Lessons on Objects.
[Mayo, Elizabeth]. Lessons on Objects. As Given in a Pestalozzian School at Cheam, Surrey. London:
Seeley and Burnside and sold by Seeley and Sons, 1830.
8vo.; contemporary ownership signature (“J.E.Bennett”) on title page; three-quarter calf, leather label;
worn; rebacked.
First edition of this work by the first woman in England employed as a trainer of teachers. The DNB notes
that Mayo (1793-1865) was an educational reformer and writer who was influenced by Swiss educator
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). “Under Elizabeth’s guidance the Home and Colonial Society
provided not only teachers but lesson plans, pictures, and objects specifically designed for young children.
Elizabeth’s emphasis on structure, at a time when early years teaching tended to be unsystematic, secured
her importance in the history of infant education” (DNB). “Pestalozzi founded several educational
institutions both in German- and French-speaking regions of Switzerland and wrote many works
explaining his revolutionary modern principles of education. His motto “Learning by head, hand and heart”
is still a key principle in successful 21st-century schools. Thanks to Pestalozzi, illiteracy in 18th-century
Switzerland was overcome almost completely by 1830.”
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