THE PHILANTHROPIC PEDAGOGY OF J.H. PESTALOZZI AND THE INFLUENCE OF HIS THINKING AND METHOD ON HIS DISCIPLE H.L.D. RIVAIL (ALLAN KARDEC)

Abstract

The interest in the topic addressed in this research is due to the fact that J.H. Pestalozzi with his disciple H.L.D. Rivail, future Allan Kardec, is not documented, despite the thirteen volumes of letters from the first to friends, family, disciples, intellectuals and nobles from all over Europe and a new volume, recently published, of letters from friends to Pestalozzi. If Pestalozzi wanted to implement his method in France (in this sense, he even had an audience with Napoleon Bonaparte), why would he not have exchanged a single note with the disciple Rivail who stood out from the beginning of his hospitalization, at the age of eleven, at the Institute of Yverdon? This same disciple who at the age of nineteen, after returning to France, published pedagogical works applying the Pestalozzian method (philanthropically, including) and who, for more than thirty years, dedicated himself to education, directed institutes and belonged to dozens of science academies and which was always at the forefront. Considering that Pestalozzi had an emotional, intuitive and passionate character and was not one to despise anyone, as he always wrote very affectionate letters to children, teenagers and people from the most diverse social backgrounds, which is why he would not have written a single note to the one who was an outstanding disciple and who made an effort to spread his method in Paris? Different personalities, yes, but with very similar ideas. What are the reasons? Purposeful silence? Admitting the fact that Rivail was a disciple of Pestalozzi, how did the ideal of a philanthropic pedagogy practiced by the latter influence the vigorous pedagogical and spiritualist work of the former? These are the investigation objects that this research proposes to develop.