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 Emile forced educational thinking. The Influence of Rousseau’s Naturalism.—The influence of Rousseau’s Emile upon education in all its 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 following 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 The substitution of a natural education for the conventional type in vogue. consisted chiefly of a training in Latin grammar, words, and memoriter work. Rousseau scathingly criticises these practices, and applies his naturalistic principles to an 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 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 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 In childhood, limb and sense development, 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 the human understanding comes there through the senses, the first reason of man is a sensuous reason. Our first teachers of philosophy are our feet, our hands, and our eyes.... In order to learn to think, we must then exercise our limbs, our senses, and our organs, which are the instruments of our intelligence.” To obtain this training, Emile is to wear short, loose, and scanty clothing, go bareheaded, and have the body inured to cold and heat, and be generally subjected to a ‘hardening process’ similar to that recommended by Locke (see p. 181). He is to learn to swim, and practice long and high jumps, leaping walls, and scaling rocks. But, what is more important, his eyes and ears are also to be exercised through natural problems in weighing, measuring, and estimating masses, heights, and distances. Drawing and constructive geometry are to be taught him, to render him more capable of observing This body and sense training should be the nearest approach to an intellectual training at this period. Rousseau condemns the usual unnatural practice of requiring pupils to learn so much before they have reached the proper years. In keeping with his ‘negative’ education, he asks rhetorically: “Shall I venture to state at this point the most important, the most useful, rule of all education? It is not to gain time, but to lose no geography, history, or reading, it.” During his childhood Emile is not to study geography, history, or languages, upon which pedagogues ordinarily depend to exhibit the attainments of their pupils, although these understand nothing of what they have memorized. “At the age of twelve, Emile will hardly know what a book is. But I shall be told it is very necessary that he know how to read. This I grant. It is necessary that he know how to read when reading is useful to him. Until then, it serves only to annoy him.” Incidentally, however, in order to make Emile tolerable in society, for he cannot entirely escape it, he must though moral training through ‘natural consequences.’ be given the idea of property and some ideas about conduct. But this is simply because of practical necessity, and no moral education is to be given as such, for, “until he reaches the age of reason, he can form no idea of moral beings or social relations.” He is to learn through ‘natural consequences’ until he arrives at the age for understanding moral precepts. If he breaks the furniture or the windows, let him suffer the consequences that arise from his act. Do not preach to him or punish him for lying, but afterward affect not to believe him even when However, between twelve and fifteen, after the demands of the boy’s physical activities and of his senses have somewhat abated, there comes “an interval when his faculties and powers are greater than his desires,” when he displays an insistent curiosity concerning natural phenomena and a constant appetite for rational knowledge. This period, which is dealt with in his third book, Rousseau declares to be intended by nature itself as the time for instruction. But as not much can be learned within three years, the boy is to study only those subjects which are useful and not incomprehensible and misleading, and so is limited to the natural sciences. Later in this third book, in order that Emile may informally learn the interdependence of men and may himself become economically independent, Rousseau adds industrial experience and the acquisition of cabinet-making to his training. The most effective method of instruction, Rousseau holds, comes through appealing to the curiosity and interest in investigation, which are so prominent in the boy at this time. He contrasts the current methods of teaching astronomy and geography by means of globes, maps, and other misleading representations, with the more natural plan of stimulating inquiry through observing the sun when rising and setting during the different seasons, and through problems concerning the topography of the neighborhood. Emile The fourth book takes Emile from the age of fifteen In youth, sex interests, as basis of moral and social training. to twenty. At this period the sex interests appear and should be properly guided and trained, especially as they are the basis of social and moral relationships. Emile’s first passion calls