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Jean Jacques Rousseau Biography, Books and Philosophy

Rousseau Biography

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 -1778) is basically a political thinker and strong believer of naturalism which means that every thing has its own natural law, according to which those things work. Rousseau born in 1712 in Geneva Switzerland. His father was a poor watcher maker. Due to poverty he didn’t get proper education.  From childhood to 29 years he remained a beggar and traveled many places to develop for those suffering. With the passage to time he motivated for higher education and participated in essay writing competition in 1750 and appeared him as an anti-socialist. In the coming year wrote so many books. Due to his anti-socialism and state he left Paris. After few years he came back and died.

Rousseau Books and Publications

  1. His essay on, ‘Has the restoration of the arts and sciences contributed to the purification of morals?”
  2. His second book is, “The origin of inequality among men”
  3. His third book is, “The social contract.”
  4. His fourth and the last book is, “Emile” duly published in 1762.

Rousseau Philosophy and Principles of Education

Natural Education

He is basically against traditional or formal form of education, because that is unnatural and indoctrination. He says that education should be based upon natural way of learning to develop a child’s natural faculties and to use those faculties in the practical life.

Moral Soundness

He wants a morally sound person in order to face the wrongs evils of society and be able to stand against all the odds of society (if it is corrupt.)

Technical Skill development

Rousseau education wants a student must be taught some kind of technical skills and know how in order to earn his livelihood in descent manners, if the financial conditions of him are not good.

Methods of Teaching

According to Rousseau “Emile” must be educated by “trail and error” methods. That means that he must make mistakes and that mistakes will motivate him to correct them so through “trail and error”, which is natural way, “Emile” will be able to learn.

We can say that he is the founder of activity based curriculum which is used through out the world.

Student-Teacher Relation

When Rousseau says that a child should be given full freedom to learn and commit mistakes, he also gives a trained tutor in order to give, guidance to the student in order to control his unlimited liberty and avoid any harm. According to him that there must be close supervision, guidance and cooperation between them to get the ends of education.

Curriculum

Rousseau gives very modern and scientific curriculum based upon the utility of the subjects. He says that a student be taught the following subjects

  1. Morality for good conduct in society
  2. Geography to know about his surrounding
  3. Languages to understand other culture subjects
  4. Sciences for understanding the nature of specific things
  5. Social relations for having balance life in society and be a good citizen

S. No

Period

General Characteristics

Education

Method

1.

Infancy

(0-6 years)

Physically weak
No knowledge about self

Should be natural experience

No formal educator

Give physical wants

Less rules

Do more by himself

2.

Boyhood

(7-9 years)

Can do more for himself

Becomes conscious of self

Give help when needed but not always

Don’t pressurize

No corporal punishment

Moral education

Language / Music / Science

Activity-based

Moral education

Problem solving ability through self-confidence

3.

Pre-adolescence

(10-12 years)

Rapid body growth

Mind is open for information

Study Geography

Sciences through practical way

To study social relations

To teach about good or bad & that be done through examples

4.

Adolescence

(13-19 years)

Emotions develops

Social, Moral and feelings

He is in his fever does not want to be governed

Physical exercise / games to let out passions

To study about natural laws in things

Practical experience

5.

Adulthood

(20-Onward)

Passions

Zeal to learn / know

A student goes to society/ cities to have practical social experiences

He must control his passions by application of reason.

 

Analysis of Rousseau Education

Learning through Experience

He says that learning must be through experiment and practical way so to solve the social and physical problems.

Liberty for a Student

Student must be given full liberty to learn the subject himself under the guidance of well-trained teacher. There should be no corporal punishment and external discipline imposition.

The Role of Family

He wants good family structure and cooperation between wife and husband in order to educate their children and to protect them from social evils.

Good Food for Good Body

He says in order to have sound body and health a student must eat healthy food, and must do some games / exercises to be active.

Rousseau on Women Education

Rousseau is very conservative about women education. He only wants women education for rearing her children and taking care of home economics in efficient way. He is against higher education of women.

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