A New Way to Educate Children Essay -- Papers

A New musical mode to Educate ChildrenRousseau lobbies against an educational system that tries to teach children concepts and facts before such time, as they would make use of them. He believes that a child should not inadvertence those studies, which meet his present needs, in order to learn that which he whitethorn acquire in later years. He claims that experience and emotion argon our real teachers, thereby reinforcing the possibleness that a child should not be educated in matters which are not pertinent to their current stake in life. He contends that a child should remain in achieve ignorance of those ideas which are beyond his grasp (p686). In essence, Rousseau argues that the healthy spontaneous impulses of children were cosmos repressed by the adult demands for emotional restraint, intellectual precision and societal conformity as abdicated by the social and educational practices of his time.Rousseau constructs a theory of education, starting with the influence of the childs natural environment, which should prevail over the influence of night club and social institutions. Rousseau advocates allowing children to grow and bourgeon naturally, in direct opponent to the regular methods of teaching. Children should be encouraged to bristle their faculties through experience. This forms the basis for his fundamental convention of education. Rousseau argues that to be of use to a child, a concept must be relevant to his age. Rousseau promotes involving the student in hands-on learning experiences, as inappropriate to the more traditional methods of instruction. Children pay little heed to verbal explanation, nor do they remember them in his opinion. He stresses the importance of discoin truth as a learning tool. Ideas that seem difficult at the ... ...nlightenment was that nothing was accepted on faith or face value and he expected no less from his students, he would demonstrate his teachings and not expect them to accept save a v erbal description. Rousseau stressed that feeling and sentiment were two very important factors in the motivation of humankind. He emphasizes the need to live and develop in conformity with Nature. The child must be raised in a rural rather than an urban environment, so that he whitethorn develop in continuity with nature rather than in opposition to it. A childs character will mature in harmony with nature if that childs natural curiosity is allowed to develop unhindered by the corruption of society. All of Rousseaus educational theories had grow in the enlightenment of the 18th century.BibliographyA History of Western Civilization, McKay J.P. et al, Houghton, 1999