Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A. (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
Mrs Sudha Rani Maheshwari, M.Sc (Zoology), B.Ed.
Former Principal A.K.P.I.College, Roorkee, India
We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
These are the words of a man who has had a propound influence on the field of education. This man is none other than Jean Jacques Rousseau (French: [ʒɑ̃ʒak ʁuso]; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Gene van philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought.
Rousseau is one of those philosophers who have been greatly misunderstood. Many have criticized his philosophy as being totally outdated and not much applicable in today’s situation. But this seems paradoxical as Rousseau has also been that person who has had a great influence in the field of education. It is important to understand that Rousseau has been criticized more because people have not really understood why he expressed himself the way he did.
Two main aspects come out very strongly in his philosophy. They are nature, and the child. Both these were of great importance in his philosophy of education.
Rousseau believed it was possible to preserve the original nature of the child by careful control of his education and environment based on an analysis of the different physical and psychological stages through which he passed from birth to maturity (Stewart and McCann 1967). As we have seen he thought that momentum for learning was provided by growth of the person (nature).
The work that made Rousseau famous and which would be great for us would be his novel Émile, It is in this book that one will find all his concerns of the child, and his aims of education. The focus of Émile is upon the individual tuition of a boy/young man in line with the principles of ‘natural education’.
The book is divided into five parts, four of which deal with Emile’s education in the stages of infancy, childhood, boyhood and youth respectively. The fifth part deals with the training of the girl who is to become his wife. Thus, through an imaginary student, Emile, Rousseau projects how a child should be educated and trained.
On the development of the person
The education of children of children is determined by the various periods of development. In Émile, Rousseau divides development into five stages. According to him, the various stages are sharply marked off from one another by their special characteristics or functions. The first stage from birth to five is the animal stage. Then there emerges the dawn of self consciousness. At twelve, he suddenly becomes conscious of his self in a deeper way. The rational faculty awakens and with it, the higher sentiments emerge. But the child is still an isolated being without true moral life. The next stage is reached at puberty, with the emergence of a person’s sexuality, which is the most important factor in the entire life history of the individual. With the emergence of sex, the social life of the individual properly begins.
As the periods are sharply marked in their rise, they are independent of each other in their development. No period should be made a means of getting to the next. Each is an end in itself, an independent whole, and not merely a transition to higher period. The stages below are those associated with males.
Stage 1: Infancy (birth to two years). The first stage is infancy, from birth to about two years. (Book I). Education begins at birth or before, and the first period of five years is concerned primarily with the growth of the body, motor activities, sense perception, and feelings.
According to Rousseau children’s first sensations are wholly in the realm of feeling. They are only aware of pleasure and pain. we are born with a capacity for learning, but know nothing and distinguish nothing. The mind is cramped by imperfect half-formed organs and has not even the consciousness of its own existence. Even the movements, the cries of the new born child are purely mechanical, quite devoid of understanding and will.
The method of nature had to be followed in everything. Thus Rousseau, with impassionate pleading, recalled mothers to their natural duties, and even made it fashionable to breast feed their offspring.
The individuality of each child had to be respected. The doctrine of individual differences is fundamental to Rousseau. He wrote “One nature needs wings, another shackles: one has to be flattered, another to be intimidated. One man is made to carry human knowledge to the farthest point; another may find the possibility to read a dangerous power.” (Eby 346)
For Rousseau education does not arise from without; it springs from within. It is the internal development of our faculties and organs that constitutes the true education of nature .Even in infancy, the facing of hardships is nature’s method. “A child born ,lives and dies in a state of slavery. At the time of birth he is stitched in swaddling clothes and at the time of death he is nailed in a coffin, and as long as he preserves the human form he is fettered by our institutions”. In this regard he claims, “Observe nature and follow the route which she traces for you. She is ever exciting children to activity; she hardens the constitution by trials of every sort; she teaches at an early hour what suffering and pain are.” (Eby 346)
The first education is the free and unhampered expression of the natural activities of the child in relation to the physical environment. The only habit the child should be allowed to acquire is to contract none…Nothing must be done for the child that he can do for himself. This was the principle that governed infancy. “Life is a struggle for existence; this is the most fundamental biological law – a law to which the child must conform. Prepare in good time form the reign of freedom and the exercise of his powers, by allowing his body its natural habits and accustoming him always to be his own master and follow the dictates of his will as soon as he has a will of his own. (Émile, Book 1 – translation by Boyd 1956: 23; Everyman edn: 30). Rousseau detested medicine and considered hygiene less a science than a virtue or habit of right living.
