Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Concepts - Essay Example

Part I: Summarizing Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau & Place of Birth 28th June 1712, Geneva – Switzerland & Place of Death2nd July 1778, Ermenonville – France Jean Jacques was a Swiss philosopher – he had a major role to play in the French Revolution as it was his political ideas that mainly influenced the same, along with the growth of nationalism and the theory of socialists. He also made important contributions to music and writing; it is often said that he re-invented autobiography and focused more on subjectivity in the work, which now can be seen in the work of Hegel and Freud. Émile, ou leducation, along with The Educational Theory presented by him were two of the most significant accomplishments by the fellow in the field of education. Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts (Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts), an essay written by Rousseau in 1750 became his source to fame as it became a prize winning essay. The essay highlighted the hazardous impact of modern civilization. He delivered his thoughts on education in his book title Émile, which was a semi-fictitious work that outlined the growth of a lad named by the book, who was actually controlled by the author himself. The author brought the lad to the country side; a place that he sees humans being naturally suited, in comparison to a city where there are all the bad habits that are learnt in both physical and intellectual sense. Rousseau recognized and stated that education is about learning the art of living, and this art can only be learnt once there is a guardian to guide the ways and means to a good living. This gave birth to the concept of mentors. The great philosopher divided the growth period of a child into three distinct sections, i.e. up to 12, 12-16, and 16 onwards. In the first phase, i.e. up to 12 years of age, in accordance with the deepest certainty that the author held, calculating and multifaceted thinking is quite not possible, and children live more like animals. In the second phase, i.e. from the age of 12 up to that of 16, reasoning starts developing. In the third phase, i.e. from the age of 16 years onward the child develops into an adult. This was the time when Emile found a young lady as his complement. The fundamentals of this book are moreover based on the healthy living ideals of Rousseau. The boy then does work towards his social instincts follow up, protection from vices of individualized urbanization, and self-consciousness. The scenario portrayed here is not merely of a gender-neutral child. There is a character in the book i.e. of Sophie who represents an ideal womanhood and Emile is meant to marry her. Her education is purposely different from that of Emile as she is learned to be administered by her husband; on the contrary, the education of Emile is for self-governance. This differentiation is a part of the essential thoughts of the author regarding gender education. There have been several criticisms on this work. Emile’s edication has been thought of as impractical. Child’s Education, the topic itself has also been the cause of ignorance during many followers who mainly look up to Rousseau for his political work. Similar principle was then applied to the political issues by Rousseau in a book named Discours sur lorigine et les fondements de linégalité parmi les hommes (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality) in 1755. Some of his other famous writings included Constitutional Program for Corsica (1765), Considerations on the Government of Poland (1772), and Discourse on Political Economy (1755). The ideas generated in these political writings eventually led to the French Revolution. The Educational Theory presented by Jean Jacques Rousseau were also a major contribution of the great philosopher to the educational arena. These theories included Theory of Value, Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Human Nature, Theory of Learning Theory of Transmission, Theory of Society, Theory of Opportunity, and Theory of Consensus. Many of these theories are devoted towards learning and education, specifically arts and science. Rousseau’s thoughts and theories have deeply influenced the educational theories of the modern day; while writing Emile, the author well distinguished amongst fit and ‘useless’ crippled children. In accordance with his work, only a physically and mentally fit child can be the outcome of an educational job. He gave less stress towards bookish learning and put more towards educating emotions prior to the reasoning. Learning by experience was another important feature that his work highlighted. The book Child Centered Education and its Critics (John Darling, 1994) commented that modern educational theory is a consequence of the work done by Rousseau. Rousseau was a great philosopher. I believe his work has given a tremendous foundation for the modern day education especially the experienced based learning that has led to two main ideas in modern day universities and colleges, i.e. first one being of a compulsory internship during most of the professional degree terms and second one of a work experience requirement before admission to many of the Masters program; these all can be visualized to be well linked to the Rousseau theories. There are some issues with the story of Emile that are worth commenting on, such as gender biasness in education, and male-sex dominance that can be well illustrated from that story. These are the grounds where the story is worth editing, otherwise, the work of this philosopher has been remarkable particularly in political sciences – giving birth to French Revolution cannot be considered a child’s play. Part II: Remembering the efforts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Letter to the Education Editor of the New York Times Remembering the Efforts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Dear Editor, I have been teaching at the New York City Public School for the past few years. Of late, I conducted a research analysis on the work done by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and realized the worth while efforts that he has done in the field of education. Sad as it may sound; our current schooling system is hardly taking into account any of his marvelous efforts. The main stress that I want to lay through this letter is towards the experience based learning. Of late, schools have laid more stress towards assignments and bookish learning, which Rousseau highlighted and proved being of lesser importance than the experienced based learning that teaches a person much beyond the scope of books and the school walls. Internships and part time jobs can really bring out the best in a person. As the practical exposure increase, the most fundamentally needed skill of management and communication is learnt as the first-hand experience by a student, which no book can teach and stands as a universal fact. Therefore, by means of this letter, I would like to propose to all schools to have a part-time job or internship program for their students, where there is an appropriate stipend also paid to the students for their work. This work should be followed up by weekly feedbacks from the instructor, and to add more motivation, it should be given appropriate credits as an equality that should be approximately equal to the semester class room credits, eventually, doubling the number of credits of each semester. Having equal credits for both in-door and out-door studies would ensure that the students take the job seriously and realize the importance of it. With this proposal, I would like to end my letter, and truly seek its publication so that it serves as an eye opener for those who can bring about a change into the system. This change is bound to bring out some truly potential human resource for the future of our industries, and would also make the dream of the Great Late Rousseau come true. Yours truly, (Name) Bibliography 1. Maurice Cranston (1987) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, tr. Penguin. 2. Victor Gourevitch (1997) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Discourses and Other Early Political Thought, ed. Cambridge. 3. Patrick Coleman and Angela Scholar (2000) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, ed. Oxford. 4. Allan Bloom (1979) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile or on Education, tr. Basic 5. G Lorraine Wylie (2001). The Educational Theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Retrieved June 26, 2007, from New Foundation Web site: http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Rousseau.html Read More