts. And, to tell you frankly, I, too, am one of those who say: "If Karl had not been fortunately organized, he would not have become that which he now is." I know your by no means small deserts in regard to him. I know your power, your rare patience, the firm persistency with which you pursue your purpose. I know that this boy was the point around which all your previous life with all its activity has gyrated; that you have known how to bring everything, speech and silence, coming and going, work and rest, everything that surrounds the boy, into nearer or more remote relations to him and to your purpose; that you have for years labored untiringly, uninterruptedly, with ever-constant powers and vivacity. Besides, I know the mighty power which you exert with your exceptional persistency on all those on whom you wish to exert it, — and yet, in spite of all that, I cannot disagree with those pedagogues.

It is not only difficult, but, indeed, entirely impossible to determine the relative part played by Nature and art in the education of man, because during the process of education they stand in interrelation with each other. You will forever want proof by which to make it clear that you have educated a healthy, but not favorably or fortunately organized, boy by means of the art of treatment alone to become a superior man. None the less your experiment will in every respect remain remarkable and important for pedagogy, and a detailed account of your method will be a valuable gift to the public. Naturally it will take a Witte to carry this method into execution, and so I warrant you that you will have few imitators.

SCHRADER,

Preacher at Langenweddingen near Magdeburg.

CHAPTER III Did my Educational Work Proceed Successfully?

The way I instructed and educated my son must not only have had a good beginning, but must also have proceeded successfully, since the attention of the cultured, and even the active participation of different, nay, mutually hostile, governments have now for more than ten years been bestowed upon me.

When my son first became talked about, in his eighth year, we were living in a village, Lochau, near Halle, in surroundings which certainly were not calculated in themselves to direct the attention of the public upon a child. Such a thing may take place more easily in a city, especially a large city.

Besides, Karl's unusual education fell into a period when Europe was shaken in its very foundation, and when our country, Prussia, was almost crushed. I am speaking of the years 1807 and 1808. People had then other subjects for entertainment. Great, terrible occurrences, anxieties, hopes, longings for help, disappointments, — only such things appeared remarkable. Trifles were overlooked.

The attainments of a child must have been very considerable, they must have been extraordinary, if they were to pass through these epochal events, find a place for themselves, and become established. And this they have done.

That point of time was particularly unfavorable, for there was then a distinct prejudice against early maturity of learning. Men like Salzmann, Campe, Trapp, had for a long time spoken against it with emphasis and had objectively pointed out the uselessness and harm of earlier examples, and had stigmatized them as products of "hot-house education."

As I myself considered it an honor to have been their disciple, I am willing to admit that I shared their opinion in this very matter, and that I had my misgivings when I saw something taking place under my guidance of which I was afraid.

Consequently the first news of it in the public papers (the letter of an unknown person in the Hamburger Correspondent giving an

My Educational Work 17

exact account of my son's public and private examination in Merseburg) was considered untrue and senseless. A Danish savant even denied the whole fact and believed that he must deny it from inner causes. That which seemed incredible, however, soon gained credence, when repeated examinations drew forth the many testimonials, personally signed by such men as Schuetz, Tieftrunk, Caesar, Bek, Mahlmann, Rost, and a mass of excellent men, to which learned societies and universities were soon added. Soon voices rose on all sides for the good cause, and it was accepted as an established fact.

The particular period was also most unfavorable, because the war and its sad consequences had unsettled everything. Prussia seemed forever destroyed. Its inhabitants were daily drained more and more, and I was living at the extreme end of the monarchy, for Lochau was on all sides surrounded by Saxony. There could be no thought of support, and yet I had to leave the village, if Karl was not to stagnate, that is, to go back.

I could not count on Prussia. France wanted to get money, not to give it, while Saxony could hardly have the wish to do something, since I in no way stood in physical need. I had a good parish and the written assurance of a still better one to come. I lived quite comfortably and enjoyed with my family, — even in Leipsic, — all the pleasures of my station of life.

Meanwhile my son's education was still in its germ. Countless people feared evil consequences. "In his tenth or twelfth year the poor child will die or waste away!" they frequently said, in a truly anxious manner.

Nevertheless, the city and the university of Leipsic united in a very surprising way, and by a considerable stipend for my son and very kind and advantageous offers for me and my wife made it possible for me to give up my parish and to make up my mind to go to live in Leipsic. Every sensible person will surmise that this was not done without most careful investigations and repeated tests of my son.

The French Westphalian government proceeded in the same manner. It examined my son repeatedly and with suspicion, but ended by offering me monetary support, which was regularly paid out to me, even on the day when the Russians were firing on Kassel.

My Educational Work 19

When Westphalia collapsed, my patrons and friends took care of me and my son, for Prussia, my fatherland, which for seven years had methodically been sucked dry and exhausted, was in the midst of a doubtful war, while Hanover, Brunswick, and Hesse hastened to make it known that every stranger from another state should repair home, and violently rejected any demands made upon them on the basis of Westphalian recommendations. Yet all three states promptly and freely paid to me what I asked of them on the basis of those recommendations, after having, most naturally and reasonably, first convinced themselves that the money, of which they were very much in need, was well spent in my case.