The important thing is that the child is allowed to obey the inner impulse to action, and that he experiences directly the results of his behaviour. Moral and social life are absolutely alien to the infants mind. The reason being that at this time errors and vices begin to germinate. All vices are implanted by unwise coddling or pampering of infants. By allowing this to happen, one germinates in their little hearts, the spirit of caprice and an insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement.
Stage 2: ‘The age of Nature’ ( from two to ten or twelve ), is ‘the age of Nature’. This is the most important and most critical period of human life. It has to be controlled by two principles, namely, education should be negative, and that moral training should be by natural consequences.The purpose of education at this stage is to develop physical qualities and particularly senses, but not minds.
By this negative education, Rousseau did not maintain that there should be no education at all, but that there should be one of a different kind, from the normally accepted educational practices. Rousseau claimed that positive education was that type of education which formed the mind prematurely, and which instructed the child in duties that belonged to man. Negative education according to him, was that education which perfected the organs that are the instruments of knowledge, before giving the knowledge directly. It further prepares the way for reason by the proper exercise of the senses.
Negative education does not imply a time of idleness. It does not give virtues, but protects the person from vice. It does not inculcate truth, but protects one from error. It helps the child to take the path that will lead him to truth, when he has reached the age to understand it. It will also help him to take the path of goodness, when he has acquired the faculty of recognizing and loving it.
The first education, then, should be purely negative. It consists, not in teaching the principles of virtue and truth, but in guarding the heart against vice and the mind against error.
Rousseau adopted this method for the reasons that human nature is good and that it unfolds by virtue of inner compulsion. Any interference with this natural unfolding would be corrupting. The evils of man are directly due to the bad education that he has received.
Rousseau was a severe critic of the methods then in fashion in the schools. For most children, childhood was a sorrowful period, as instruction was heartlessly severe. Teachers had not yet imagined that children could find any pleasure in learning, or that they should have eyes for anything but reading, writing, and memorizing. The only form of learning that teachers knew was learning by rote. Rousseau considered this a grave error; for he believed that the child had no real memory, and that purely verbal lessons meant nothing to him.
Rousseau saw in such a method only a means of slaving mankind. This was the education that depended on books and upon the authority of others. Of his bitter aversion to books Rousseau expressed himself vigorously. “I hate books; they merely teach us to talk of what we do not know.” (Eby 348) The only book Émile is allowed is Robinson Crusoe – an expression of the solitary, self-sufficient man that Rousseau seeks to form (Boyd 1956: 69).
He was deeply shocked at the bad methods of motivation and discipline involved. He disapproved of rebukes, corrections, threats, and punishments. Worst of all, he hated prizes, rewards and promises. These for him, only induced them to do or learn something that was alien to their active interests.
Stage 3: Pre-adolescence (12-15). Émile in Stage 3 is like the ‘noble savage’ Rousseau describes in The Social Contract. ‘About twelve or thirteen the child’s strength increases far more rapidly than his needs’ (Everyman edn.: 128)
The period from twelve to fifteen, Rousseau called the ‘Age of Reason,’ for the emergence of reason is its most important characteristic. Self preservation is the fundamental urge of life, the spontaneous expression of inner, biological animalist. This is the period in life in which the strength of the individual is greater than his needs. The sex passions, the most violent and terrible of all, have not yet awakened. He is indifferent to the rigours of weathers and seasons, and braves them light heartedly. His growing body heat takes the place of clothing. Appetite is his sauce, and everything nourishing tastes good. When he is tired, he stretches himself out on the ground, and goes to sleep. He is not troubled by imaginary wants. What people think does not trouble him. Not only is he self-sufficient, but his strength goes beyond his requirements.
Only when the child has reached the aged of twelve, does reason begin to stir, and the time for its uninterrupted development is exceedingly brief. When the strength of youth is augmented out of proportion to his needs, reason awakens in order to furnish guidance, for this is the function of the rational life.
What causes the emergence of rational judgment at this stage? The explanation that Rousseau gives is one of the deeper theories that he evolved. The inner life of the child is conditioned by the relation, which his needs bear to the strength that he can exert for the satisfaction of those needs. In infancy, his needs are few and simple, and his strength feeble. At the age of twelve, the strength of the child is developed much more rapidly than his needs. Owing to his pre pubertal increment in muscular power, the youth is much stronger than is necessary to satisfy his needs, which have as yet remained few and simple. “He whose strength exceeds his desires has some power to spare; he is certainly a very strong being.” (Eby 353)It is this preponderance of strength beyond the satisfaction of his needs that causes reason to emerge.