him into relations with his species, and he must now learn to live with others. “We have formed his body, his senses, and his intelligence; it remains to give him a heart.” He is to become moral, affectionate, and religious. Here again Rousseau insists that the training is not to be accomplished by the formal method of precepts, but in a natural way by bringing the youth into contact with his fellowmen and appealing to his emotions. Emile is to visit infirmaries, hospitals, and prisons, and witness concrete examples of wretchedness in all stages, although not so frequently as to become hardened. That this training may not render him cynical The passive and parasitic education of woman. Emile at length becomes a man, and a life companion must be found for him. A search should be made for a suitable lady, but “in order to find her, we must know her.” Accordingly, the last book of the Emile deals with the model Sophie and the education of woman. It is the weakest part of Rousseau’s work. He entirely misinterprets the nature of women, and does not allow them any individuality of their own, but considers them as simply supplementary to the nature of men. Like men, women should be given adequate bodily training, but rather for the sake of physical charms and of producing vigorous offspring than for their own development. Their instinctive love of pleasing through dress should be made of service by teaching them sewing, embroidery, lacework, and designing. They ought to be obedient and industrious, and they ought early to be brought under restraint. Girls should also be taught singing, dancing, and other accomplishments. They should be instructed dogmatically in religion, and in ethical matters they should be largely guided by public opinion. A woman may not learn philosophy, art, or science, but she should study men. “She must learn to penetrate their feelings through their conversation, their actions, Estimate of the Emile.—Such was Rousseau’s notion of the natural individualistic education for a man and the passive and repressive training suitable for a woman, and of the happiness and prosperity that were bound to ensue. To make a fair estimate of the Emile and its Defects outweighed by merits. influence is not easy. It is necessary to put aside all of one’s prejudices against the weak and offensive personality of the author, and to forget the inconsistencies and contradictions of the work itself. The Emile has always been accounted a work of great richness, power, and underlying wisdom, and each of its defects is more than balanced by a corresponding merit. Moreover, the most fundamental movements in modern educational progress—sociological, scientific, and psychological—may be said to have germinated through the Emile. The Sociological Movements in Modern Education.—The most marked feature of the Rousselian education and the one most subject to criticism has been its extreme Revolt from social control, revolt against civilization and all social control. A state of nature is held to be the ideal condition, and all social relations are regarded as degenerate. The child is to be brought up in isolation by the laws of brute necessity and to have no social education until he is fifteen, when an impossible set of expedients for bringing him into touch with his fellows is devised. One should remember, however, that the times and the cause had but extreme doctrine needed, need of just so extreme a doctrine. Such radical individualism alone could enable him to break the bondage to the past. By means of paradoxes and exaggerations Opposed to all books, but emphasized observational work. The Scientific Movement in Modern Education.—Moreover, since Rousseau repudiated all social traditions and accepted nature as his only guide, he was absolutely opposed to all book learning and exaggerated the value of observation. He consequently neglected the past, and would have robbed the pupil of all the experience of his fellows and of those who had gone before. But he emphasized the use of natural objects in the curriculum and developed the details of nature study and observational Though defective in knowledge of children, Rousseau saw the need of studying them. The Psychological Movements in Modern Education.—A matter of even greater importance is Rousseau’s belief that education should be in accordance with the natural interests of the child. Although his knowledge of children was defective, and his recommendations were marred by unnatural breaks and filled with sentimentality, he saw the need of studying the child as the only basis for education. In the Preface to the Emile he declares that “the wisest among us are engrossed in what the adult needs to know and fail to consider what children are able to apprehend. We are always looking for the man in the child, without thinking of what he is before he becomes a man. This is the study to which I have devoted myself, to the end that, even though my whole method may be chimerical and false, the reader may still profit by my observation.” As a result of such appeals, the child has become the center of discussion in modern training. Despite his limitations and prejudices, this unnatural and neglectful parent stated many details of child development with much force and clearness and gave an impetus to later reformers. In this connection should especially be considered Rousseau’s theory of stages of development. He makes The Spread of Rousseau’s Doctrines.