Rousseau was a French thinker, philosopher, educator and writer in the18th century ... In modern terms, he was a slash youth with many labels and a wide range of fields.
In the field of education, he wrote a masterpiece "Emily". This is a masterpiece comparable to Plato's Republic. Rousseau saw "children" in the history of education and affirmed the intrinsic value of children. Goethe called Emile the natural gospel of education, and European educators launched a "child-centered" new education movement because of this book.
Rousseau's educational thought aims at human freedom, and holds that human education is a process towards freedom. He believes that the highest purpose of education is to cultivate free people. More than 200 years later, many of his thoughts are still used by later generations, especially his natural education thoughts have been recorded in the history of education.
Rousseau made up an educational object named Emile in his book, and through narration and discussion, he put his educational thoughts through Emile's childhood, childhood, adolescence and adolescence.
1. Nature education is to follow the natural nature of human beings, so that education is consistent with all stages of human development, and it is neither ahead nor behind.
Rousseau said: naturally, children want to look like children before they become adults. If this order is disturbed, some precocious fruits will be produced, which are neither full nor sweet and will rot soon. We will train some young doctors and old children.
He opposed knowledge education and moral education since he was a child. Obviously, his idea is based on the assumption that human nature is good. He said that everything that comes out of the creator's hand is good, but once it reaches people's hands, it all goes bad.
People always force one kind of land to breed things on another kind of land, and force one kind of tree to bear the fruit of another. People disturb everything, destroy everything's true colors, and don't want to see things as they are, even for people.
Therefore, the education of natural persons is not positive education, but to prevent adults from doing certain things. Not addition, but subtraction.
Rousseau believes that in the first few years of education, we should try our best to avoid the adverse effects of the environment, let nature speak and let children grow naturally. Based on the assumption that human nature is good, we should prevent the negative influence of the surrounding environment on children, prevent children's hearts from being infected by evil, and prevent children's thoughts from being fallacious.
This kind of thought is similar to "governing by doing nothing" of Taoism in China, and it has the same effect as Laozi's "man should govern the land, the land should govern the sky, the sky should govern the Tao, and the Tao should be natural".
However, the premise of this idea is to ensure that everything around the child is suitable for him to see, listen and think. Because of this, Emil was taken to the countryside to get in close contact with nature and let him run, work and keep moving freely. In this environment, he has to observe many things, understand the laws of all things, and exercise his body and mind.
In the absence of deliberate education from outside, he always acts according to his own ideas rather than others', and unconsciously combines the functions of body and mind, making his body stronger and stronger, his mind smarter and more judgmental.
Therefore, Emil's ideas are taken from nature, not from people. It is precisely because he has never seen other people's educational intentions that he can better educate himself.
The best education is no education, which is still talked about by many educators and psychologists today. Teacher Ye Shengtao said that parents' upbringing and family environment have a greater impact on children's future than good schools.
But in reality, no parent or teacher can bear the fear of the future brought by "not being able to teach", which not only "teaches", but also "teaches" an unprecedented era of involution anxiety.
Kindergarten children learn primary school knowledge, primary school children learn junior high school knowledge, and junior high school children learn senior high school knowledge. Education is no longer a tree every ten years, but a race against time.
Nowadays, when a child who is only seven or eight years old wears huge short-sighted lenses and writes carefully on a wish card with weak hands, his wish is to get a 100, or Tsinghua Peking University. Does this mean that our society has created a group of children who are not like children?
More than 200 years ago, Rousseau lamented that barbaric education sacrificed the present for an uncertain future. Who would have thought that after more than 200 years, this phenomenon is becoming more and more crazy.
Rousseau discovered children in the history of education. Numerous educators and scholars have carried out various forms of educational reform based on Rousseau's educational thought and taking children as the center. However, the ideal is full, the reality is backbone, today is the truth, and tomorrow may become a paradox. We haven't found the best education method.
The problem is not to tell him a truth, but how to find it.
When Emily is healthy and energetic enough to grow up to 12 years old, we can't understand 12 years old here as modern 12 years old. It can be understood that a child has gone through a natural childhood and entered a new stage.
Because he was not infected with bad habits and was not instilled with any prejudice, his natural instinct made him tend to be rational, which was an important period of study and education.
But this period is so short and there are many other necessary life lessons, so Rousseau thinks it is foolish to try to train children into a very learned person at this stage.
The problem is not to teach him all kinds of knowledge, but to cultivate his interest in learning. If this interest develops well, we can teach him how to learn knowledge.
In other words, cultivating interest in learning is the first priority, and interest can be curiosity. As long as curiosity is well guided, it can become the driving force for children to seek knowledge at this stage, that is, the internal driving force.
There is a thirst for knowledge arising from the expectation of others' affirmation, and there is also a thirst for knowledge arising from people's natural curiosity about things in front of them. Obviously, only the latter can make people healthier and stay motivated for a long time.
