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Abstract:Jean Jacques Rousseau was one of the famous French Enlightenment thinkers, and Emile was one of his great masterpieces, in which he emphasized his objection to the medieval religious and feudal education that was a hindrance for the development of children's natural individuality, and he advocated implementing the natural education that was conformity to the children's nature, and fostered the harmonious development of children's body and mind. Rousseau's natural education theory was an education rationale for human innovation of its education posterior to his time, which thus was called "Copernican revolution" in human education history. From Rousseau onwards, the human education theory has begun to enter a new period of emphasis on research of children.
Key Words:conformity-to-nature rule Natural Man law of development Emile
Ⅰ Introduction
Emile was a book having historical and practical value and shivering the dim medieval society, which integrated philosophy, education and literature, on which Rousseau spent almost his twenty years, and in which he rendered the natural education theory and advocated nurturing the natural man.
The paper proceeds as follows. The next section provides the background for natural education thought. Section 3 describes the ideas of "Back to Nature" of natural education. Section 4. presents today's educational inspiration from Rousseau's natural education thought. Finally, Section 5. discusses the influence and limitations of natural education thought.
Ⅱ Background
The 18th century saw the collapse of main feudal countries in Europe including France, in which the rise of the far-reaching influential Enlightenment campaigns set the stage for the French bourgeois revolution, and the great Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau uncovered and attacked the absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, advocated the substitution of rational thoughts for the blind obedience to what was said, and compiled an encyclopedia as tool to disseminate the new knowledge and the new ideas and to explore effective ways and methods to found the bourgeois system. The Enlightenment paved the way for the development and eventual formation of the natural education thought which was marked with the publication of Rousseau's Emile.
Ⅲ Ideas of “Back to Nature”
Rousseau advocated the ideas of “Back to Nature” which originated from his pedagogical philosophy of nature, in which he believed that human nature is good, and which included the following three aspects.
1.Conforming to nature
Rousseau thought that the heart of the natural education thought is that we must follow the request of nature and conform to the human nature, as he cited in the opening line in Emile "Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man." According to Rousseau's view, "All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things. The inner growth of our organs and faculties is the education of nature, the use we learn to make of this growth is the education of men, what we gain by our experience of our surroundings is the education of things. Thus we are each taught by three masters." And Rousseau further detailed, "If their teaching conflicts, the scholar is ill-educated and will never be at peace with himself; if their teaching agrees, he goes straight to his goal, he lives at peace with himself, he is well-educated. Now of these three factors in education nature is wholly beyond our control, things are only partly in our power; the education of men is the only one controlled by us; and even here our power is largely illusory, for who can hope to direct every word and deed of all with whom the child has to do."
2.Fostering "Natural Man"
Rousseau held that the aim of natural education is to develop "Natural Man"——"The natural man lives for himself; he is the unit, the whole, dependent only on himself and on his like."It was the natural man, Rousseau thought, that was trained from childhood to be able to live independently, not developing a habit of asking others for help, nor a habit of boasting to others about himself, to be able to acquire lots of experiences by observing, judging, thinking over and analyzing everything he met from the nature, and to be able to get developed in the aspects of both body and mind at the same time. And the natural man was the one who lived in society, who had the ability to fulfill his social responsibility, and not the one who unrealistically returned to the primitive society as an illiterate or a barbarian. We should know that the natural man is the one who has the following characteristics: First, he must free from the constraints of traditions so as to develop according to children's nature; second, he must be independent and live to support himself; third, he must become more socially adaptable and be responsible for what he did as a social member; the last, he must be physically and mentally healthy so as to think critically.
3.Considering children's age
Following "the conformity-to-nature rule of education", Rousseau emphasized that people should guide their education of a kid to be a natural man according to the kid's age characteristics. "Rousseau was one of the first to advocate developmentally appropriate education; and his description of the stages of child development mirrors his conception of the evolution of culture". He divided childhood into four stages: the first stage is infancy, when children should be given physically training; the second is to the age of about 12, when children are guided by their emotions and impulses, and should be given sense education; the third stage, from 12 to about 16, reason starts to develop, when children should be educated from intellectual and labor aspects; and finally the fourth stage, from the age of 16 onwards, when the child develops into an adult, and should be given moral education.