Reason is an accessory faculty, “Our needs or desires are the original cause of our activities; in turn, our activities produce intelligence, in order to guide and govern our strength and passions, for reason is the check to strength.” (Eby 353) Inasmuch as intelligence evolved in relation to activities, it is necessary that these be developed to a high degree before reason appears. “Childhood is the sleep of reason. Furthermore, Rousseau declared: ‘Of all the faculties of man, reason is that which is developed with the most difficulty and the latest.” (Eby 353)
Reason then is not some divine entity, but only an accessory faculty. This is the age when real education by the human agency begins. Up to this time, the unfolding of the child has been determined by natural laws; and with the action of these laws the educator must never interfere.
The common mistake of parents is to suppose that their children are capable of reasoning as soon as they are born, and to talk to them as though they are already grown up persons. Reason is the instrument they use, whereas every instrument first ought to be used in order to form their reason… (Eby 354)
Educators have made numerous blunders they have not understood the nature of reason and the time when it arises. The first blunder was to educate the child through reason. This for Rousseau was to begin at the end. Thus all efforts to reason with children before reason emerges, is not only foolish but injurious.
The second blunder has been to substitute authority for the child’s own mental efforts .The design of nature is obviously to strengthen the body before the mind. When allowed to awaken at the proper time, reason projects the future of the child.
The third blunder of traditional instructional methodology was attributing to reason a power that it did not posses. This was the mistake of the rationalists. As reason appears later than the passions, and as it emerges out of them, it is subordinate to them. It is not the reliable guide for conduct. “Rousseau startled philosophy by declaring that a ‘the divine voice of a man’s heart and his inner conscience alone are the infallible guides and capable of bringing him happiness.” (Eby 355)
The fourth blunder is allowing rivalry in schools. Rivalry had always been one of the chief motivations in school. Rousseau regarded it as the arch evil of social life and utterly prohibited its unemployment. “Let there be no comparisons with other children; as soon as he begins to reason let him have no rivals, no competitors, even in running. I would a hundred times rather he would not learn what he can learn only through jealousy and vanity.” (Eby 355) This clearly shows the detest Rousseau had for rivalry or emulation.
The central concern of Rousseau was threefold:
1) The first was to implant a taste for knowledge. He believed that knowledge had to be given, but the person should also be taught how to acquire it when necessary. This will enable the student to estimate its worth, and to love it above everything else.
2) The second was to think clearly. Thus for Rousseau the important thing was that only those ideas which were accurate and clear should enter the mind.
3) The third was to furnish the right method. It was not only important to teach the student the sciences, but to also give him a taste for it. This for him was the fundamental principle of all good education. (Eby 356)
Thus Rousseau placed Emile in situations that obliged him to depend upon his own strength, to get his own bread, to think his own thoughts, to reach his own conclusions. By this Rousseau was basically trying to say that Emile had to depend on his own brains and not on the opinions of others. Rousseau firmly believed that we learn things much better if we learn them by ourselves. Thus his great principle was that nothing should be learnt on the authority of others.
Stage 4: Puberty (15-20). Rousseau believes that by the time Émile is fifteen, his reason will be well developed, and he will then be able to deal with he sees as the dangerous emotions of adolescence, and with moral issues and religion. The second paragraph of the book contains the famous lines: ‘We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man’ (Everyman edn: 172). He is still wanting to hold back societal pressures and influences so that the ‘natural inclinations’ of the person may emerge without undue corruption. There is to be a gradual entry into community life (Boyd 1956: 95).
The soft slight down on his cheeks grows darker and firmer. His voice breaks, or rather, gets lost. He is neither child nor man, and he speaks like neither. His eyes, organs of the soul, which have hitherto has nothing, find language and experience as they light up with a new fire. (Cahn 170)
Up to this stage, life was more an animal existence, but now human sentiments begin to emerge. Hitherto the child’s body, senses and brain have been formed. It is now time for his hear ton to be shaped. The child had been educated solely for himself and by himself.
Now he has to be educated for a life with others and is to be educated in social relationships. Love for others, now becomes the controlling motive. Emotional development and moral perfection becomes the goal.
But man is not meant to be a child for ever. At the time prescribed by nature, he passes out of his childhood. As the fretting of the sea precedes the distant storm, this disturbing change is announced by the murmur of nascent passions….
The most crucial event in the history of the human being is the emergence of sex. All the highest experiences and sentiments arise due to the emergence of the sex life. As soon as a man has the need of a companion, he is no longer an isolated being. All his relations with his species and all the affections of the soul are born with her. The sex life arouses many other sentiments which are secondary to it. Among these senses are those such as appreciation of beauty and the sublime, the perception of human relations, the sense of moral and social life and the religious emotions.
