Literature.

CHAPTER XXXVI

MODERN EDUCATORS

- Davidson, Rousseau; Graham, Rousseau; Morley, Life of Rousseau; Rousseau, Émile; Munroe, Educational Ideal; Vogel, Geschichte der Pädagogik; Quick, Educational Reformers; Weir, The Key to Rousseau's Émile (article in Educational Review, Vol. XVI, p. 61); Compayré, History of Pedagogy.

ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father was a watchmaker, and upon him. devolved the education of the boy, as the mother died in childbirth. Rousseau's father was a man of dissipated habits, careless of responsibility, and of very violent temper. He interested himself in his son far enough to teach him to read, and supplied him with the worthless novels which he himself was fond of reading. This unwise course doubtless had much to do in shaping the character of the boy. Probably it was the evil effects of this early literature that led Rousseau later in life to oppose teaching young children to read. Quick says, “Rousseau professed a hatred of books, which he said kept the student so long engaged upon the thoughts of other people as to have no time to make a store of his own."

Abandoned by his father at the age of ten, he was taken into the family of his uncle, who apprenticed him, first to a notary, and afterward to an engraver. At the age of

sixteen he ran away, and began a life of vagabondage. While yet a young man, he became involved in intrigues, which, according to his own account in his "Confessions," were no credit to him. Madame de Warens, a young widow with whom he lived for some years, sent him to school at St. Lazare, where he studied the classics and music; but he soon lapsed again into vagabondage. He picked up a little music, and attempted to give lessons in it, but with small success. He also took a position as private tutor, but he had no talent for teaching. Later in life he married Thérèse le Vasseur, a woman from the common ranks of life. She bore him five children, all of whom he committed to foundling hospitals without means of identification. He did this because he was not willing that his own comfort or plans should be disturbed by the presence of children. Rousseau had reason to regret this heartless and unnatural course when, in later years, he sought in vain to find some trace of his children. Compayré says, "If he loved to observe children, he observed, alas, only the children of others. There is nothing sadder than that page of the 'Confessions in which he relates how he often placed himself at the window to observe the dismission of a school, in order to listen to the conversations of children as a furtive and unseen observer!" 1

In 1749 Rousseau successfully competed for a prize offered by the Academy of Dijon on the subject, "Has the restoration of the sciences contributed to purify or to corrupt manners?" Rousseau entered this contest quite accidentally. He saw the notice of the contest in a newspaper, and decided at once to compete. Of this event he says, "If ever anything resembled a sudden inspiration, it was the movement which began in me as I read this.

1 "History of Pedagogy," p. 286.

All at once I felt myself dazzled by a thousand sparkling lights; crowds of vivid ideas thronged into my mind with a force and confusion which threw me into unspeakable agitation; I felt my head whirling in a giddiness like that of intoxication. A violent palpitation oppressed me; unable to walk for difficulty of breathing, I sank under one of the trees of the avenue, and passed half an hour there in such a condition of excitement that when I rose I saw that the front of my waistcoat was all wet with tears, though I was wholly unconscious of shedding them. Ah, if I could have written the quarter of what I saw and felt under that tree, with what clearness should I have brought out all the contradictions of our social system; with what simplicity should I have demonstrated that man is good naturally, and that by institution only is he made bad.”

This essay made him famous, and its publication was the beginning of a remarkable literary career. His principal literary works are his "Confessions," in which he declares that he conceals nothing concerning himself; the "Social Contract," an anti-monarchic work, which many believe incited the French Revolution; "Héloïse," a novel overstrained in sentiment and immoral in its teachings, but "full of pathos and knowledge of the human heart"; and

Emile," his greatest work, which contains his educational theories. The "Emile"1 was an epoch-making book, which excited great interest throughout Europe. It is said that the philosopher Emanuel Kant became so absorbed in reading it that he forgot to take his daily walk.

Pedagogy. (a) Rousseau's first principle is, "Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Author of nature; everything degenerates in the hands of man." It follows, then, that education has only to prevent the

166 Schoolmaster in Literature," pp. 40-63.

entrance of evil, and let nature continue the work begun. It is to be a negative, as well as a natural, process. The fallacy of this principle is very forcibly shown by Vogel1 as follows: "The very first sentence of 'Émile,' that man by nature is good, is a fundamental error; for by nature, that is, from birth, man is neither good nor bad, but morally indifferent. Only when the individual possesses mature self-consciousness does he have a correct idea of good and evil. If man by nature is good, it is inexplicable how evil can originate within him. External things may, indeed, furnish motives to evil, but are never in themselves evil; the evil arises rather from the conduct of the individual toward outside objects. If, then, evil does not come from without, and is not by nature already within the heart, it is impossible that there shall be such a thing as evil."

(b) The first education is physical and it begins at birth. As the physical wants of the child are natural they should be satisfied, but the clothing should be of such character as not to interfere with the perfect freedom of the body. Great care must be taken to distinguish between the real wants of the child and its passing whims. To gratify the latter because of the crying of the child will tend to form bad habits. In this connection may be taught the first moral lessons. It thus becomes important that the speech, gestures, and expressions of the young child shall be carefully studied. This is the first suggestion of the necessity for child study. The idea was later developed by Pestalozzi and Froebel, and is one of the most important features of recent pedagogical activity.

(c) The child's second period begins with his ability

1 "Geschichte der Pädagogik," p. 127. See also Compayré, "History of Pedagogy," p. 286.

No attempt

to speak and continues till the twelfth year. must be made to educate the child for his future, but he must be allowed to get the full enjoyment of childhood by freedom to play as he will. Let him run, jump, and test his strength, thereby acquiring judgment of the material forces about him, and learning how to take care of himself. Leave him free to do what he will, let him have what he wishes, but, as far as possible, he should be led to depend upon himself to satisfy his wants. Give him perfect freedom, for freedom is the fundamental law of education. If he disobeys, do not punish him,— disobedience works its own punishment; therefore, do not command him. The training of the senses is the important work of this period; therefore, there should be as little moral training as possible, and absolutely no religious training. The only moral idea for the child to learn is that of ownership. He is to be prevented from vice in a negative manner, that is, by never being allowed to meet it. "The only habit that a child should be allowed to form is to contract no habit."

He is to have a preceptor devoted entirely to him, not to instruct or control him, but to lead him to discover and experience for himself. In regard to his intellectual instruction, Rousseau says of Émile at twelve years of age, "that he has not learned to distinguish his right hand from his left." Books are entirely proscribed, and, indeed, they are useless to him as he cannot read; the only intellectual knowledge the child receives is that which comes from things through his own experience.

This is a brief outline of the erratic, impossible, and inconsistent training that Rousseau provides for Émile during this period when the foundation of character in the child must be laid. Gréard says, Gréard says, "Rousseau goes beyond