Ⅳ Inspirations from natural education thought
On the one hand, in China, there are a multitude of things to be done about today’s education reform such as physical improvements for education, changes about educational systems and some innovations for educational ideologies and theories, the essences of which are not deep explored and studied although some of educational problems seem to be resolved. For example, the scientific conceptions of children has not yet been the important contents of the updates of educational conceptions, because the issue of the conceptions of children seems to have been tackled, but we have not further done something enough to study its basic theories, because people frequently did something which is the violation of law of development of children in society, in school and at home, and because especially in the environment of "examination-oriented education", children's one-sided development and some other reasons made them lose the opportunity of schooling. So it is time to have a correct view of our kid and respect him who first is a "person" who has his own consciousness and emotions, and who although is not an adult, nor is adults' pets and playthings. And as parents, we should to some extent respect our children and allow our children to do what they like. Rousseau's ideas of the children's nature which includes children's initiative, freedom, reason and some other good factors, of appealing to people to protect the children's pure nature, and of letting children get the full development of their personality have an important referential significance both at the time when Rousseau lived and today.
On the other hand as a saying goes "Kids are kids", we should treat children correctly who have their own special thinking and feelings which we sometimes have no knowledge of, and fail to figure out. So, we should not inflict on our children something that we think a truth, and that they may think to be an absurdity and falseness. Therefore in many cases, if a positive education of children doesn't work, we may educate them according to a kind of educational method called "logical consequence" which is one of Rousseau's education ideas, but lots of parents usually prefer to take severe penalty which we do not favor. So it is unnecessary to instill in children the moral sense, law and norms and they are willing to change their conducts and thinking only after they get lessons from what they did. And to some extent the disciplinary method of "logical consequence" is more effective than inculcating the kid with patience. Today there are lots of children who are kept and spoiled at home for long, who live in so limited settings that they can not convert multitudes of book knowledge into their own comprehension and thoughts, and who often fail to interpret what is instilled in. So it is urgently necessary to expose children to the nature to acquire their missing knowledge which can not be found in the books and their routine lives. For example, we can take the children who live in the city, and who don't know how to practice thrift to the poverty-stricken areas for the summer practice to experience the poor children lives there, which can help the children who live in the city to develop correct attitudes and viewpoints of life and values, to know labor values and then love labors, and at the same time to learn their parents' hardship of making money and finally love their parents more. I think it is of great significance for children to participate in such social activities, and we should let them go "back to nature" to get more gains. Hence, Rousseau's "Natural Education Thoughts" provided inspirations for today's education.
Ⅴ Influence and limitation
In response to children nature instinct, Rousseau’s natural education thought paved the way for the development of the theory of children’s development, which not only had critical effects on then education, and facilitated the birth of the new era of education, but also went down to posterity. Rousseau's detractors have blamed him for everything they do not like in what they call modern "child-centered" education. John Darling's 1994 book Child-Centered Education and its Critics argues that the history of modern educational theory is a series of footnotes to Rousseau, a development he regards as bad. Good or bad, the theories of educators such as Rousseau's near contemporaries Pestalozzi, Mme de Genliss, and later,Maria Montessori, and Dewey, which have directly influenced modern educational practices do have significant points in common with those of Rousseau
However, it should be noted that Rousseau's natural education thought inevitably had some factors of subjective assumption, or had too extreme viewpoints of education due to lack of basis of educational practices and scientific theories. For example, Rousseau idealized his view of children's nature and over-exaggerated the role of children's nature in education. And much more he fully negated the role of classroom teaching and learning of system knowledge in education of children. So we should historically and objectively evaluate Rousseau’s Natural Education Thoughts.
References:
[1]Melzer, Arthur. The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1990.
[2] Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. Or. On Education. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1979.
