Samuel Wilderspin

Samuel Wilderspin (23 March 1791, in Hornsey, Wakefield – 1866) was an English educator known for his pioneering work on infant schools. His belief was that a child should be encouraged to learn through experience, and to development in feelings as well as intellect. His work provided the model for infant schools in Europe and North America.

Life

Wilderspin was born an only child in the district of Hornsey, London. Born into a Christian home, Wilderspin claimed he acknowledged the existence of a superior being "a Maker, a Governor, and Protector of this world", not because of his parents but due to his own observation and intuition. Wilderspin was homeschooled most of his childhood, as he claimed his parents taught him everything and gave him a foundation he truly appreciated though he also claimed to have "thrown much on my resources, early became a thinker, and contriver too". At the age of seven, his parents encouraged him to attend the public school system of education, subsequently encouraging him to withdraw. Wilderspin was destined for business, however a series of events led him to teaching and furthermore initiating a system of teaching. (The Infant System – Samuel Wilderspin).

Wilderspin was apprenticed as a clerk in the City of London, but later trained in infant education. Through a New Jerusalem Church in south London, he met James Buchanan, an Owenite who had recently set up an infant school at Brewer's Green in Westminster. With his wife Sarah Anne, Wilderspin ran an infant school in Spitalfields, London, from 1820. This school particularly impressed David Stow, who invited Wilderspin to Glasgow to lecture on it.