Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Kreg Wingham

April 3rd 2014

Child Psychology

Kreg Wingham
Born the twenty eighth of July 1712 during the romantic period,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was heavily involved in many different fields. From
writing, politics, psychology, sociology, and education, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau was a recognized feature in all of these areas. His ideas on
human nature and how humans go about their life are one of the themes
that Rousseau used in all areas that he expounded upon. While JeanJacques Rousseau affected his day and age, so to did his day and age affect
him. The Romantic period had a large influence on Rousseau, and its tenet
of centering on the self, helped Rousseau create his theories on education.
The ideas about education that he set forth in Emile promoted a mode of
teaching and learning that systematized his own experience. These ideas
would have a powerful effect on educational theory for the next century or
more. When first enunciated, though, they were seen as heretical. (Lawall,
S. N. 255) These theories and patterns of education still exist and help
educators by giving them tools to better convey education in an efficient
and enjoyable manner.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a complex and to some extents tortured
individual. He had many failures and false starts throughout his childhood
that eventually spilled into his adult life. His forays into teaching and child
raising were also highly unusual. At best his teaching ability could be
called mundane or average.
One of his largest regrets in his life, and to some, the largest source

of his drive to create and disseminate his theories on child education would
be his dealings with his own children. Due to his relationship with his
mistress which he claims she bore him five children, all consigned to an
orphanage, (Lawall, S. N. 496) this guilt was one of the sources for his
promoting of his theories on education.
Kreg Wingham
At the heart of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of education is that
of Child-centered
education. Rousseau believed that every child had interests and values
pre-built into them, and if we could merely help to bring those out into the
open then the child could achieve greater heights than what would
otherwise be possible with traditional education techniques of his day and
age. The idea that an educator could directly help a student to achieve
success in the most
enjoyable way possible is an attractive one. Rousseau's theories would
have us believe that if a student is given the materials and access to
instructors that could work with the child one on one, then this childcentered learning would work and create a system in which an educator
could bring out the best possible results.
That is not to say that we should take all of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's ideas and plans on education to heart, far from it. Isolate a child
in order to raise him or her? Withhold books
from a child? Punish the child in the way that Rousseau suggests? Plan public humiliation to

as a lesson to discourage the childs vanity? Plan deep frustration to teach the child the idea of
property? Sacrifice a whole life of an unmarried adult to educate one single child? Arrange a
whole environment so as to prevent any direct educational interferences? Choose a future
spouse and educate her in a separate way and arrange a marriage? (Trhler, D.) If JeanJacques Rousseau had such foreign ideas on teaching and child rearing, why should those
concerned with education study Rousseau? He had an unusual childhood with no formal
education. He was a poor teacher. Apparently unable to bring up his own children, he
committed them to orphanages soon after birth. At times he found living among people
difficult, preferring the solitary life. What can such a man offer educators? The answer is that
his work offers great insight. (Michele Erina Doyle and Mark K. Smith) It seems then that it
Kreg Wingham
was not Jean-Jacques Rousseau's full message that educators should pay attention to. But
what educators and others need to do is to scrape away all of the chaff and get down to the
basics of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's message. This message being that the idea of studentcentered learning, or adapting the environment to suit the child or children at hand, is a
worthwhile and useful tool. A tool that, if used properly, educators can use to better prepare
children for the future both in and outside of the classroom.
The idea of child-centered education has been used and modified by a variety of
different theorists and educators. One of the most well known of these would be John Dewey
who used the idea that students should be a part of the learning process, instead of having the
information simply fed to them. However, while John Dewey did indeed want the child to be a
part of the educational process, he also was highly concerned with Rousseau's over reliance on
the child part of child-centered education. More to the point, he was concerned with the

question of if the entire responsibility of education rested on the child, then nothing would get
done and the child would be educated in nothing.
Dewey differed from Rousseau in that he thought education should be a partnership
between the students and the educator. This progressivism as it is known has three central
assumptions. The content of the curriculum ought to be derived from students' interests rather
than from the academic disciplines. Effective teaching takes into account the whole child and
his or her interests and needs in relation to cognitive, affective and psychomotor areas.
Learning is essentially active rather than passive. (Parkay, F. W. 128) While the students
could and should state their interests in areas or over topics in Dewey's system. In this system
it is up to the educators to tie these interests and topics into gainful lessons and education.
Kreg Wingham
This shows that while John Dewey may differ from Rousseau in the letter of the details, overall
he is quite similar in the spirit of child-centered learning.
There has also been similar ideas that differ from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory, such
as John Locke's Tabula Rasa which differs greatly from Rousseau's theories that eventually
sprouted into the current child-centered theory of child raising. These two points of view
illustrate the active-passive child issue: are children simply at the mercy of the environment
(passive child), or do children actively influence their own development through their own
unique individual characteristics (active child)? The passive view corresponds to Lockes
description of the child as a blank slate on which experience writes; the active view
corresponds to Rousseau's view of the development as a natural unfolding that takes place
within the child. (Kail, R. V. pg.17)
Locke's passive view point on child education can and does take place, especially

with standardized testing that is being pushed into the school systems. That is not to say two
theories similar to and based off of Rousseau's Child-centered learning do not take place.
Depending on the teacher, the school environment, and a number of differing stipulations
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey and John Locke's differing theories can come together
into a cohesive whole to give educators a better tool box to help them work with students in an
efficient and effective manor.
While Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a man with many different regrets and issues that
built up in his life, he is still a source of inspiration for many in different fields. However,
while educators may ignore parts of his original message, or combine those parts with wildly
different theories and practices, the central tenant Rousseau's idea of a child-centered education
and upbringing is as alive today as when Rousseau first put a pen to paper.

Trhler, D. (2012). Introduction: Do We Have Good Reasons to Commemorate Rousseau in

2012?. Studies In Philosophy & Education, 31(5), 431-434. doi:10.1007/s11217-012-9315-6

Michele Erina Doyle and Mark K. Smith (2007) Jean-Jacques Rousseau on education, the
encyclopaedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm. Last update:
January 07, 2013

Kail, R. V. (2012). Children and their development. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson
Education

Parkay, F. W. (2013). Becoming a teacher. Boston: Pearson.

Lawall, S. N. (2005). The Norton anthology of Western literature. New York: W.W. Norton.