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Neef

Francis Joseph Nicholas Neef

Achievements: Pioneer of Pestalozzi’s new educational practices in the United States

Born: December 6, 1770; Soultz, Alsace, France

Died: April 8, 1854; New Harmony, Indiana (Aged 84)

Field & Discipline: Education; Educationalist

Language: French; English

Father: Francis Joseph Neef

Mother: Anastasia Ackerman

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: Eloisa Buss

Children: Caroline; Anne; another daughter

Education: Abbey school, Murbach

Major Work:

"Sketch of a Plan and Method of Education" (1808)

"The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of Writing and Reading" (1813)

Life & Times:

Neef's father, a miller, educated his son for the priesthood but the French Revolution gave Neef other ideas and when he was about twenty-one he left his theological studies to join the French army under Napoleon.

In 1796, during the battle of Arcole in Italy, Neef was severely wounded by an Austrian bullet which remained lodged between his right eye and nose. He was discharged from the army and suffered for the rest of his life from headaches and problems with vision. While recovering, Neef read the work of [collaborated with] Pestalozzi*, the Swiss educational reformer.

Pestalozzi believed that children needed to be interested in what they were being taught and that a teacher’s job was to facilitate the child's natural creative impulses. This, he believed, was best done by relating knowledge to the reality of children's lives,  teaching  children facts about the objects surrounding them. He was opposed to rote learning from books, to religious intolerance and to corporal punishment.

Pestalozzi wanted to celebrate childhood and give children a feeling of emotional security that would enable them to explore the world they encountered. This was a radical departure from common practise and Neef was impressed.

In 1800 he went to teach foreign languages and physical education  in Pestalozzi’s school at Burgdorf. Two years later Pestalozzi asked him to set up an orphans' school in Paris, and run on the same lines. Neef's school attracted a fair amount of attention and distingished visitors.

In 1805 [work known to] Napoleon* and [work known to] Talleyrand* visited the school at the same time as an American philanthropist, [collaborated with] Maclure*, who had gone there on the off-chance of meeting Napoleon. However, Maclure stayed to observe and was struck by how much help the Pestalozzi system could be in improving the condition of the American poor.

He persuaded Neef and his wife to emigrate to the United States, and in 1806 Neef and his family settled near Philadelphia, where Maclure was based. Over the next two years, Neef learned English and wrote "Sketch of a Plan and Method of Education" (1808) with the aim of introducing the Pestalozzi method to America.

The treatise also served as a prospectus for the school he opened in 1809 at the Schuykill Falls outside Philadelphia. Following the Pestalozzi principle, subjects were taught by direct interaction with the environment. Languages, mathematics and natural sciences were taught orally, not from books. Nature studies were conducted out of doors, during walks, with the teacher giving a commentary on agriculture, botany, mineralogy or whatever seemed appropriate to the route taken. The children were allowed to go without hats and to take off their shoes and socks in warm weather. Their relations with Neef were informal and based on mutual respect.

Although he followed Pestalozzi's philosophy, Neef adapted it to America, in particular by his emphasis of republican civic education.

In 1809 he translated Condillac's "Logic" which he published under the title "Logic of Condillac, Translated by Joseph Neef, as an Illustration of the Plan of Education Established at His School Near Philadelphia". The French philosopher [translated] Condillac* held that the source of human knowledge was in the sensory perception of objects, a view which fitted neatly with the Pestalozzi system.

In 1812 Neef moved his school to Village Green in Chester County, PA,  but his views on religious tolerance and freethinking upset the local people, and pupils became scarce. He published "The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of Writing and Reading" in 1813. 

Neef moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1815 and opened another school, which also failed.  Neef abandoned education and started farming near Louisville in 1821.

Five years later, Maclure, who was now involved with [worked with] Robert Owen's* experimental community at New Harmony, Indiana, asked Neef to help there. Neef and his family moved to New Harmony and Neef set up and ran a Pestalozzian school. In line with Maclure's utilitarian ideas, vocational subjects were taught, as well as reading, writing, mathematics and natural sciences.

Neef also sat on the Education Committee of New Harmony. In the controversy within the community about the degree of authority exerted by Owen, Neef sided with Owen's opponents. In 1827 New Harmony was disbanded, following which Neef made unsuccesful attempts to establish a Pestalozzian school in Cincinnati and in Steubenville, Ohio.

[daughter was] Caroline Neef*, one of his daughters, married the geologist [father-in-law of] David Dale Owen*, the son of Robert Owen. In 1835, Neef returned to New Harmony where he assisted in several educational projects being run by Maclure, in particular with the School Press of the Workingmen's Institute. Neef remained at New Harmony until he died. 

Assessment: Neef introduced the progressive educational ideas of Johann Pestalozzi  in the United States.

Oneliner: Joseph Neef, who introduced Pestalozzi’s ideas to the US

Bibliography:

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