Very interesting post. Interesting detail you might find of use: In 1785, Benjamin Franklin visited the hospital where Rousseau had deposited his five illegitimate children and discovered a mortality rate of eighty-five percent among the babies there. (“Baby Food,” by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker, 1/19/2009.)

Thanks for that great look at the flaws in Rousseau's writing, Peter. I read and noticed those sections in Emile when I read it a few years back, but your clear and thorough description is very helpful. It could be a useful follow-up piece for those who read Emile in teacher education and other programs.

I wonder if you've read the education excerpt from Julie, a book Rousseau wrote in 1761, several years before Emile (I found it in "Emile, Julie, and Other Writings," edited by Archer). In that, Rousseau has a back and forth between a woman who exemplifies Rousseau's vision of education and a man who is being converted from a more conventional approach by what she says. While it still has some of the subtle (or overt) examples of adult control, there seem to be far fewer of those instances in the Julie excerpt, and more trust in young people to learn and grow without that control. Maybe Rousseau's views grew more conservative and less trustworthy as time went on? Here's one quote from the woman, Madame de Wolmar:

"I felt that nature subjects poor helpless children to so many restrictions that it is cruelty to impress a further restraint by our caprices and to take from them the little liberty which they possess and which they have so few opportunities to misuse. I resolved to spare my own all the restraint I could, to leave him complete freedom to use his scanty powers and to to thwart any of his natural inclinations" (p. 36).

(Yes, I caught "scanty" and "misuse" in there, but I think the point she's making is to have young people use their freedom and that it's ok if that means they will sometimes make mistakes).

Anyway, wanted to share that. Thanks for your great blog and work, helping to fill the general lack of writing and research in academia about democratic education and self-directed learning.

Dana Bennis

I liked this article's take on education. I did not agree with the idea of total freedom. Children need to be shelterd to a certaqin extent because althoug they do see the actions of others and are able to form their own opions they may not always interpret actions to be right or wrong. They need that guidance to process what they have seen.

I believe that kids will learn what interests them and very little more. I was never interested in history or politics and know very little about these subjects to this day. Now as an adult I struggle to be an active member of conversations which include these subjects.

Given the perfect situation kids will prosper in all areas through their naturaal curiosity and exploration. Although the high schoolmentioned in the article sounds like a wonderful place and seems to be the perfect situation I have reservations. How many students, what type of clients, what type of parents etc.?

what works for some doesn;t work for others. It is unrealistic to assume that education of this type would work for all.

It is disheartening to think that so many students are being treated unfairly by not providing the right tools to encourage self-directed learning and the option to expand their creative tendancies.

Shauna

This is such a facinating blog. I have learned alot and have agreed with everything I have read so far (I have not had the chance to read each entry).

My concern is that, as a homeschooling Mom living in Pennsylvania, I have to submit an end of year portfolio to my school district. This portfolio must show a progression of work from the child in each of the subjects covered. By law, these are the typical subjects you will find in any public school intitution.

How is a Mom, who is leaning toward unschooling, going to do so when she lives in a school district that is very strict and specific in it's requirements?
I'm having my child cover what I hope will be acceptable for my district. But I feel in doing so I am sometimes force feeding her information she doesn't care about and won't retain anyway.
If anyone has advise I would love to hear it-thanks in advance!

Thank you for your thoughts and to answer your question, yes, I have been fortunate enoungh to meet with many unschooling families here in PA. There are so many school districts and many of these districts are on the lenient side of what they accept in a portfolio. Many of these families can submit a scrap book style portfolio showing the child's experiences. These portfolios are wonderful in my opinion. Unfortunately I am not in one of these districts. In fact, my district has contacted me requesting additional information about my child that they were not legally entitled to.

I am in complete agreement that we all need to do whatever we can to reduce the state restrictions on what constitutes schooling.

When I opened this article to read I surprised to see who is was actually about. My maiden name is Rousseau, so I am always intrigued by things written about his beliefs. I found this article to very interesting while Rousseau believed that children should be protected from learning the wrong things. Today’s society somewhat believes that same things such as too much TV., controlling video games, protecting children from what they hear, see, who they interact with and who influences them. While I have mixed beliefs on this issue believe that we should somewhat protect our children from today’s evils we must also help them to understand today’s world. I guess being a mother of two young adults and teaching young students has given me better in site of this. Over time I have learned the world will not stop because you want it to, the troubles or evils will not go away, so it is my job it help them to understand them and learn from them not shelter them form all of them just some of them.
The second belief Rousseau stated was that children could learn certain kinds of things that certain ages. There was no sense of reasoning with a child not capable of reasoning. However, they could learn through experiences and direct consequences of his actions but through language. I believe this to be somewhat true, how many times have you heard a parent of a small child say, If you don’t do this___, I give you this or something like that? The child really has no idea what is going on but really wants the prize. But when a child does well and receives direct praise, they have learned through experiences this is good, and the same with poor behavior.
Another point Rousseau makes is learning form activity on natural objects in the environment using a direct sensory approach, not through contact of the outside world. To me this would be absurd to think that a child would not learn by modeling, asking questions or the interaction of others.
The last point Rousseau addresses is know a child so will to able to control what the child learns. He though you could guide their learning. Wouldn’t this be nice we could solve all of the educational problems if that was the case? As we all know all children are different, they learn at different rates and it takes a village to raise a child.

I found Emile creepy when I read it. Too many shoulds. I realize that Piaget concentrated on cognitive development, but he did talk a bit about how kids learn socially, too. I think he figured he didn't need to study it because kids take care of that themselves.