Samuel Wilderspin

Samuel Wilderspin (23 March 1791, in Hornsey, Wakefield – 1866) was an English educator known for his pioneering work on infant schools.

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.

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.

[3] Wilderspin's approach to schooling as necessary for a socially and morally prepared child was informed by his Swedenborgianism.

Wilderspin developed four (4) rules in teaching infants: First – to feed the child's faculties with suitable food.

Fourth – blend both exercise and amusement with instruction at due intervals, which is readily effected by a moderate amount of singing, alternating with the usual motions and evolutions in the schoolroom, and the unfettered freedom of the play-ground.

Around two thousand (2000) schools were founded by Wilderspin throughout the United Kingdom (Report from the Select Committee of Education in England and Wales, P.P.