Rousseau's View On Children's Education And Its Enlightenment

Rousseau was a famous thinker and educator in France in the 18 th century.His educational thoughts were mainly concentrated in Emile,which had a profound influence on later generations.Since Rousseau,people have gradually realized that children are independent beings,and childhood has a special status and value in life.Respecting children and letting them exist as children has became the core issue of children's education after Rousseau.This profound insight of Rousseau still has great enlightenment significance for the current children's education in China.Rousseau's progressive view of children is not the product of his unique personality,but the result of the development of western history and culture.Before the 18 th century,the living conditions of children were worrying,and the situation of children's education was seriously against humanity.With the rise of the Renaissance movement,profound changes have taken place in people's thought idea.From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment,children began to appear in the family,and the relationship between parents and children tended to ease.Children had their own living space,and the number of abandoned babies was still on the high side,but the overall social awareness of children has improved.Correspondingly,in terms of children's education,the content of school education gradually deviates from religious teachings,grade and class Settings become more rational,and corporal punishment is still a common means of school management,but it is more humane than before.The change of attitude towards children and the rationalization of children's educational view lay a realistic foundation for Rousseau to put forward his thought on children's education.It is in the background of the evolution of the thought of western children and children's education from the middle ages to the 18 th century that Rousseau's thought on children's education stands out.This dissertaton makes a detailed interpretation of Rousseau's view of children's education from four aspects: the purpose,content,method and environment.In terms of the purpose of children's education,Rousseau believes that it is to return to nature and to cultivate natural persons.In the content of children's education,Rousseau advocated physical education,sensory training,intellectual education and vocational education.In the method of children's education,Rousseau advocates following natural laws,game law,model law,natural consequence law and natural observation law.In the choice of children's educational environment,Rousseau believes that temperate regions are suitable for human reproduction and rural areas can help human to renew.Rousseau emphasized that children should grow in the natural environment as much as possible to stimulate their healthy development.Although the publication of Emile put Rousseau into exile for eight years,and although scholars of later generations have mixed opinions on Rousseau,Emile is still a masterpiece in the history of western educational thoughts.In spite of the education content of Rousseau's views on children had no knowledge of the humanities education content,and education method ignored indirect learning experience,and ignored the urban environment,but for the children of our country it still can help us to have a correct understanding of children's education,to adopt the appropriate way to maintain child,to build a kind of freedom growth environment for children,to arouse and protect children's curiosity,and to cultivate the habit of children's autonomous learning value,etc.This is an important reason why we still cannot ignore Rousseau's thought today.