—Thus seeds of many modern developments in educational organization, method, and content, were sown by Rousseau, and he is Intellectual progenitor of modern reformers, but influence upon schools not immediate. seen to be the intellectual progenitor of Pestalozzi, Herbart, Froebel, Spencer, and many other modern reformers. But his principles did not take immediate hold on the schools themselves, although their influence is manifest there as the nineteenth century advanced. In France they were apparent in the complaints and recommendations concerning schools in the lists of desired reforms (cahiers) that were issued by the various towns, and afterward clearly formed a basis for much of the legislation concerning the universal, free, and secular organization of educational institutions. In England, since there was no national system of schools, little direct impression was made upon educational practice. But in America this revolutionary thought would seem to have had much to do with causing the unrest that gradually resulted in upsetting the aristocratic and formal training of the young and in secularizing and universalizing the public school system. The first definite attempt, however, to put into actual practice the naturalistic education of Rousseau occurred in Germany through Development of Basedow’s Educational Reforms.—Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790) was by nature Naturally captivated by Rousseau’s doctrines. the very person to be captivated by Rousseau’s doctrines. He was talented, but erratic, unorthodox, tactless, and irregular in life. He had been prepared at the University of Leipzig for the Lutheran ministry, but proved too heretical, and, giving up this vocation, became a tutor in Holstein to a Herr von Quaalen’s children. With these aristocratic pupils he first developed methods of teaching through conversation and play connected with surrounding objects. A few years after this, in 1763, Basedow fell under the spell of Rousseau’s Emile, which was most congenial to his methods of thinking and teaching, and turned all his energy toward educational reform. As in the case of Rousseau with education in France, he realized that German education of the Education of the day needed naturalism. day was sadly in need of just such an antidote as ‘naturalism’ was calculated to furnish. The schoolrooms were dismal and the work was unpleasant, physical training was neglected, and the discipline was severe. Children were regarded as adults in miniature (Fig. 25), and were so treated both in their dress and their education. The current schooling consisted largely of instruction in artificial deportment. The study of classics composed the entire intellectual curriculum, and the methods were purely grammatical. As a result, suggestions made by Basedow for educational improvement attained as great popularity as his advanced theological propositions had received abuse. In 1768 by his Address on Schools and Studies, and their Influence on the Public Weal, he called generally upon princes, governments, ecclesiastics, and others in power, to assist him financially in certain definite educational reforms. In addition to suggesting that the schools be made nonsectarian and that public instruction be placed under a National Council of Education, he proposed that, in contrast to the formal and unattractive training of the day, education should be rendered practical in content Success of his Address and production of his text-books. and playful in method. To assist this reform, he planned to bring out a work on elementary education, which he described in outline. Great interest in his proposals was shown throughout Europe by sovereigns, nobles, prominent men, and others desiring a nonsectarian and more effective education, and a subsidy of some ten thousand dollars was speedily raised, to enable him to perfect his plans. Six years later, Basedow completed his promised text-book, Elementarwerk, and the companion work for teachers and parents known as Methodenbuch. The Elementarwerk was accompanied by a volume containing ninety-six plates, which illustrated the subject-matter of the text, but were too large to be bound in with it. While in these manuals Basedow included many naturalistic ideas from Rousseau, he also embodied features from other reformers and even additions of his own. Elementarwerk Text-books and Other Works.—The Elementarwerk clearly combines many of the principles of Comenius as well as of Rousseau. It has, in fact, been often called ‘the Orbis Pictus (see p. 170) of the eighteenth century,’ and Methodenbuch. and gives a knowledge of things and words in the form of a dialogue. The Methodenbuch, while not following Course and Methods of the Philanthropinum.