Lessons on Shells, as Given to the Children Between the Ages of Eight and Ten, in a Pestalozzian School.

Elizabeth Mayo (1793 – 1865) was an educational reformer and writer who played a major role in popularizing the theories of Pestalozzi in England. Mayo and her brother Charles (1792 – 1846) also ran an evangelical school based on theories that Charles had learned from Pestalozzi. Mayo wrote her two most successful books, Lessons on Objects (1830) and the present work, based on the Pestalozzian method of the object lesson, which developed observational skills through the careful examination of objects. These two books were the first of their kind in England, and popularized the use of the object lesson for generations of teachers. While running the school in Cheam with her brother, Mayo developed a lifelong interest in early childhood education and the teaching methods best suited for that age group. In 1843, Mayo began working at the Home and Colonial Infant School Society in London, where she became the first woman in England to be employed in teacher training. She developed lesson plans, supervised curricula, and acted as a general consultant at the institution. The institution offered a broad course to prepare students to teach grammar, math, geography, the arts, and physical education. By the late 1840s, the Home and Colonial Society provided teachers to early childhood education programs all across England, and was widely distributing lesson plans and teaching materials to schools as well. Octavo. xiii, [2], 228, [16, publisher’s ads] pp. With ten lithographed plates of shells. Preface by Charles Mayo, the author’s brother. Also, with the author’s preface to the second edition. Contemporary brown straight-grained cloth. Dustsoiling to cloth and some chipping to head and tail of spine. Very clean and fresh throughout, aside from some light foxing to plates (as usual). Ink gift inscription (dated 1909) to a Helen Wigham on front flyleaf. A very good copy. Third edition. First published by Seeley in 1832. In the Oxford DNB, Janet Shepherd writes, “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.”.…