as possible. But the educational influence of the Emile has been so far-reaching that we must turn to another chapter to study the positions of Rousseau and the effects of naturalism in education. SUPPLEMENTARY READING Graves, During the Transition (Macmillan, 1910), pp. 311-313; History of Education in Modern Times (Macmillan, 1913), pp. 1– 10; and Great Educators (Macmillan, 1912), pp. 77-85; Monroe, Text-book (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 533-542. See also Boyd, W., The Educational Theory of Rousseau (Longmans, Green, 1911); Morley, J., Voltaire and Rousseau (Macmillan). CHAPTER XIX NATURALISM IN EDUCATION Ine £mile OUTLINE Rousseau attempts in the Emile to outline a natural education from birth to manhood. The first book takes Emile from birth to five years of age, and deals with the training of physical activities; the second, from five to twelve, treats of body and sense training; the third, from twelve to fifteen, is concerned with intellectual education in the natural sciences; the fourth, from fifteen to twenty, outlines his social and moral development; and the fifth describes the parasitic training of the girl he is to marry. The Emile is often inconsistent, but brilliant and suggestive; and, while anti-social, the times demanded such a radical presentation. Through it Rousseau became the progenitor of the social, scientific, and psychological movements in education. The first attempt to put the naturalism of Rousseau into actual practice was made by Basedow. He suggested that education should be practical in content and playful in method, and he produced texts on his system, and started a school known as the 'Philanthropinum.' He planned a broad course, and taught languages through conversation, games, and drawing, and other subjects by natural methods. The Philanthropinum was at first successful, and this type of school grew rapidly, but it soon became a fad. The Influence of Rousseau's Naturalism.-The inforced educa- fluence of Rousseau's Emile upon education in all its tional thinking. aspects has been tremendous. It is shown by the library of books since written to contradict, correct, or disseminate his doctrines. During the quarter of a century fol lowing the publication of the Emile, probably more than twice as many books upon education were published as in the preceding three-quarters of a century. This epochmaking work forced a rich harvest of educational thinking for a century after its appearance, and has affected our ideas upon education from that day to this. for the conven vogue. Naturalistic Basis of the Emile.-In the Emile Rousseau aims to replace the conventional and formal education of the day with a training that should be natural and spontaneous. Under the existing régime it was customary for boys and girls to be dressed like men and women of fashion (Fig. 25), and for education to be largely one of deportment and the dancing master. On the intellectual side, education was largely traditional and consisted chiefly of a training in Latin grammar, words, The substituand memoriter work. Rousseau scathingly criticises these ural education practices, and applies his naturalistic principles to an tional type in imaginary pupil named Emile "from the moment of his birth up to the time when, having become a mature man, he will no longer need any other guide than himself." He begins the work with a restatement of his basal principle that "everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Author of Nature; but everything degenerates in the hands of man." After elaborating this, he shows that we are educated by "three kinds of teachers— nature, man, and things, and since the coöperation of the three educations is necessary for their perfection, it is to the one over which we have no control (i. e., nature) that we must direct the other two." Education must, therefore, conform to nature. The Five Books of the Emile.-Now the natural objects, through which Emile is to be educated, remain the Emile's impulses ex trained at dif same, but Emile himself changes from time to time. In amined and so far, therefore, as he is to be the guide of how he is to ferent periods: be educated in a natural environment, his impulses must be examined at different times in his life. Hence the work is divided into five parts, four of which deal with Emile's education in the stages of infancy, childhood, boyhood, and youth respectively, and the fifth with the training of the girl who is to become his wife. The characteristics of the different periods in the life of Emile are marked by the different kinds of things he desires. In infancy, physical activities. In the first book, which takes him from birth to five years of age, his main desire is for physical activities, and he should, therefore, be placed under simple, free, and healthful conditions, which will enable him to make the most of these. He must be removed to the country, where he will be close to nature, and farthest from the contaminating influence of civilization. His growth and training must be as spontaneous as possible. He must have nothing to do with either medicine or doctors, "unless his life is in evident danger; for then they can do nothing worse than kill him." His natural movements must not be restrained by caps, bands, or swaddling clothes, and he should be nursed by his own mother. He should likewise be used to baths of all sorts of temperature. In fact, the child should not be forced into any fixed ways whatsoever, since with Rousseau, habit is necessarily something contrary to impulse and so unnatural. "The only habit," says he, "which the child should be allowed to form is to contract no habit whatsoever." His playthings should be such simple products of nature as "branches with their fruits and flowers, or a poppy-head in which the seeds are heard to rattle." Language that is simple, plain, and hence natural, should be used with him, and he should not be hurried beyond nature in learning to talk. He should be restricted to a few words that express real thoughts for him. The education of Emile during infancy is thus to be negative' and purely physical. The aim is simply to keep his instincts and impulses, which Rousseau holds to be good by nature, free from vice, and to afford him the natural activity he craves. Next, in the period of childhood, between the years of five and twelve, which is treated in the second book, Emile desires most to exercise his legs and arms, and to touch, to see, and in other ways to sense things. This, therefore, is the time for training his limbs and senses. "As all that enters there through the the human understanding comes In childhood, development,. limb and sense |