Rousseau believes that people receive education from three sources: from nature, from people and from things. Among them, "the internal development of our talents and organs is 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. " Rousseau also pointed out that among these three different kinds of education, "the education of nature can't be decided by us at all, and the education of things can only be decided by us in some aspects." Only human education is what we can really control. From this, he draws the conclusion that only when the two kinds of education within our power (human and material education) are subordinate to the education beyond our power (natural education), and the three work together to point to the same goal, can people get a really good education.

Rousseau put forward a very valuable point here: "naturally, children want to look like children before they reach adulthood." It can be seen that Rousseau's natural education requires that education should follow the law of children's own development and be carried out according to children's age characteristics and psychological characteristics. Rousseau was one step ahead of Comenius on the issue of "following nature". He did not use the method of quoting nature, nor did he use mysticism. Rousseau's view on the three sources of education lacks scientific proof, but it reflects that Rousseau is exposed to a basic problem in educational theory, such as the role of heredity, environment and education in human development and their relationship.