The Jean-Frédéric Oberlin Museum's collections testify to the 59 years' church ministry during which Oberlin, an Alsatian Lutheran clergyman and philanthropist, labored to change society in this poor valley in the Vosges Mountains where he introduced new agricultural methods and good roads. His objective was to educate men so they could be with the world and not it. He linked education to social change. The founder of critical pedagogy, he initiated the first nursery schools in 1769. In these 'small schools', locally called 'knitting-rooms', he is the first to have awakened in children the love of learning by appealing to their senses and making them participate actively to the class. His ideas outlived his time and they are still valid today in a world where human rights, the sense of responsibility and the respect for others are primary values.