—Eight years before this, however, Prince Leopold of Dessau had been induced to allow Basedow to found there a model school called the ‘Philanthropinum,’ which should embody that reformer’s ideas. Leopold granted him a Salary, equipment, generous salary, and three years later gave him an equipment of buildings, grounds, and endowment. At first Basedow had but three assistants, but later the number teachers, was considerably increased. The staff then included several very able men, such as Campe, formerly chaplain at Potsdam, and Salzmann, who had been a professor Universal education, but social distinctions. While universal education was believed in, and rich and poor alike were to be trained, the traditional idea still obtained that the natural education of the one class was for social activity and leadership, and of the other for teaching. Consequently, the wealthy boys were to spend six hours in school and two in manual labor, while those from families of small means labored six hours and Industrial training studied two. Every one, however, was taught handicrafts,—carpentry, turning, planing, and threshing, as suggested in the third book of the Emile, and there were also physical exercises and games for all. On the intellectual side, while Latin was not neglected, considerable attention was paid to the vernacular and French. In keeping with the Elementarwerk, Basedow planned a and wide objective course. wide objective and practical course very similar to that suggested by Comenius. It was to give some account of man, including bits of anthropology, anatomy, and physiology; of brute creation, especially the uses of domestic animals and their relation to industry; of trees and plants with their growth, culture, and products; of minerals and chemicals; of mathematical and physical instruments; and of trades, history, and commerce. He afterward admitted that he had overestimated the The most striking characteristic of the school, however, was its recognition of child interests and the consequently Languages taught by conversation and games. improved methods. Languages were taught by speaking and then by reading, and grammar was not brought in until late in the course. Facility in Latin was acquired through conversation, games, pictures, drawing, acting plays, and reading on practical and interesting subjects Progressive methods in other subjects. (Fig. 26). His instruction in arithmetic, geometry, geography, physics, nature study, and history was fully as progressive as that in languages, and, while continuing Rousseau’s suggestions, seems to anticipate much of the ‘object teaching’ of Pestalozzi. Arithmetic was taught by mental methods, geometry by drawing figures accurately and neatly, and geography by beginning with one’s home and extending out into the neighborhood, the town, the country, and the continent. Influence of the Philanthropinum.—The attendance at the Philanthropinum was very small in the beginning, since the institution was regarded as an experiment, but eventually the number of pupils rose to more than fifty. Great expectations. Most visitors were greatly pleased with the school, especially on account of the interested and alert appearance of the pupils. Kant declared that it meant “not a slow reform, but a quick revolution,” although afterward he admitted that he had been too optimistic. While it may not have served well for older pupils, it was certainly Stimulus for younger pupils. excellent in its stimulus to children under ten or twelve, who can be reached by appeals to physical activities and the senses better than by books. Basedow, however, proved temperamentally unfit to In 1793 the Philanthropinum at Dessau was closed permanently. Its teachers were scattered through Europe, and gave a great impulse to the new education. Becomes a fad, but accomplished some good. An unfortunate result of this popularity was that the Philanthropinum became a fad, and schools with this name were opened everywhere in Germany by educational (Reproduced from a French fashion plate of the eighteenth century.) (Reproduced from the Elementarwerk of Basedow.) SUPPLEMENTARY READINGGraves, In Modern Times (Macmillan, 1913), chap. II; and Great Educators (Macmillan, 1912), chaps. VII and VIII; Monroe, Text-book (Macmillan, 1905), chap. X; Parker, S. C., History of Modern Elementary Education (Ginn, 1912), chaps. VIII-X. The Emile (Translated by Payne; Appleton, 1895) should be read, and the Elementarwerk (Wiegandt, Leipzig, 1909) should be examined. A judicial description of the life and work of Rousseau is that by Morley, J. (Macmillan), while Davidson, T., furnishes an interesting interpretation of Rousseau and Education from Nature (Scribner, 1902), but the standard treatise on The Educational Theory of Rousseau (Longmans, Green, 1911) at present has been written by Boyd, W. A good brief account of Basedow: His Educational Work and Principles (Kellogg, New York, 1891) is afforded by Lang, O. H. See also Barnard, H., American Journal of Education, vol. V, pp. 487-520. |