(A) Education should conform to nature

Rousseau believes that the core of nature education is that education must follow nature and conform to human nature. As soon as he opened the book Emile, he wrote, "Everything that comes from the creator is good, but once it reaches people, it will go bad." "If you want to walk in the right direction forever, you must always follow the guidance of nature." Therefore, Rousseau opposes the traditional classical education that ignores children's characteristics, interferes with and restricts children's free development and goes against children's nature, and puts forward the idea that education should conform to nature.

In Rousseau's view, human education has three sources, either "from nature", "from people" or "from things". He said, "Our talent and the internal development of organs are a kind of natural education; It is human education, and others teach us how to make use of this development; We get a good experience in things that affect us. This is the education of things. " These three aspects of education are interrelated. If these three different kinds of education conflict with each other in a person, his education is not good; If these three aspects of education are consistent and tend to the same goal, he can get a good education, realize his own goals and live a meaningful life. Rousseau further analyzed and said: "In these three different kinds of education, the natural education can't be decided by me at all. In the education of things, people can be decided by us in some aspects, and only human education can really control it. " Therefore, we should take the education of nature as the center, make the education of things and people subordinate to the education of nature, make these three aspects of education match, tend to be natural, and let children enjoy a good education.

Rousseau's "nature" refers to human talents and organs, that is, human nature. Therefore, "natural education" is an education that obeys the laws of nature, conforms to the development process of children's nature and promotes the natural development of children's body and mind. Rousseau emphasized: "naturally, children want to look like children before they reach adulthood." In his view, if we interfere with the prejudice of adults and deprive children of their due rights, the result will only disturb the natural order, destroy the laws of nature and fundamentally destroy children.

Rousseau believes that education that conforms to nature must also be free education, because the most important natural right of human beings is freedom. Rousseau declared: "A truly free man only wants what he can get and only does what he likes. This is my first basic principle. As long as this principle is applied to children, various educational principles can be derived. " Therefore, he demanded that children's freedom should be respected, that children should enjoy the possibility and conditions of full free activities, and that natural and free teaching methods should be adopted in the teaching process to adapt to children's physical and mental development level and individual differences.

(2) Education should cultivate "natural persons"

Rousseau believes that the purpose of nature education is to cultivate "natural people", that is, a new generation of people who are completely free to grow up, physically and mentally harmonious, self-reliant, "not bound by tradition and able to adapt to social life." This kind of "natural person" has been trained to be as independent as possible since childhood. He has neither the habit of turning to others forever nor the habit of boasting to others. Able to observe, judge, think and analyze things independently; Growing up, I learned a lot from nature, not from people; Physical and mental exercise at the same time, not only physically strong, but also intelligent and knowledgeable. This kind of "natural person" is a natural person living in society, a member of society who can fulfill social responsibilities, not an uneducated person who returns to primitive society, nor a savage who is divorced from reality.

It should be noted that Rousseau's "natural person" has the following characteristics: first, it is not bound by tradition (rank, stage and occupation) and develops according to its nature; Second, independence, self-improvement and independence; Third, it has social adaptability and can bear social responsibility; Fourth, physical and mental development, physical and mental health, with the ability to think independently.

(C) Education should pay attention to people's age characteristics

Rousseau emphasized that education should pay attention to children's age characteristics from the principle that education should conform to nature and the purpose of education should cultivate "natural persons". According to the age stage, Rousseau proposed that education in different periods is different.

1, in infancy (0~2 years old), mainly sports. During this period, the main task of education is to promote the healthy development of children's bodies. Because a healthy body is the foundation of wisdom and the condition for children to receive natural education. Rousseau advocated that babies should grow naturally in the rural environment and pay attention to their natural choice of food. He opposed to binding babies with swaddling clothes, and even more opposed to pampering them, pointing out that "their physique should be exercised so that they can endure cruel seasons, climate, wind and rain, hunger and fatigue".

2. Children (2~ 12 years old) mainly carry out sensory education. During this period, children's physical activity ability, language ability and sensory ability have developed, but it is not suitable for education of abstract concepts and written knowledge. It is necessary to guide children to exercise and develop various sensory organs, accumulate rich sensory experience, and lay the foundation for the next stage of learning. Rousseau pointed out in sensory education that the first thing is to develop the sense of touch, the second is to develop vision, and the last is to develop hearing. Rousseau put forward the concrete methods of feeling, and regarded games, painting, singing and other activities as the best way of feeling education. In addition, it is suggested to strengthen children's physical exercise and promote the development of sensory ability.

Since children's minds are still asleep, don't force them to study. Rousseau believes that reading is useless to children when they don't like reading at all. Children would rather not know a word than sacrifice other useful things to learn some knowledge.

In disciplinary education, Rousseau opposed corporal punishment and disapproved of oral preaching. He suggested that when children make mistakes, they don't have to stop or punish them directly, but let them feel the natural consequences of their mistakes and mistakes in contact with nature. This is the famous "law of natural consequences" in the history of education.

3. Adolescence (12~ 15) mainly involves intellectual education and labor education. Because children have received good physical education and sensory education, they have the conditions for intellectual education and labor education.

Rousseau believes that the task of intellectual education is not to impart systematic scientific knowledge, but to cultivate children's ability to acquire knowledge and stimulate their interest and enthusiasm for what they have learned. Children can't learn everything, they just need to learn what they should. He said: "There is very little knowledge that is really beneficial to our happiness, but only such knowledge is worthy of a smart person, and thus a child to seek, because our purpose is to cultivate him into such a smart person. In short, the question is not what kind of knowledge he has learned, but that what he has learned should be useful. " In terms of intellectual education methods, Rousseau advocates that children can acquire knowledge in nature through field observation; It is strongly opposed to letting children master book knowledge by rote, and even puts forward that "the world is the only book and the fact is the only teaching material". He also pointed out that adults should give children less guidance instead of teaching them correct answers, and should let them get them by themselves and guide them to solve problems independently.

Rousseau also attached great importance to labor and labor education. He pointed out that labor is the social obligation of every free man, and only those who live by labor are truly free men; The task of labor education is to make children adapt to various tools and related technologies and exercise and develop people's minds through labor study. Rousseau respects manual labor most, and thinks that manual labor is the freest, the closest to the natural state, the most independent and not bound by others. In short, Rousseau hopes that children can "work like farmers and think like philosophers".

4. Adolescence (15~20) is mainly about moral education. Because young people are in the stage of excitement and enthusiasm, they need to use the power of moral standards to regulate and guide them to handle the relationship between people and society and between people. The main content of moral education is to cultivate good emotion, correct judgment and strong will. Rousseau pointed out that children's firm will should be cultivated through all kinds of good deeds, that is, through moral practice. At the same time, he pointed out that moral education should be carried out in cities.

Exercise their physique

Even they can endure fierce seasons, climate and wind and rain.

Can tolerate hunger, thirst and fatigue.

……