Rousseau as a Naturalist

About Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. He hated society for the evils & wanted to reform it. He realised,Every thing is good as it comes from the hands of the author of nature but it every where degenerates in the hands of the nature. He gave the slogan, "Return to nature. Because of his (Emile) unfavorable reactions were caused in France & Switzerland he had to go to England in 1766 after which he returned to France after 11 years and wrote his last book Confessions His thoughts influenced French revolution .He was acclaimed as a great revolutionary reformer. He died in 1778.

His Works

Social Contract New Heloise. Emile The progress of Arts & Science

His Philosophy
Rousseaus naturalist philosophy shows the following three forms: Social naturalism Psychological naturalism. Physical naturalism SOCIAL NATURALISM: In his social naturalism he devices education as a method to develop the society. Rousseaus social naturalism is found in his book, "The Social Contract His aim is man making and not making of social man and citizen. In man making man/child should follow his inner feelings & natural tendencies. Rousseau pleaded for liberty & equality. Acc to him education means, "Natural development of organs and powers of the child.

Development acc to Rousseau

Acc to Rousseau mans development may be classified into the following four stages: Infancy: From birth to five years of age.
Childhood: From five years too twelve years of age. Adolescence: From twelve years of age to fifteen years of age. Youth: From fifteen years of age to twenty years of age. Rousseau has suggested suitable education in all these stages in his book Emile.

Aims Of Education
INFANCY CHILDHOOD ADOLSCENCE YOUTH

Five yrs of bodily development. Has to remain active.

Developing sense organs through activity & experience.

Aim at developing the adolescent personality. Shd. be given knowledge of all kinds to satisfy his needs.

Aim of edn is to achieve bodily,sensory ,mental,social & moral development of the individual

Develop his own natural instincts by freedom

Child should be made to observe things in envt.

Curriculum of Education

It is imperative to understand the child psychology. Instead of giving controlled information ,more attention should be laid to development of his body soul. Child to be taught in mother tongue. No habit to be taught.

The child shd be taught through experinces&activity. Based on negative edn. Should not be given any verbal lessons . Acc. To him child will learn morality by the natural consequences.

Having acquired bodily &sensory development the child can now be exposed to formal schooling. His curriculum shd. Contain natural sci,lang,maths,wood work,music,painting,soci al life. Use of sense organs rather than training

Stress on moral & religious education based on actual experiences. Religious education is to be assisted by the teaching of history, mythological stories& religious stories. They may derive lessons from them. Importance to education in bodily health,music.

INFANCY

CHILDHOOD

ADOLESCENCE

YOUTH

Educational Methods
Acc to Rousseau, "To be alive does not mean to breathe , but it means to work and to develop our sense organs, senses and other powers. That man is not happy who has long life but happy is one who has gained experience of life. Method at vogue at the time of Rousseau was mainly oral and theoretical . Acc to Rousseau, "I want that some wise man should tell us the art of counseling the child. This art will be valuable for us. The teachers have not learnt even its elementary rule. He wanted to adopt play way method in education in case of verbal teaching. He maintained, "Education should be practical rather than oral. The child will not have to read through books ,he will have to stop reading words. THUS real education is elf education .The infant himself learns to develop by the utilization of his sense organs and reacting to the environment.

Principles of Education
LEARNING THROUGH SELF EXPERIENCE
Opposed learning by books. Since books learn to talk about a thing but does not know to Know(KNOWLEDGE). By learning through experience knowledge is permanent.

LEARNING BY DOING
Child should learn through his observation, experience and analysis. In order to develop the Childs mind his curiosity is to be developed. These elements were later manifested in the evolution of the heuristic method. In education is to object is more important than the world. It is undesirable to fashion a method of education and to mould the child accordingly.

Naturalism and Discipline

He wanted complete freedom as the first step towards inducing discipline in the child. Rousseaus plan did not include any arrangement for punishments since he felt that punishments should be he natural outcome of their mistakes. This is the natural pattern of punishment and it is this which will discipline the child. Thus the child will learn to discipline, if he is left to himself.

School Organization
Rousseau contended that the child is born innocent and pure, that he is only defiled and distorted by the defective environment of the school. The only suitable environment of every kind is defective and impure. It is better to separate the child from the society and parent and away from school and leave him in a natural environment. The educators only task is to look after the child, because un the natural environment the child will himself look after the development of his natural abilities. Even if the schools are created ,they can be utilized by stressing the natural surroundings instead of insisting on creating a social atmosphere.

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