INTRODUCTION
Jean Jacques Rousseau. His life, contribution to education, and the impact of his work in relation to our present era. I’d like to start by saying that:
1 “The noblest work in education is to make a reasoning man, and we expect to train a young child by making him reason! This beginning at the end; this is making an instrument of a result. If children understood how to reason they would not need to be educated.” Rousseau.
BIOGRAPHY Jean-Jacques Rousseau Rousseau (1712 - 1778) was a French philosopher and writer of the Age of Enlightenment.
His Political Philosophy, particularly his formulation of social contract theory (or Contractarianism), strongly influenced the French Revolution and the development of Liberal, Conservative and Socialist theory. A brilliant, brilli ant, undisciplined and unconventional thinker throughout his colorful life, his views on Philosophy of Education and on religion were equally controversial but nevertheless influential. He is considered to have invented modern autobiography and his novel "Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse" was one of the best-selling fictional fi ctional works of the 18th Century (and was important to the development of Romanticism). He also made important contributions to music, both as a theorist and as a composer.
Contractarianism suggests that people are primarily self-interested, and that a rational
assessment of the best strategy for attaining the maximization of their self-i nterest will lead them to act morally and to consent to governmental authority.
ROUSSEAU’S CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION
The Educational Theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau
THEORY OF VALUE • Man's fundamental first duty is to learn the art of living; man's first duty is to be
human. THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge constitutes the ability to reason and use our senses to learn; if we use books in place of nature and our senses it teaches us to believe much and know little. THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE • The original nature of man is good but corrupted by society. THEORY OF LEARNING Learning is done through trial and error, experimentation through concrete • medium. THEORY OF TRANSMISSION • Students are provided with concrete materials, objects and situations for learning to take place. THEORY OF OPPORTUNITY. • A girl cannot be educated to be a man. Studies must be on the practical side because a woman should be the center of the family, a housewife, and mother; should strive to please her husband and have a good reputation. THEORY OF CONSENSUS • Rule by the general will; expressed in laws to which all submit; represents the public spirit seeking the common good; assumes that everyone's true interests must coincide. •
EDUCATIONAL CONTRIBUTION
The greatest work produced by Rousseau is ‘Emile’ . This work is more a tract upon education under the guise of a story than it is a novel in the true sense of the word novel. The book describes the ideal education which prepares Emile and Sophie for their eventual marriage. The following represents an outline of the vital educational principles found in Emile. BOOK ONE: This book deals with the infancy of the child. The underlying thesis of all Rousseau's writings stresses the natural goodness of man. It is society that corrupts and makes a man evil. BOOK TWO: Rousseau describes the education of the child when the tutor has full
responsibility. Some of the major points of this section of the book are: a. Purpose of education
The tutor permits the child to develop his natural capacities. The aim of education is never social. It is always individualistic. b. The school Living in the country close to nature he should develop into the benevolent, good adult intended by nature. No textbooks are utilized. The child learns by using his senses in direct experience. c. Problem centered When the child felt the need to know something, he would be moved to learn.
d. Character education
The child learns morality by experiencing the consequences of his actions. e. Physical education Rousseau stresses the importance of physical activities in order to build a strong body. BOOK THREE: This section describes the intellectual education. When he is ready to learn and is interested in language, geography, history and science, he will possess the inner direction necessary to learn. BOOK FOUR:
This section describes the social education and the religious education. a) Social attitudes He is permitted to mingle with people in society at the age of sixteen. b) Natural religion The revelation and dogma of organized religion are unnecessary for man. c) Education of women Women are not educated as are men. She is expected to have and care for children, and to please, advise and console her husband whenever necessary.
ROUSSEAU AIMS OF EDUCATION
a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h.
Attainment of fullest natural growth leading to balanced, harmonious and useful life. Prepares the child to live life. To develop well regulated freedom. To provide the child with strength to attain well regulated freedom. Period of instruction, labor and study. Training of heart, to make the child loving, social. Religious, moral and social education is recommended. Sex instinct is to be sublimated by redirection in work and activity.
CURRICULUM
a. Allow the child to wander freely, play-things. b. Greatest freedom of physical movement to learn by own experience, simple diet, light clothing, no instruction of language, history or geograph y, exercise the body, sense organs and powers i.e. learning to judge, foresee and reason, no need to learn by heart. c. Curriculum should be built around curiosity to develop the urge for knowledge, studies to reveal nature, astronomy, science and arts and craft, total intellectual and vocational development.
d. Training of heart to be social and adapt to the conduct and interest of others, study of society, economics, politics, history and religion is important. ROUSSEAU’S PRINCIPLE OF TEACHING
The principle of teaching as suggested implicitly by Rousseau reflects his naturalistic philosophy. He lays stress on direct experience of things and on the principle of learning by doing. Do not teach books, they only teach us to talk about things that we know nothing about own experience. “ Let the child not be taught science, let him discover it”.
ROLE OF A TEACHER
Minor place to the teacher.
Not an instructor but only a guide.
Responsibility to motivate the child to learn.
Must understand the nature of the child to be able to control his emotional reactions.
Not to impose any rules of control.
Guide properly with perfect freedom.
The highest function of the teachers consists not so much in imparting knowledge but on stimulating the pupils in their love and pursuit.
ROUSSEAU’S VIEW ON DISCIPLINE
A free atmosphere can enable the child to develop his inborn and innate capacities Nature of the children are essentially good, let them act freely No punishment to the child Discipline by natural consequences. According to Rousseau, “Children should never receive punishment as such; it should always come as natural consequence of their fault.”
He advises the teacher not to intervene in matters of moral guidance as means of disciplining the child. ANALYSIS OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU WORK IN RELATION TO PRESENT ERA
The three main educative forces, Rousseau talks about, are nature, men, and also things . 1. The education of nature consists only of what the human body is born with. 2. The second educative force is that of man. Man shows us how to use our body that we are born with. 3. There is the education from things. This is what we learn from objects and things around us.
He uses Emile to explain the role that nature plays in an individual's intellectual and moral development through education. Rousseau raised Emile with the least possible restrictions. Rousseau's job as his tutor was to preserve. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the greatest philosophers of the 18th century, as he was the author of the theory that is very urgent even today. That was the reason a lot of modern thinkers addressed in their works Rousseau. He tried to prove that the inequality is the product of the society, and since people cannot return to the state of nature, they should change the system they live in. That was this idea that is considered to be the main impetus towards French Revolution and many other events that shook our society for years. We are indebted to Rousseau for his emphasis on such principles as’ learning by doing’ or ‘learning through one’s experience and heuristic teaching,’ Heuristic teaching: an educational method in which learning takes place t hrough discoveries that result from made by the student.
Sources: http://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_rousseau.html http://infed.org/mobi/jean-jacques-rousseau-on-nature-wholeness-and-education/
