Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss educational reformer. His name is well known in Switzerland and Germany and other countries – not least because most towns have a Pestalozzi Street and many have a Pestalozzi school. Without a doubt he had a great direct influence on the formative years of many children and indirectly, too. As he did on mine, as I attended the first four years of my formal education at the Pestalozzi Schule in Weinheim.
This photo of the Pestalozzi monument in Zürich, Switzerland, was taken from flickr.com.
Ragtag Daily Prompt: Formative
pictures imperfect blog 
Pestalozzi villages were much talked about when I was a child. But – in England at least – the name seems to have disappeared without trace. Was yours a state school?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it was. I just googled a bit and it turns out that more schools are named after Montessori and Pestalozzi in Germany than any other famous person. These days private schools are on the rise, something like 11%. When I was little there were hardly any private schools at all. The few that existed were a handful of boarding schools for rich people, and church run schools; mostly only secondary schools.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We also have lots of Montessori schools.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are proper Montessori schools in Germany as well but a lot of normal public primary school are named after Maria Montessori.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nope. All our Montessoris are ‘proper’ and private,
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s very interesting, Elke. Thanks for sharing. Are Montessori and Pestalozzi schools different?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, not the state run schools (that’s why I made a distinction between “proper Montessori schools, similar to Waldorf schools etc.). For the others it’s just the name (although they might have a day celebrating their name giver). Some schools carry the name of authors (particularly of children’s books) like Astrid-Lindgren-Schule or Erich-Kästner-Schule. Some are named after scientists (or relgious leader, sometimes persecuted people (there a few Anne-Frank-Schulen) etc. My hometome is a good representative of school names: we have the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium.the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Schule, the Helen-Keller-Schule, the Johann-Philipp-Reis-Schule (he invented the first telephone), the Carl-Freudenberg-Schule (a local industrialist from 150 years back with the companie still going strong), the Friedrich-Schule (named after a local duke), Hans-Joachim-Gelberg-Schule (a publisher), Sepp-Herberger-Schule (a football trainer), the Albert-Schweitzer-Schule, the Theodor-Heuss-Schule (former President of Germany). Often but not always there is a local connection. And some are just called “Schule am Apfelbach” (Applecreek school). Gosh, I had no idea how many schools there are!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a good tradition. Thanks for the info. Our public schools are mostly named after the suburb/town in which they are located.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am sure there are some schools with the name Montessori here
LikeLiked by 1 person