The mind of the child is limited to a low level of experience. He knows things but does not know their relation to others or to man. He does not know himself, and in the consequence, he cannot judge others. He is, accordingly, incapable of social and religious experience. It is because of this reason that he cannot comprehend and appreciate the meaning of life. The world of the spirit, morality, art, and philosophy is as yet sealed to him. Nevertheless, these are the interests that raise mankind above the level of the savage. Up to the age of 15 Emile knows nothing of history, morals or society. He can generalize and can comprehend but a few abstractions. With the moral signs of changing mood go patent physical changes. His countenance develops and takes on the imprint of a definite character.
Once the child becomes conscious of his dependence, he becomes obliged to begin a study of his own nature and his relation to others. Discussing education during the period of adolescence, Rousseau wrote, ‘It is at this age that the skilful teacher begins his real function as an observer and philosopher who knows the art of exploring the heart while attempting to mould it.’
First of all is the need of warding off evil passions. Second, Rousseau would now arouse the higher emotions such as friendship, sympathy, gratitude, love justice, goodness and philanthropy. These emotions are to be awakened by the study of the mental, social and moral nature of man. These subjects are not only to be studied indirectly through books, but to be experienced in life.
The true work of education is the inner emergence, growth, exercise and the integration of the feelings, sentiments and the passions. It is not so much the outer discovery, or observation of reality, as the evolution of inner feelings which invest outer phenomena with meaning, use and value.
The awakening of inner feelings must precede the attributing of these feelings to outer causes. It is with this inner development and integration, that the world of spirit, morality, duty, art, religion, and philosophy dawns. Rousseau believed that it is this inner unfolding and enrichment of experience which has raised civilization above the level of a savage.
Stage 5: Adulthood (20-25). In Book V, the adult Émile is introduced to his ideal partner, Sophie. He learns about love, and is ready to return to society, proof, Rousseau hopes, after such a lengthy preparation, against its corrupting influences. The final task of the tutor is to ‘instruct the young couple in their marital rights and duties’ (Boyd 1956: 130).
Education Of Woman: Sophie, this last book includes a substantial section concerning the education of woman. Emile has now become a man, and a life companion must be found for him.
It is the weakest part of the book, because Rousseau completely abandons the individualistic training that is given to the man.
The whole education of women ought to be relative to men. To please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves honoured and loved by them, to educate them when young, to care for them when grown, to console them, to make life agreeable and sweet to them – these are the duties of women at all times, and what should taught them from infancy. (Graves 96). Sophie’s training for womanhood upto the age of ten involves physical training for grace; the dressing of dolls leading to drawing, writing, counting and reading; and the prevention of idleness and indocility. After the age of ten there is a concern with adornment and the arts of pleasing; religion; and the training of reason. ‘She has been trained careful rather than strictly, and her taste has been followed rather than thwarted’ (Everyman edn: 356). Rousseau then goes on to sum her qualities as a result of this schooling (356-362).
Like men, women should be given adequate bodily training, but rather for the sake of physical charms and of producing vigorous offspring than for their own development. Their instinctive love of pleasing through dress should be made of service by teaching them sewing, embroidery, lace-work, and designing. Further, girls ought to be obedient and industrious, and they ought to be brought up through constraint. They have to learn to suffer injustices, and to endure the wrongs of their husbands without complaint. Girls had to be taught singing, dancing, and other accomplishments that will make them attractive, without interfering with their submissiveness. They should be instructed dogmatically in religion, at a really very early age. For him, every daughter should have the religion of her mother, and every wife that of her husband. In ethical matters, they should be largely guided by public opinion. A woman should learn to study men. She must learn to penetrate their feelings thought their conversation, their actions, their looks, and their gestures.
Rousseau subscribes to a view that sex differences go deep (and are complementary) – and that education must take account of this. ‘The man should be strong and active; the woman should be weak and passive; he one must have both the power and the will; it is enough that the other should offer little resistance’ (Everyman edn: 322). From this difference comes a contrasting education. They are not to be brought up in ignorance and kept to housework. Nature means them to think, to will, to love to cultivate their minds as well as their persons; she puts these weapons in their hands to make up for their lack of strength and to enable them to direct the strength of men.
Thus, we see that the education of the boy begins with radical naturalism and individualism, but ends by evolving a romantic idealist. The education of the girl, however, remains hopelessly traditional.
This strange denial of independent personality to women can only be explained on the ground that Rousseau had no contact with women of character and his conception of human personality was not broad enough to include the female virtues. This is why he ends with an anticlimax.
Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau