JEAN-JACQUES
ROUSSEAU
Carlos Mota, 2010
http://www.utad.pt/en/departments/hss/educational_scien
ces/teaching_staff.html
BIOGRAPHY
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on
June 28, 1712 in Geneva and died in 1778.
Motherless at birth he had a difficult
childhood.
In 1746, at 28 years, Rousseau went first
to Lyon, as tutor, then to Paris, where he
met Diderot, Condillac and other thinkers
linked to Enlightenment.
He then lived a life with few resources.
He collaborated in the creation of the
'Encyclopedia';
He
was
secretary
of
the
French
ambassador in Venice.
He
became
known
with
the
books
“Discourse on Science and Arts”, and the
“Discourse on the Origin of Inequality”.
Rousseau's work
We must consider him a pedagogue,
philosopher and politician, whose ideas
had and still have huge influence.
After
having
Encyclopedists
broken
he
important works:
New Heloise,
Social Contract and
Émile.
wrote
with
the
his
most
His personal life contradicts his work. In
fact, he had five children of Thérèse
Levasseur who were sent to an
orphanage.
Years later, in his book Émile, he explains
how to teach a child.
He wrote constitutions for Corsica and for
Poland, The Letters of the Mountain and
the Confessions.
His work was hotly contested, especially
by the Church, and caused a great
revolution in educational ideas.
Rousseau inaugurated what might be
called the “Pedagogical Way" of looking at
childhood.
For him, the child is the center of
educational activity;
The child is naturally “good”;
It’s the society that corrupts mankind.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
his era:
Rousseau was a man of the Modern age,
but with typical ideas of the Contemporary
Age.
Many of his ideas match those of the
French Revolution.
In 1762, Rousseau wrote a book whith
the name “Social Contract”.
Main problem of that work:
What is Human Nature?
At the time Rousseau wrote that, it was
common to think that the child:
Has selfish tendencies;
She’s anarchic;
Has no moral conscience;
Must be educated or will be "wild" = "bad."
Rousseau argues that the child
is GOOD
Everything created by God is GOOD;
Man corrupts in the struggle to have
power, because for Rousseau,
The "wild" individuals found by European
navigators, were "good."
This is the theory of the "Noble Savage."
Social and Political Theory of ROUSSEAU:
The struggle for power and
goods causes all evils and
corruptions.
Fernando Piteira Santos, argued that:
Rousseau did not want
revolutionary manifesto;
to
write
a
And that he speak about the principles of
the Declaration of Human Rights and the
Citizen;
The “Social Contract” can be
seen as:
A Theory of Contemporary Democracy
covering:
Equality,
Freedom of citizens and
The sovereignty of the people.
Émile
 Novel published in 1762.
 Rousseau wants a social change made by
education, arguing that the child develops
affirming his being according to his own
personal experience, because the society
corrupts man.
Rousseau
education";
advocates
a
"natural
In Émile he recounts the ideal education of
a young man, accompanied by a teacher,
away from the corrupt society.
He argues that man must act according to
their natural interests and not by
imposition of external rules and artificial.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau argues that the
child
is
a
being
with
its
own
characteristics, unlike the common ideas
in his time who held that the child's
education
should
be
geared
interests of adults and adulthood.
to
the
For Rousseau, education is the child's free
expression in his contact with life.
The teacher should train the student to be
a man, autonomous and free.
Rousseau’s main Proposals:
 Teaching
/ Learning how to do;
 The practice precedes theory;
 Nature is the first teacher of the child;
 The first step is the sensory education,
followed by the moral, intellectual, and
then only after the training;
 The education must respect individual
pace.
New Heloise (brief reference)
Published in 1761;
Romantic story of an unhappy love;
The man is formed and lives in society and
family.
Rousseau and Politics
Rousseau only accepted the democratic society.
The society of his age, being stratified, prevented
the development of the good nature of man.
Education as Politics
Rousseau eventually regards education as
a "totality", a policy, because for him,
education can change the entire society.
This view is an exaggeration, sometimes
used against the educators themselves, as
many aspects of society are outside the
action of Education.
Rousseau: Education and Society
What happens is that the Society (S)
embraces education (E), and the vision of
Rousseau is exaggerated.
Conclusions:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was limited
by the time when he lived, but his
contribution to education in the West
was crucial.
The view of the child as a specific being,
never as a "miniature adult";
The focus of the educational process on
the student;
The value of manual work;
The idea of educating women,
Opened the way for new approaches on
childhood.
Such approaches would, later
on be
The “physician-hygienist” and the
Psychological who have finish the vision of
the child as a miniature adult human
being.
Although exaggerated, Rousseau played a
key role in defending the rights of the Child
(still ignored in many cases).