Wettingen teacher training college

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Maris Stella Wettingensis

The Wettingen teacher training college was from 1847 to 1976 an Aargau-cantonal teacher training institution with international reach, housed in the former Wettingen monastery , "Maris Stella Wettingensis".

history

In 1822, the canton of Aargau opened the first teachers' seminar in Aarau under director Philipp Jakob Nabholz . In 1835 the company moved to Lenzburg and in 1847 it was permanently moved to Wettingen in the buildings of the Cistercian monastery in Wettingen, which was closed in 1841 , where it was opened on January 20, 1847 by Councilor Friedrich Frey-Herosé . Augustin Keller's plan came true: the connection of teacher training with local agriculture and a family Konvikt , in the spirit of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi , who was deeply concerned with the holistic education of people with head, heart and hand.

In addition to teaching science, the seminarians cultivated arable, fruit and horticultural crops, and kept beekeeping. The youngsters also did cleaning, maintenance and kitchen work in the Konvikt. They actively provided for a humane and social education in a small community, according to the customs of a rural family at that time. The Konviktsgemeinschaft comprised the seven seminar teachers with their families as well as all seminar students, in 1860 their 74 in number. They all lived and received their lessons in the former monastery premises. The training period was three years. This type of teacher training was widely known. Well-known politicians and educators from other cantons as well as from home and abroad wanted to get to know the Wettinger model. Delegations and study groups from Germany , the Netherlands , Denmark , Finland and Russia got ideas for teacher training in their countries. In a Finnish script, the Wettingen seminar is referred to as the "mother school of Finnish teacher training institutions".

From 1880 onwards, the emerging natural sciences and technical developments led to the demand for curricula to be adapted to the middle school level. This led to an internal seminar crisis. They wanted to give more importance to scientific education, but at the same time to stick to the work in agriculture and in the Konvikt. This led to a noticeable excessive demand on the seminarians. A new beginning in 1893 led to a largely abandonment of agricultural work in favor of scientific lessons and art subjects as well as a teaching internship. This in turn gave the seminar a calming and new reputation. Again and again, teacher training was at the center of discussions, in the teacher conferences of the seminar, at meetings of the Aargau teachers, in the Grand Council . But the structures were left.

From 1950 onwards there was a long-term shortage of teachers and the long-overdue adjustments in training would have exacerbated it. After annual courses for high school graduates had already prepared them for the teaching profession, two-year retraining courses for professionals were introduced from 1956. From 1965 onwards, both Wettingen and the teachers' seminar in Aarau were co-educated . Branch seminars were created in Zofingen and Wohlen .

In 1972, the end of the Aargau teachers' seminars began to emerge after the policy for teacher training had re-established the Higher Education Institute (HPL) in Zofingen. Access to the HPL was given to all those who graduated from the cantonal schools with the Matura. This gave scientific subjects more weight, while the arts and crafts areas were set back. In 1979 the last graduates left the Wettingen teacher training college. In 1976, the new Wettingen canton school began work as a social-pedagogical high school in the monastery buildings.

Directors and eminent teachers

  • Philipp Jakob Nabholz , seminar director, 1822–1834
  • Augustin Keller , seminar director, 1834–1856
  • Johann Jakob Kettiger, seminar director, 1856–1867
  • Franz Dula , seminar director, 1867–1886
  • Jakob Keller, seminar director, 1886–1901
  • Johann Adolf Herzog, seminar director, 1901–1916
  • Yvo Pfyffer, seminar director, 1916–1923
  • Arthur Frey, seminar director, 1923–1947
  • Paul Schaefer, seminar director, 1947–1971
  • Hans Strebel, seminar director, 1971–1976
  • August Süsstrunk , geophysicist, professor at the University of Bern, vice director of the Wettingen seminar
  • Otto Müller, methodology teacher, author of the history of Memorable Past
  • Georg Gisi , methodology teacher and writer
  • Karl Grenacher , music director

Well-known graduates

References