Why does Rousseau think that moral education should not be given to children before 12 years old?
Rousseau thinks that children before the age of 12 have no moral concepts, so it is not appropriate to talk about abstract moral concepts. When necessary, we can only use the method of "natural consequences" for education. "Natural consequences" refers to not blaming and punishing children's faults, but using the natural results of faults to make children eat their own fruits, thus prompting children to reflect and correct. Rousseau believes that in young children, things that do not exist in the sense will not produce corresponding ideas in the brain. They must know the things and phenomena around them through their own personal experiences and understand the significance of activities and their results. For example, if a child breaks the window of a room, he will be blown by the wind day and night. Don't be afraid of him catching cold, "because it's better to let him catch cold than to drive him crazy." Rousseau advocates that when dealing with children's shortcomings, mistakes or negligent behaviors, we can combine children's behaviors and their results for education, so that they can learn from the adverse consequences of their own behaviors and correct their own shortcomings and mistakes, which is in line with children's psychological characteristics to some extent. However, there are some limitations. For example, Rousseau believes that being blown by the wind is not a punishment, but a natural consequence of negligence. In fact, this is still punishment.