Rousseau didn't use a balance in Emile's statics class, but put a stick and the back of the chair horizontally. After putting it away, he measured the length of both ends. Then, he put an object with equal or unequal weight at one end or both ends, and then pulled the stick back or pushed it forward as appropriate. Finally, he found that in order to achieve balance, it is necessary to make the weight inversely proportional to the lever length of the object from the fulcrum.
In this way, Emily knew how to adjust the balance before she saw it.
Establishing a concept in physics through such a process is obviously more accurate and easier to understand than concepts learned from formulas in books or elsewhere.
It trains children how to draw their own conclusions and create their own instruments by discovering the internal relations of things, rather than simply memorizing the formulas of predecessors. His reason will not be used to obeying authority.
Today, I wonder if physics teachers and parents have the patience and determination to give children enough time to explore and discover this time-consuming and laborious research.
In fact, physics was not taught until the eighth grade of junior high school, but many children were sent to extracurricular classes one year or even two years in advance, or spent a summer vacation studying in a regular school just to get ahead of others.
In such a hurry, the wisdom extracted by those great scientists in their daily lives instantly became a formula, a symbol, a theorem in books, and nothing more.
It is said that in the 3+3 reference subjects of the college entrance examination, more and more Shanghai candidates choose to give up physics and choose easier subjects, which makes people wonder what kind of learning mode students have experienced in junior high school before they have prejudice and aversion to this subject.
The problem is not to tell him a truth, but to let him find it.
Rousseau had such foresight 200 years ago, but in today's fast-food education era, how many people are willing to believe it, even if they believe it, who knows what the price will be.
3. Robinson Crusoe contains the best exposition of nature education.
The first book Emil read was Robinson Crusoe. Rousseau said that once Emile knew what life was, he would teach him how to keep it.
Robinson was alone on a desert island without any outside help and tools, but he managed to find the food he needed, not only saving his life, but also living quite comfortably.
Rousseau believes that the tenacious vitality in this dilemma contains endless educational opportunities, so he said that if you must read it, then this book must not be missed.
He believes that what people make, people may destroy it, only what nature gives is indelible.
Who can predict what will happen when a person's identity and status change, when society is facing crisis and change? It is impossible for a person to adapt to only one lifestyle. If you are not afraid of fate, you can still live a good life and keep your passion for life. This is a powerful ability.
It can be said that this is Rousseau's life education for Emile.
Rousseau believes that among all the occupations in which human beings can make a living, handicraft industry is the most capable of bringing people close to the natural state, and craftsmen are the least affected by fate and others.
Craft is a free man, relying only on his own craft. He is better off than the peasants, who are tied to the land. So he asked Emil to learn a trade.
However, he also pointed out that agriculture is the first occupation of mankind: the most valuable, useful and noble.
In his view, education means that physical exercise and ideological exercise should go hand in hand, that is, we should work like farmers, think like philosophers, and not be lazy like barbarians.
So in today's society, the most practical project that can let children participate in labor is housework.
A 20-year study by Harvard University shows that compared with children who don't do housework, the employment rate is 15: 1, and the crime rate is 1: 10. The income of the former is 20% higher than that of the latter, and the marriage is happier.
We should cultivate children's ability to do housework and solve problems. We should not only think about how to protect children, but also educate children how to protect themselves as adults, how to have the ability to survive, how to bear the blow of fate, and how to educate them to have the courage, ability and enthusiasm to live in the icy world of Iceland or the burning rocks of malta island when they have to.
Write at the end:
Education is to prepare for future life. If in education, people without foresight will have immediate worries, then it is precisely "foresight" that makes us full of fear of the unknown tomorrow, constantly becoming an accomplice in the internal volume of education and falling into the anxiety of being at a loss. Looking back on Rousseau's view of nature education more than 200 years ago, I deeply admire his far-sighted thinking.
Rousseau believes that the highest goal of education is to become a free person, and freedom is autonomy, which includes three levels of continuous progress: natural freedom, social freedom and moral freedom. Accordingly, Emile discusses three forms in turn: natural education, social education and civic education. This paper is just a drop in the ocean of Rousseau's educational thought, and puts forward some thoughts from the perspective of natural education.
Our culture pays attention to "aiming high" and "striving to be young people", which seems to be somewhat contrary to Rousseau's "child-centered". However, in recent years, with the increasing demand for diversified education, some new educational concepts have gradually entered people's sight. Whether Waldorf education or Montessori education, we can see the shadow of Rousseau's natural education thought.
No education is perfect. As parents, we should be calm, not arrogant and impetuous, and create a good family environment for our children. Don't overdo it, don't be careless, and the golden mean is the best policy.
-End-
Everything is divided into success and failure, and only growth is irreversible.
Investing in yourself is always the wisest thing.