Basedow, Johann Bernhard

Johann Bernhard (1723-1790), a German author and educator. He was born at Hamburg. He died at Magdeburg. Basedow was educated in the gymnasium of his native town. He studied theology at Leipsic, but took up the work of tutoring young men. In 1767 he published a work, the name of which may be given to show the length to which Germans of that day carried titles,--An Address to the Friends of Humanity, and to Persons in Power, on Schools, on Education, and its Influence on Public Happiness, with the Plan of an Elementary Treatise on Human Knowledge. It was Basedow's ambition to establish a model school in which young teachers could be trained to carry his ideas abroad throughout Germany, the education of which he proposed to reform. In 1774 he published Elementary Work, an exposition of his ideas for the education of young children. The central thought was that children should be made to understand by seeing, hearing, feeling, and touching; or, to state the idea otherwise, to study things, and not mere words. A subscription enabled him to set up his model institute at Dessau. Basedow, however, had more temper than tact. He quarreled with his fellow teachers and left them to close up the institution. His institute at Dessau, however, is regarded as having prepared the way for the German system of normal schools.