Listening To The Past “A New Way to Educate Children”

Listening To The Past: “A New Way to Educate Children” Rousseau lobbies against an educational system that tries to teach children concepts and facts before such time, as they would make use of them. He believes that a child should not neglect those studies, which meet his present needs, in order to learn that which he may acquire in later years. He claims that experience and emotion are our real teachers, thereby reinforcing the theory …

…and develop in conformity with Nature. The child must be raised in a rural rather than an urban environment, so that he may develop in continuity with nature rather than in opposition to it. A child’s character will mature in harmony with nature if that child’s natural curiosity is allowed to develop unhindered by the corruption of society. All of Rousseau’s educational theories had roots in the enlightenment of the 18th century.