Emile: Or, On Education is a book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, composed of five parts, and published in 1762. The subject of book is education, or specifically, "the art of training men" (Foreword). It remains to this day one of the most popular and widely read books on the subject of education. In Japan, the child development authority mandates all pre-school teachers to read Emile. The principle of Rousseau is as follows: "children are born good and it is the company they keep which corrupts."
The first four books concern the ideal education of a fictional boy named Emile (hence the title) and are ordered chronologically, covering the topics that would arise as the boy aged. The fifth and final book concerned the specific issues concerning the education of girls, using as an example a fictional girl named Sophy, raised and educated to be Emile's wife.
Contents
Book 1: birth to age 5
This book concerns the physical development of the child.
Book 2: age 5 to age 12
The second book concerns the initial interactions of the child with the world. Rousseau believed that at this phase education should be derived less from books and more from their interactions with the world, with an emphasis on developing the senses, and the ability to draw inferences from them. Rousseau concludes the chapter with an example of a boy who has been succesfully educatated through this phase. The father takes the boy out flying kites, and asks the child to infer the position of the kite by looking only at the shadow. This is a task that the child has never specifically been taught, but through inference and understanding of the physical world, the child is able to succeed in his task. In some ways, this approach is the precursor of the Montessori method.
Book 3: age 12 to age 15
The third book concerns the selection of a trade. Rousseau believed that it is necessary that the child must be taught a manual trade, which was rare for the time. He believed that the benefits were not merely economic but also social: that the practice of apprenticeship was ideal for integrating the child into society, and providing him with appropriate role models of how to live his life.
Book 4: age 15 to age 20
Book four concerns the topics of life after the age of fifteen, with a particular focus on religion and love. It contains a section known as "The Creed of a Savoyard Priest", which is the most famous portion of the book. This piece is frequently excerpted and published independently of its parent tome. It was the most controversial piece of the book, because it examined the origins of faith and why people believe what they do. English translation
Book 5: after age 20 (marriage, family, and the education of females)
The final book concerns issues of educating girls. While this section is considered sexist today, much of the language in the book actually focused upon promoting more equal treatment of the genders, compared to the practices of the day.
In this chapter, Emile meets and marries Sophy, and Sophy's ideal education is described. They have a child, and discuss how that child should be educated. The final part of Book five is entitled "Of Travel".
External links
Last updated: 05-14-2005 22:05:17
