Locke vs Rousseau
Through
“good breeding” and discipline at an early age, John Locke hoped to create
virtuous men with the ability to yield to temptation. Defined in Some Thoughts Concerning the Education of
Children, “able men” are made by “the principles of justice, generosity,
and sobriety, join'd with observation and industry.” The ability to endure
hardship provides strength of the body and of the mind as long as man “purely
follows what reason directs as best.” This is consistent with his description
of children as “rational creatures” that “should never be suffer’d to have what
he craves.”
Although there have been many
“citizens” throughout history, Jean Jacques Rousseau believed the term “ought
be erased from modern languages.” Emile,
ou l’education served as a medium for Rousseau to express his sentiments
and dreams about education. He wrote, “you must choose between making a man and
making a citizen, for you cannot do both at the same time.” Striving for
harmonious agreement, Rousseau combined the education of nature, the education
of things, and the education of man to create the “natural man.” This idealized
being would possess an unconstrained consciousness of his sensations and “must
act as one speaks.” Rousseau reinforced the influence of nature by referring to
children as “seedlings” that must be protected and cultivated by the “tender,
foresighted mother.”
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