This book is an educational novel with narration and discussion. It takes Emily, an orphan from a rich family, as the protagonist, discusses the educational reform of men, criticizes the absurdity and decay of the old education in Britain, and puts forward the principles and ideals of the new education.
And through the education of Emily's future wife Sophie, it shows the innovation of women's education. The book embodies the naturalistic educational thought and expounds the theory of good nature. His thoughts inspired and influenced many educators in later generations. This book systematically put forward a new concept of children's education for the first time in the history of western education, thus setting off a "Copernican revolution" in the history of education.
Extended data:
I. Work content
This book is divided into five volumes. The first four volumes, with Emily as the protagonist, put forward the natural and important period of children's growth, as well as the corresponding educational principles, contents and methods. The first volume focuses on how to carry out physical education for important children before the age of two and let them develop naturally.
The second volume focuses on the sensory education of children aged 2 ~ 12. The third volume discusses the intellectual education of teenagers aged from 12 to 15. The fourth volume focuses on the moral education of teenagers aged 15 -20.
The fifth volume, taking Sophie as an example, puts forward the mode of women's education reform and discusses the love education of young men and women. In this book, Rousseau described himself as an ideal teacher, Emile as an ideal student, and described the whole process of Emile's growth and education from birth to 20 years old, from which he heard his thought of "natural education".
Second, the conception of the work
From Emile, we can see that Rousseau believes that the purpose of education is to make people become natural people, that is, what he calls "obeying the order of nature", "trusting nature", "taking nature as the only Bible" and "obeying conscience means obeying nature".
The nature mentioned here is an absolutely free, equal and kind environment. Only by living in this state can human life be promoted to the highest level. Rousseau believes that the purpose of children's education is to promote the internal development of their abilities and organs. Education can keep their minds active and give full play to their talents.
This educational view, which emphasizes the intrinsic development of human beings and takes children as the standard, is the focus of Rousseau's educational theory. Rousseau's naturalism takes children as the starting point and aims to cultivate children's body, mind and nature, that is, to let children live the life that children should have.
He believes that a person's childhood is of great value and significance to his life, so children should not be bound by various shackles and hinder the development of their natural nature. This is Rousseau's fundamental position and an important principle of his unique educational theory.
Based on this, Rousseau put forward "intuitive education". "Intuitive education", that is, direct education, keeps the intuitive things that children are exposed to consistent with the concepts they should learn. Rousseau believes that children's knowledge before the age of 12 is limited to the sensory range, and they have no understanding; /kloc-rational play can only be realized after 0/2 years old.
Rousseau emphasized that children should know and feel the world from objective things. The purpose of "intuitive education" is to educate children according to specific facts, so that external knowledge is completely consistent with children's internal cognitive ability. Rousseau believes that children should be properly educated according to the laws of their physical and mental development so as not to exceed their acceptance.
He pointed out that Robinson Crusoe is the most ideal textbook for children's education. He said: "Educating children is not reading literary classics, but knowing and feeling nature." That is, we can learn about external knowledge by reading natural books, rather than acquiring knowledge through abstract words and languages.
Baidu encyclopedia-Emile