Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Views On Education And Teaching

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) made it clear that the traditional model of education is faulty and that this is known; education methods have become destructive. He explains that although his view of the method of education is negative, it is impossible for everyone in the world to follow the same method. Rousseau believed the earliest education was most essential and considered women the most capable for the task.

Rousseau mentions three masters of teaching where if their teachings are in agreement, the learner will be well-educated and at peace; these three masters include nature, men and things.

Nature’s education lies in the natural developments of our bodies; the growth, strengthening and changes that occur in the normal human being. The education of men lie in our abilities to use these natural developments in helpful ways that enable us to carry out certain tasks and by mastering these tasks, which then ultimately simplifies our lives, the education of things occur. The education of nature is the only education we cannot govern; the manageable masters must therefore align with nature in order for us to achieve our goals.

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As of birth, every surrounding affects our development and helps determine our purpose and the means for certain things. Rousseau believes that the biggest threat to education is indeed society; society forces man to become the person that it believes he should be; one that fits its description of what a civilized man is and how he can benefit the community, rather than the person he was destined by nature to become.

So instead of educating people by inspiring them to pursue the fate nature has evoked on them, they are manipulated into believing that all they will ever be good for is being just another pawn in society’s never ending chess game.

Rousseau blames certain mothers for man’s demise. He believes that mothers who infantilize their children all their lives in an attempt to protect them from this cruel world do in fact weaken them even more. One should let nature take its course for ‘those of us who can best endure the good and evil of life are the best educated’. Students should be regarded as abstract entities already facing every curve ball that human life throws at us.

One contribution that Rousseau makes to the modern methods of education is the realization of how educational institutions such as universities do in fact create a mental tug-of-war battle within their students; they are constantly battling to decide whether they should follow nature’s call or play it safe and do what is expected of them.

This struggle is so compelling that the student ultimately achieves neither goal. Rousseau acknowledges that our educators are capable of directing us on the right path, but even they are suppressed to merely following protocol.

Civilization has driven us to a nomadic point of madness where our inner obsession for freedom actually terrifies us to the point where we do not talk about it because it is deemed inappropriate. Living is about much more than just being alive; too bad society doesn’t realize it.