Rousseau's concept of natural education and the development of natural man

¶ … philosophical questions about, Jean Jacque Rousseau, John Dewey, Michel Foucault and Marin Luther King, Jr. It has 4 sources.

Rousseau and Nature"

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things."[Rousseau 143].

According to Rousseau out of the three factors involved in a child's development, Nature, is totally uncontrollable. "Nature, we are told, is merely habit."[20] Habits are a product of positive or negative conditioning. As a child grows in reason he uses judgment to modify his natural tendencies but often this process becomes warped due to already embedded habits. Harmony within is affected when natural tendencies conflict with what a child learns at the hands of society and other men. A man must thus choose to follow either society or his own nature, a balance being impossible due to a faulty education.

According to Rousseau a natural education is one which does not impart knowledge rather creates circumstances that allow the pupil to learn from his environment and his own natural capabilities. Such an education which took in account differences of situation and person, in his opinion, would be that which is most suited for specific individuals.

His goal in Emile was to produce what was to him the ideal 'the natural man', who "lives for himself; he is the unit, the whole, dependent only on himself and on his like." [7] Natural man and citizen were two parts of the human fraction that according to Rousseau together formed a community. Trying to develop both in modern society inevitably led to confusion. The values of either were too opposing.

To be something, to be himself, and always at one with himself, a man must act as he speaks, must know what course he ought to take, and must follow that course with vigor and persistence." [57] A natural man would be free, self sufficient, content, and believe himself the equal of all men. This says Rousseau is the natural instincts of children before they are altered and restructured by social experiences and lessons from books, men, and things. Social education teaches children to use their imaginations, and higher intellectual powers, develop self-governance and not act immediately on instinct, and also learn religion and morality. He writes that "one must not confound what is natural in the savage state with what is natural in the civil state." (p.406). There are advantages then in both that help in molding the 'natural man.'

Human beings are naturally good.... nature provides for them and does not fill them with tempting and corrupting illusions; in this arrangement human beings are free, equal, and happy. They are also, most importantly, independent, since they do not rely upon anyone else to satisfy their physical and psychological wants."[50] If a child was allowed to grow according to his inherent inclinations Rousseau believed only positive results would be produced. Society according to him corrupted by creating inequality thus decreasing freedom and self-reliance and also by creating unnatural desires for such things as fame, fortune and power over others.

He acknowledged however that living in society was a necessity and we could not retreat into the jungles so as to enhance our natural selves:

The dangers of society make art and care all the more indispensable for us to forestall in the human heart the depravity born of their new needs." (p.214)

The problem was how to create the same balance of freedom, independence, equality, and happiness in society as there was in nature. The solution to the dilemma according to him was a new emphasis and viewpoint of education. Rousseau believed that by teaching through experience and not books, avoiding imagination and fables and encouraging the search for truth and facts a child would be pushed towards enriching and enhancing himself rather than forming a copy of what society believed was ideal.

Education was important to form a natural man while remaining in society for as he said, "Although I want to form the man of nature, the object is not, for all that, to make him a savage and to relegate him to the depths of the woods. It suffices that, enclosed in a social whirlpool, he not let himself get carried away by either the opinions or the passions of men, that he see with his eyes, that he feel with his heart, that no authority govern him beyond that of his own reason." (p.255)

John Dewey and Education

The most prominent American political theorists John Dewey argued that technology and economics have eliminated the role of individual and cooperative efforts to bring about commonly desired consequences. According to Dewey the civil society which lies between the government and corporations is been neglected, overlooked and often maliciously deprived by its bigger, more powerful brothers. Dewey suggests that the role of the individual so vital in American democracy in determining social outcomes has been deprived of their proper roles. Both the theorist suggest that a realm of civic society should be created, which promotes discussion and persuasion among communities, families and association which can work to bridge the gap between public sector and private sector. According to Dewey the only way the disintegration of public can be stooped and put individuals and communities back on track in mobilization. Time, persistence and communication are required to nourish genuine attachments, the basis of communal life. Human beings according to Dewey are organizing into a public by means of communication and cooperation, by communication Dewey means the communication between individuals and communities in the form of debates, discussions. The public is disorganized because it is uninformed.