[3]陈伙平.“自然后果法”探微.学前教育研究,1997,(4):8-9.
[4]滕大春,戴本博.外国教育通史,山东教育出版社,1989,12.
[5]Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. Or. On Education. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1979.
[6]Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. Or. On Education. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York:Basic Books,1979.
Key Words:conformity-to-nature rule Natural Man law of development Emile
Ⅰ Introduction
Emile was a book having historical and practical value and shivering the dim medieval society, which integrated philosophy, education and literature, on which Rousseau spent almost his twenty years, and in which he rendered the natural education theory and advocated nurturing the natural man.
The paper proceeds as follows. The next section provides the background for natural education thought. Section 3 describes the ideas of "Back to Nature" of natural education. Section 4. presents today's educational inspiration from Rousseau's natural education thought. Finally, Section 5. discusses the influence and limitations of natural education thought.
Ⅱ Background
The 18th century saw the collapse of main feudal countries in Europe including France, in which the rise of the far-reaching influential Enlightenment campaigns set the stage for the French bourgeois revolution, and the great Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau uncovered and attacked the absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, advocated the substitution of rational thoughts for the blind obedience to what was said, and compiled an encyclopedia as tool to disseminate the new knowledge and the new ideas and to explore effective ways and methods to found the bourgeois system. The Enlightenment paved the way for the development and eventual formation of the natural education thought which was marked with the publication of Rousseau's Emile.
Ⅲ Ideas of “Back to Nature”
Rousseau advocated the ideas of “Back to Nature” which originated from his pedagogical philosophy of nature, in which he believed that human nature is good, and which included the following three aspects.
1.Conforming to nature
Rousseau thought that the heart of the natural education thought is that we must follow the request of nature and conform to the human nature, as he cited in the opening line in Emile "Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man." According to Rousseau's view, "All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things. The inner growth of our organs and faculties is the education of nature, the use we learn to make of this growth is the education of men, what we gain by our experience of our surroundings is the education of things. Thus we are each taught by three masters." And Rousseau further detailed, "If their teaching conflicts, the scholar is ill-educated and will never be at peace with himself; if their teaching agrees, he goes straight to his goal, he lives at peace with himself, he is well-educated. Now of these three factors in education nature is wholly beyond our control, things are only partly in our power; the education of men is the only one controlled by us; and even here our power is largely illusory, for who can hope to direct every word and deed of all with whom the child has to do."
2.Fostering "Natural Man"
Rousseau held that the aim of natural education is to develop "Natural Man"——"The natural man lives for himself; he is the unit, the whole, dependent only on himself and on his like."It was the natural man, Rousseau thought, that was trained from childhood to be able to live independently, not developing a habit of asking others for help, nor a habit of boasting to others about himself, to be able to acquire lots of experiences by observing, judging, thinking over and analyzing everything he met from the nature, and to be able to get developed in the aspects of both body and mind at the same time. And the natural man was the one who lived in society, who had the ability to fulfill his social responsibility, and not the one who unrealistically returned to the primitive society as an illiterate or a barbarian. We should know that the natural man is the one who has the following characteristics: First, he must free from the constraints of traditions so as to develop according to children's nature; second, he must be independent and live to support himself; third, he must become more socially adaptable and be responsible for what he did as a social member; the last, he must be physically and mentally healthy so as to think critically.
3.Considering children's age
Following "the conformity-to-nature rule of education", Rousseau emphasized that people should guide their education of a kid to be a natural man according to the kid's age characteristics. "Rousseau was one of the first to advocate developmentally appropriate education; and his description of the stages of child development mirrors his conception of the evolution of culture". He divided childhood into four stages: the first stage is infancy, when children should be given physically training; the second is to the age of about 12, when children are guided by their emotions and impulses, and should be given sense education; the third stage, from 12 to about 16, reason starts to develop, when children should be educated from intellectual and labor aspects; and finally the fourth stage, from the age of 16 onwards, when the child develops into an adult, and should be given moral education.
