Elizabeth Mayo (18 June 1793 – 1 September 1865) was a British teacher and educational reformer. She was credited in the Hadow Reports with being one of the founders of the formal education of infant teachers in Britain. She was the first woman in England to be employed to train teachers.

Life and work

Mayo was born at 1 Hammet Street,

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

in London, on 18 June 1793. Her father was a lawyer, Charles Mayo and his wife, Elizabeth Knowlys. Charles Mayo who was Elizabeth's brother returned from Switzerland to work with her. Charles had lived with

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (; ; ; 12 January 1746 – 17 February 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking ...

from 1819 to 1822 at

Yverdon Yverdon-les-Bains () (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Ancient Rome, Roman era) is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Jura-North Vaudois District, Jura-Nord vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It ...

and he was inspired by his ideas. The two siblings were credited in the Hadow Reports with founding the formal education of infant teachers in Britain.Hadow Report
EducationEngland, retrieved 1 January 2014. Mayo was the first woman in England to be employed to train teachers. Her books ''Lessons on Objects'' and ''Lessons on shells'', on

object lesson An object lesson is a teaching method that consists of using a physical object or visual aid as a discussion piece for a lesson. Object lesson teaching assumes that material things have the potential to convey information. Description The ob ...

s, were revolutionary as they were the first to explain education to infant teachers. Mayo's book ''Lessons on Objects'' showed how young children could be introduced to new ideas by examining 100 objects like a wooden cube, a pin, a rubber or a piece of glass. The book supplied example dialogues between teacher and child and a list supplied for an object like a pin to get the children to recognize the parts and the qualities of this object.Lessons on Objects
, Elizabeth Mayo, 1861, Roehampton University, download, retrieved 1 January 2014. By 1831 her book had such success that John Frost was creating a plagiarised, edited or improved version for the American market. Charles, Elizabeth,

James Pierrepont Greaves James Pierrepont Greaves (1 February 1777 – 11 March 1842), was an English mystic, educational reformer, socialist and progressive thinker who founded Alcott House, a short-lived utopian community and free school in Surrey. He describe ...

, and John Stuckey Reynolds founded the

Home and Colonial School Society The Home and Colonial School Society was a Church of England institution founded in 1836 by Elizabeth Mayo, Charles Mayo, James Pierrepont Greaves and John S. Reynolds for the education of children and the training of teachers especially by the ...

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in Central London, located in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at its junction with Holborn at the City of London boundary, passes north through the Holborn and King's Cross ...

in 1836, which was an Anglican society dedicated to the ideas of

Pestalozzi Pestalozzi is the surname of an Italian family originally based in Gravedona and Chiavenna who settled in Switzerland during the Counter-Reformation. Members of this family include: * Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Swiss pedagogue an ...

; and Elizabeth's publications introduced educational ideas that ignored the idea of rote-learning. The new organization included a model infant school where the ideas could be developed,Home and Colonial School Society
UCL, retrieved 1 January 2014. and Elizabeth took a supervisory role. More than her brother, Elizabeth argued that educational improvements must include a religious aspect. It was reported that by the end of the 1840s that nearly every vacancy was being filled by graduates from the Mayo institution.Janet Shepherd, ‘Mayo, Elizabeth (1793–1865)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 1 Jan 2015
/ref> Known as the Home and Colunial Training College it was the only teaching establishment using Pestalozzi's object based teaching methods. Pestalozzi was using illustrations but the Mayo siblings insisted on the value of actual objects. This technique was thought to be particularly valuable with under-privileged students who could aspire to moving from just naming the parts of an object to writing an essay about its qualities.

Death and legacy

Mayo died in Malvern in 1865. Highbury Fields School in London is credited with being a successor institution to the educational ideas introduced by Charles and Elizabeth Mayo.

Works

*''Lessons on Objects'' *''On Shells'' *''Lessons on Scripture Prints'' 1840 *''On Miracles'' 1845 *''On Religious Instruction'' 1849 *''Model Lessons for Infant Schools'' 1848–50. *''Practical Remarks on Infant Education'' (with her brother) 1837.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo, Elizabeth 1793 births 1865 deaths Schoolteachers from London English educational theorists People from the City of London