Rousseau's Emile ou l'education

Rousseau was a famous philosopher from the 1700's, and his thought on the matter helped to lay the frames for our current ideas on what an education should be. Before we make a judgement on his thought and theory, we definitely have to consider the time period he was writing in. Education at the time was reserved for the wealthy, and the upper classes who could afford private tutors. There were schools, and colleges but reading and writing was most likely done in the home. In Rousseau's writing "Emile ou l'education," he starts at the very beginning and brings us into the youngest years of the child, and reinvigorates the understanding that the parents truly are the child's first teacher. He highlights the ideas in a quote which I've chosen as a heading for one of my blogs.

We are born weak, we need strength; we are born lacking everything, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. All that we lack at birth and that we need when we are grown is given by education.

This quote has caught my attention because Rousseau defines the root of the word "education," and its original meaning from Latin, which is more closely defined as "nurture." This idea to me links teaching and parenting closely. Even as a secondary teacher, I must constantly plant my methods to accommodate the growing child. The early years of a growing mind, and even the teen years are so pivotal in the development of a person. Habits are learned, and unlearned, and how students develop will have a great impact on the rest of lives. This philosopher also states in this passage that we need "judgment,"an ideal that signifies to me the stern, and stringent methods a teacher needs to have in order to instill good habits in our youth. The world is not a perfect place, and students need to be judged for their behavior, and parents need to be there to enforce rules when students break them. Remember, we are preparing young people for the world, not a place that is always forgiving like an idea parent. They need to be toughened up, and prepared to face the world. Rousseau has a great analogy that accentuates the importance of creating good habits in our youth. He compares the growing mind to that of the growing of a tree (amazing how our neurons look just like the branches of a tree).

Nature, we are told, is merely habit. What does this signify? Are there not habits formed under compulsion, habits which never stifle nature? Such, for example, is the habit of plants that have had their vertical direction altered. Once given liberty, the plant keeps the shape it was forced into. And yet for all that, the sap has not changed its original direction, and any new growth the plant makes will be vertical. It is the same with the inclinations of man.

This is a great analogy that I think holds significant validity for those of us who have chosen the teaching profession. As a teacher in our modern era, we have to remember that we are not just teaching our content, but good habits. Habits that will stay with a student for the rest of their life. And once we miss those opportunities to shape a mind into a well conditioned educated citizen, transforming those non vertical "branches" will take force, and painful altering. Those who were not shaped in time may have taken the wrong directions, and there is no turning back once that happens. Our prisons, and correctional facilities are a testament to those branches that have grown in the wrong direction, and it is our responsibility as teacher to make sure "vertical" growth is the predominate direction for growth. Rousseau definitely has some great points that are applicable today. I will continue this summary later.228