John Dewey's philosophy of education is the kind that revolutionized the way that people thought of education. But this was not his only focus. The crux of his philosophy on various areas such as psychology, education, politics, and social thought, were aimed at uncovering the social and political evils that undermine mankind for centuries. In more descriptive words, his work was concerned with uncovering the causes of the difficulties that are experienced in everyday practical life. The kind of educational philosophy that Dewey developed was through his philosophical pragmatism, concern with interaction, reflection and experience, and interest in community and democracy. Dewey's form of education may be considered as on that has developed through his concern with the welfare of society, and it may be assumed that this was the reason why he attempted to cram a lot of his ideas together. This is the reason why there are certain parts of his educational philosophy that do not fit into any one of the known categories of modern education. As far as informal educationalists are concerned Dewey's philosophy had two basic elements that have inspired many. The first element that he emphasizes on is the essentiality of engaging with and enlarging experience. This is coupled by the second element, which is thinking and reflection - and the associated role of educators. He reinforces the role of educators through these elements.

Jacques Ranciere

Jacques Ranciere's discovery of the theory of "intellectual emancipation" held that students do not necessary need to know the medium of communication to be able to learn; they do not require commonality of tradition or pedagogy method to be able to step to the next level of education [Ranciere 134-160]. Ranciere's theory created a stir among the intellectual groups however it does not mean that his philosophy does not have justification. Ranciere justifies his argument by saying that even illiterate people can educate their children. This theory implies that the most important part of the process of education is stultification. According to him learners in a common medium tend to become stultify with multitude of information and therefore they cannot achieve the desired quality learning. Instead to soften this stultification impact teachers and educators should avoid the role of the explicator. Instead they should adopt a mode of teaching where both teachers are students are at the learning level. Equality or what other educators would term it as democratization of communication leads to collaborative learning and hence the students develop a more open tendency to absorb lessons.

Thus what Ranciere proposed had been the fact that students and teachers in a pedagogical environment are equal, they both learn in an environment that disseminates the same kinds of information and hence they tend to understand it during the learning process. Communication skills like language are only a peripheral. Ranciere's theory thus supports the illiterate persons and encourages them to learn with their children.

Martin Luther King, "The Sword that Heals"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a black American Baptist minister, was the main leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950's and 1960's. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He had a magnificent speaking ability, which enabled him to effectively express the demands of black Americans for social justice. The philosophy of Martin Luther was simple and straightforward, "a non-violence way of agitation, demonstration and rejection of all the unjust laws in the civil society" [King 60-100]. This method of protest and rebellion against the oppressive regimes and government was first adopted by the famous Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. It was a peaceful way of fighting the unjust domination and consequently freeing his people from British rule.

Martin Luther King knew that in order to fight against racial discrimination the African-Americans have to adopt a different way which does not use violence as means to achieve ends. The use of violence would not only diminish the credibility of the movement, but it would entail that there is no different between the aggressor and the aggressed. Thus King, adopt this way in order to avoid violence and bloodshed and to tell the world that they are part of American society and are fighting for their right place in the society. It was a strategy adopted by Martin Luther King and his followers to fight peacefully against the injustice of the American system, which had suppressed the Negroes for over three hundred years. A strategy that started to be experimented and tested in the winter of 1955-56 in Montgomery, Alabama "A powerful and just weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals." What Martin Luther meant by this was that the non-violence way of protest is like a sword which metaphorically cuts the oppressor without wounding and those who carry this sword, it makes them stronger in their faith and in their fight against injustice.

Sources:

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. emile, Everyman's Library 1969.

Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline & Punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books

Preston, Edward. Martin Luther King: Fighter for Freedom. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1986.

Dewey, John, 1859-1952. Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DewDemo.html

Ranciere, Jacques. The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. Translated by Kristin Ross, Stanford University Press, 1991.