NECKER DE LA SAUSSURE, ALBERTINE. - Pedagogue, b. in Geneva in 1776, d. at Mornay on 13 April 1841. Precocious of intellect and spiritually educated by her father, she learned various languages and from her numerous travels and her relations with famous people of her time drew treasures of experience, especially pedagogical. An intimate of Staël, whose cousin she was, she wrote, immediately after the latter's death, a vigilant Notice sur le caractère et les écrits de Mme de Staël (Paris 1818); but the work that won her a name 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 researches, because she wished first to practice what she earnestly recommends to all mothers, namely to observe and follow their own children and to write in a diary all their progress in the physical life, but above all in the moral life. N.'s fundamental concept is this: instruction must go hand in hand with education; the one and the other 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 conquests. Nature has in itself no limits in time; in time only the hand that leads changes: at first education is directed by more experienced persons; then in childhood it also arises from the active cooperation of the one being educated; finally it becomes ever more free initiative and self-perfection. Moreover, contrary to Rousseau, who would educate one faculty after another, as if these were implanted in the pupil successively by decisive and theatrical strokes, one must take all the faculties together, the pupil as a whole, following the natural and simultaneous development of the faculties. «To educate a child means to build him inwardly and to make him become a man».
Following this fundamental idea N. sets forth her observations on physical, intellectual, moral and religious education; laying great stress on the will, which is the center of attraction and the directing power, and on religion, which confers energy and constancy on the will. As can be seen, N. does not want an education that is merely «informative»; but she demands one that is «formative». As for the education of woman in particular, she wants the girl, rather than enriching herself with superficial knowledge, to prepare herself seriously for her vocation as spouse and mother, as the first and irreplaceable educator of her little children, as the ever-beloved guide of her children, even when grown.
The work is pervaded by a profoundly Christian spirit; nor, although the author is a Calvinist, does it often fail to show a sectarian spirit; but, naturally, in this religious respect, it is somewhat deficient, not exploiting what of strength and energy is 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 pedagogists; among our own, by G. Capponi, R. Lambruschini, A. Rosmini, who welcomed many of its results of psychological investigation into his Principio supremo della metodica.
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