Rousseau’s View of Education
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) in the Enlightenment Age wrote an educational novel entitled Émile, in which he said, “God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil.” 2 Thus, he insisted on educating children in a natural way. He asserted that since man possesses an inherent “natural goodness,” his “nature” should be developed as it exists originally.
Education, as advocated by Rousseau, should aim to develop people naturally through eliminating the factors that obstruct the development of their natural gifts, such as indoctrination by the established system of culture and by moral and religious teachings. Yet, in reality, “natural man” in the state of nature would not be well-suited to the existing fallen society. Concerning this point, he said that in the ideal republican society, the individual as a “natural man” and the individual as a citizen of society would get along well. Thus, he also advocated the necessity for educating people so that they can become full-fledged members of society.
The image of the ideal person in Rousseau’s theory of education was that of a “natural man,” and the purpose of education, in his view, was to nurture this “natural man” and realize an ideal republican society, in which this “natural man” would become a citizen. Rousseau’s theory of education was inherited by Kant, Pestalozzi, Herbart, Dewey, and others.