NECKER DE LA SAUSSURE, ALBERTINE. – Pedagogist, born in Geneva in 1776, died at Mornay on 13 April 1841. Precocious in intellect and spiritually educated by her father, she learned several languages and, through her numerous travels and her relations with celebrated persons of her time, acquired a wealth of experience, especially in the field of education. An intimate friend of Staël, of whom she was a cousin, she wrote, immediately after her death, an attentive Notice sur le caractère et les écrits de Mme de Staël (Paris 1818); but the work that won her renown is the one she composed in solitude (widow of S. Necker, alone and almost deaf): L'éducation progressive, ou Etude des cours de la vie (3 vols., I, Paris 1828; II, Lausanne 1832; III, Brussels 1838).
In this work N. pours out her personal experiences and her original research, since she first wished to practise what she strongly advises all mothers to do: namely, observe and follow their children and record in a diary all their progress in physical life, but above all in moral life. N.’s fundamental concept is this: instruction must proceed hand in hand with education; the two must progress step by step, according to the child’s development, taking him by the hand and guiding him along an uninterrupted path toward ever new and greater achievements. Nature has no limits within time; in time, only the hand that guides changes: at first education is directed by more experienced persons; then, in childhood, it also arises from the active cooperation of the pupil; finally, it becomes increasingly free initiative and self-improvement. Moreover, contrary to Rousseau, who would educate one faculty after another, as though these were implanted in the pupil successively through decisive and theatrical strokes, it is necessary to take all the faculties together, the pupil in his entirety, following the natural and simultaneous development of the faculties. “To educate a child means to build him internally and make him become a man.”
Following this fundamental idea, N. sets forth her observations on physical, intellectual, moral, and religious education, placing great emphasis on the will, which is a centre of attraction and a directing power, and on religion, which confers energy and constancy upon the will. As can be seen, N. does not want an education that is merely «informative»; rather, she demands one that is «formative». As regards the education of women in particular, she wants the girl, rather than enriching herself with superficial knowledge, to prepare seriously for her vocation as wife and mother, as the first and irreplaceable educator of her children, and as the ever-loved guide of her children, even when they are adults.
The work is imbued with a profoundly Christian spirit; nor, although the author is Calvinist, does it, except rarely, go so far as to display a sectarian spirit. Naturally, however, in this religious respect it is somewhat deficient, since it does not draw upon the strength and energy contained in the Catholic religion, with its Sacraments, devotion to the Virgin, and the patronage and assistance of the Saints. N.’s thought and work were always highly esteemed by educational theorists; among our own, by G. Capponi, R. Lambruschini, and A. Rosmini, who incorporated many of the results of her psychological investigation into his Principio supremo della metodica.
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