Then many Prussians of the upper class encouraged me to turn to our monarch. The times being so unpropitious, I did not dare do so for a long while. Finally, having been urged anew, I made a cautious inquiry, and I received a most magnanimous and encouraging answer. Indeed, after a closer investigation of the matter, I was granted more than I had dared to ask. How gracious the proofs of royal attention and favor have been, which my son and I have for the last two years enjoyed here in Berlin!

Since all this has been maintained without interruption for the period of ten years, since the most different, and mutually opposed men, savants and statesmen, even monarchs, have united for prompt and active cooperation, the cause for which such sacrifices have sympathetically been made must be good and must have succeeded.

A mass of written congratulations and expressions of heartfelt interest, which came chiefly from men whom I did not personally know, a mass of personal proofs of kindness, well-wishing, respect, and sincere sympathy, attest the fact that my undertaking was continuously successful. It has won for itself the noble ones of our own land and other countries, or my eyes, ears, senses, and intellect must have egregiously deceived me.

CHAPTER IV Is my Son's Education Finished?

So far as I am concerned, it is. I have long withstood those who asserted that it was finished, but now I must admit it is. When he was eleven years old, several professors at Goettingen thought that it was not necessary for me any longer to accompany my son to his lectures, that he behaved perfectly well, was attentive, made the proper notes, and I, therefore, could spare myself the trouble. None the less I used to go with him, made all the preparations for the lectures and all the reviews together with him. Later, at Goettingen and at Heidelberg, I stopped it all, but I proceeded very slowly and imperceptibly, before leaving him entirely to his own actions.

Only after he had made his appearance several times as an author in difficult matters, evoking respect and applause, only after he had received honors, such as are usually bestowed upon a real savant of advanced years, only after Our Majesty, the King, and his minister considered him worthy to undertake a two-years' scientific journey at the expense of the state, and that he, then sixteen years old, was fully able to take care of himself, — did I make up my mind to consider his education finished so far as I was concerned, and resolved at last seriously to consider my own health.

However, not to be too rash and do things prematurely, of which I had constantly been in fear, I wrote to our honored monarch that from considerations which I adduced I should like to keep my son another year with me, in order that he might have an opportunity to prepare himself as thoroughly for this distinguished mission as he had formerly prepared himself for every important change in his intellectual life. His Majesty gave the necessary consent with a readiness and liberality which throw a bright light both on the correct view and on the noble heart of the monarch. It was only then that, with the approval of my patrons and friends, I left the house and city in which my son was living.

I have been away from him for seventeen

Is my Son's Education Finished? 23

months, and during that time I saw him only once in Vienna on his journey to Switzerland and Italy.

Not to push him out into the world all at once, while he was still so young, and in order not to make the change from the considerate care of both parents to the absolute self-dependence among strangers too sudden, I left him during my absence with his mother and in the circle of noble friends, who fortunately belonged to all classes of society and to all ages, and recommended to him that in the proper season he should at my expense take trips to Leipsic and Dresden and to their charming surroundings, Freiburg, Chemnitz, Naumburg, Jena, Weimar, Erfurth, Gotha, Liebenstein, Eisenach, Kassel, Goettingen, Brunswick, Magdeburg, Salzwedel, etc., should inspect all kinds of works of nature and of art, and should make use of libraries and gain personal acquaintance with scholars, — in short, should practically prepare himself for his great journey, and then should in four or five months return to his mother in Berlin, in order once more to begin and continue the theoretical preparation. All that he did advantageously to himself, and in May of this year he actually started on his greater journey. After having been with him in Vienna for two months, I forever told him goodby, and he is now living beyond the Alps. I obviously can no longer supervise him. He stands alone, in the care of God arid his own conscience. I must, therefore, assume that his education is completed, in so far as I am concerned.

Of course, that education which we all receive until our death, that perfection which we obtain through the circumstances of life, our vicissitudes, our acquaintances, our converse with the living and the dead, — that education has naturally not been finished and cannot be finished.

When I started on my journey of seventeen months, he was bodily and spiritually in perfect health, sound and joyful, and worked with pleasure and ease. He had never been ill, and had not even had the diseases of infancy.

CHAPTER V Every Ordinarily Organized Child may

Become a Superior Man, if He is

Properly Educated

This is a proposition which I maintained before a large company of educators at Magdeburg, before my son was born, and which I have since repeatedly defended. To speak with Helvetius, "Every ordinarily organized child may become a superior man, if only he is excellently educated."

I know very well that the keys of a piano that have no strings cannot respond, no matter how skilful the player may be. I just as certainly know that an expert can easily remedy a great dissonance and elicit an agreeable melody from an instrument that before sounded wretchedly. The particular instrument may not have that perfect structure that distinguishes some other instrument, but if the first is properly tuned, while the second becomes more out of order every moment, a piece of music played on the first will be more agreeable to the ear than one played on the other.