Ⅳ Inspirations from natural education thought
On the one hand, in China, there are a multitude of things to be done about today’s education reform such as physical improvements for education, changes about educational systems and some innovations for educational ideologies and theories, the essences of which are not deep explored and studied although some of educational problems seem to be resolved. For example, the scientific conceptions of children has not yet been the important contents of the updates of educational conceptions, because the issue of the conceptions of children seems to have been tackled, but we have not further done something enough to study its basic theories, because people frequently did something which is the violation of law of development of children in society, in school and at home, and because especially in the environment of "examination-oriented education", children's one-sided development and some other reasons made them lose the opportunity of schooling. So it is time to have a correct view of our kid and respect him who first is a "person" who has his own consciousness and emotions, and who although is not an adult, nor is adults' pets and playthings. And as parents, we should to some extent respect our children and allow our children to do what they like. Rousseau's ideas of the children's nature which includes children's initiative, freedom, reason and some other good factors, of appealing to people to protect the children's pure nature, and of letting children get the full development of their personality have an important referential significance both at the time when Rousseau lived and today.
On the other hand as a saying goes "Kids are kids", we should treat children correctly who have their own special thinking and feelings which we sometimes have no knowledge of, and fail to figure out. So, we should not inflict on our children something that we think a truth, and that they may think to be an absurdity and falseness. Therefore in many cases, if a positive education of children doesn't work, we may educate them according to a kind of educational method called "logical consequence" which is one of Rousseau's education ideas, but lots of parents usually prefer to take severe penalty which we do not favor. So it is unnecessary to instill in children the moral sense, law and norms and they are willing to change their conducts and thinking only after they get lessons from what they did. And to some extent the disciplinary method of "logical consequence" is more effective than inculcating the kid with patience. Today there are lots of children who are kept and spoiled at home for long, who live in so limited settings that they can not convert multitudes of book knowledge into their own comprehension and thoughts, and who often fail to interpret what is instilled in. So it is urgently necessary to expose children to the nature to acquire their missing knowledge which can not be found in the books and their routine lives. For example, we can take the children who live in the city, and who don't know how to practice thrift to the poverty-stricken areas for the summer practice to experience the poor children lives there, which can help the children who live in the city to develop correct attitudes and viewpoints of life and values, to know labor values and then love labors, and at the same time to learn their parents' hardship of making money and finally love their parents more. I think it is of great significance for children to participate in such social activities, and we should let them go "back to nature" to get more gains. Hence, Rousseau's "Natural Education Thoughts" provided inspirations for today's education.
Ⅴ Influence and limitation
In response to children nature instinct, Rousseau’s natural education thought paved the way for the development of the theory of children’s development, which not only had critical effects on then education, and facilitated the birth of the new era of education, but also went down to posterity. Rousseau's detractors have blamed him for everything they do not like in what they call modern "child-centered" education. John Darling's 1994 book Child-Centered Education and its Critics argues that the history of modern educational theory is a series of footnotes to Rousseau, a development he regards as bad. Good or bad, the theories of educators such as Rousseau's near contemporaries Pestalozzi, Mme de Genliss, and later,Maria Montessori, and Dewey, which have directly influenced modern educational practices do have significant points in common with those of Rousseau
However, it should be noted that Rousseau's natural education thought inevitably had some factors of subjective assumption, or had too extreme viewpoints of education due to lack of basis of educational practices and scientific theories. For example, Rousseau idealized his view of children's nature and over-exaggerated the role of children's nature in education. And much more he fully negated the role of classroom teaching and learning of system knowledge in education of children. So we should historically and objectively evaluate Rousseau’s Natural Education Thoughts.
References:
[1]Melzer, Arthur. The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1990.
[2] Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. Or. On Education. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1979.
[3]陈伙平.“自然后果法”探微.学前教育研究,1997,(4):8-9.
[4]滕大春,戴本博.外国教育通史,山东教育出版社,1989,12.
[5]Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. Or. On Education. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1979.
[6]Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. Or. On Education. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York:Basic Books,1979.