Rousseau & Education

When I first read about Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s life, I wondered how this man could have contributed anything relevant to the field of psychology. He was a womanizer who had a past of deception and even some crime. He seemed very unstable and I honestly felt sorry for him. But after reading about his theory on education, I started to understand why he is a contributor to psychology.

His belief about education was that “education should take advantage of natural impulses rather than distort them.” It makes sense that a man who had to follow such raw impulses just to survive and eat would consider such a thing. His work Emile provides an example of what it might look like if a tutor responded to a child’s abilities and interests rather than follow a highly structured pattern of education.

This is a very interesting concept to me especially since I have known countless fellow students who struggle to learn information by standardized methods because their learning styles or test anxieties create such boundaries. This idea that Rousseau presented may not be a perfect or even tangible approach to teaching, but it is certainly an idea worth considering. I know his thought inspired more research along the way such as the Montessouri method. His theory on education is definitely relevant to the field of psychology and I am grateful for the attention he gave to education. I am especially grateful for his quote: “…watch your scholar well before you say a word to him…The wise physician does not hastily give prescriptions at first sight, but he studies the constitution of the sick man before he prescribes anything; the treatment is begun later, but the patient is cured, while the hasty doctor kills him.”