Jean Jacques Rousseau And Mary Wollstonecraft - 1201 Words

The Age of Enlightenment began in the late 17th century and had some key ideas developed by education innovators that changed the way that society views children and education. Many of these ideas stem from the revolutionary work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft. This essay will discuss the main ideas from their work and also how it is reflected in other work during the Age of Enlightenment for educationalists such as Johann Pestalozzi and Robert Owen. The final aspect of this essay will discuss how these ideas are reflected in early New Zealand education and the system. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideas about children and education were both admired and criticised widely. He was â€Å"regarded as a foundational thinker on education† (May, 2013, p.32). Ideas of his that were praised and inspired other people’s work included encouraging infants to be unrestricted and roam free in the environment. During the time of Rousseau’s work, children were swaddled to prevent bones and muscles from becoming deformed. Rousseau believed that it would be beneficial for children to have some freedom and interact with the surroundings of the environment. This is thought to be extremely beneficial for their learning and development. Rousseau also had a view that male education should be superior to female education. He believed that females should be educated to become good mothers and wives. Females should be supported by their husbands. These skills would be taught to them by theirShow MoreRelatedMary Wollstonecraft vs. Jean Jaques Rousseau E ssay1044 Words   |  5 Pagesenlightenment authors, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft, took part in a debate in which they argued about the purpose and education of women. In an article recently written in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the impact of the Enlightenment authors’ work on the 21st century is described. Though both of the authors expressed their arguments well, Mary Wollstonecraft’s debate was overall more persuasive and convincing than that of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s, and herRead MoreThe Scientific Revolution And The Enlightenment1528 Words   |  7 Pagesby the light of Science. Out of the Enlightenment come two very different philosophers. Mary Wollstonecraft and Jean-Jacques Rousseau had two very different ideas regarding the rights and opportunities of both men and women. While both argued that society oppressed human kind, Wollstonecraft argued that men were oppressing women while Rousseau felt that women exist in order to serve man. Mary Wollstonecraft believed that in order to keep society from becoming materialistic and oppressive, childrenRead MoreIntellectual Developments Pertaining to Gender in Japan and Europe765 Words   |  4 Pagessociety as tools to make the lives of men better. In the words of Rousseau â€Å"the education of women should always be relative to men. To please us, be useful to us†¦ make our lives easy and agreeable—those are the duties of women at all times† (Wollstonecraft 54). Men want obedient wives that make their lives easier so women are taught to be obedient, useful wives and to treasure beauty so they can get a husband to support them. Wollstonecraft complains that â€Å"women are taught at a young age by the exampleRead MoreThe Enlightentment of Age of Reason Sparked Change1049 Words   |  4 Pagesslave labor in horrible conditions. Enlightened Reformers saw this with disgust as people received sugar and other cash crops by the blood of the slaves. Slaver y became an important concept because of the disgust of the enlightened thinkers. Jean-Jacques Rousseau saw this and wrote his book the Discourse of the Origins of the Human Inequalities in 1754 on the inequality seen through slavery and how it contradicted enlightened beliefs. The argument against the abolishment of slavery was that it wouldRead MoreA Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman Essay1094 Words   |  5 Pagesthe name of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft preaches her belief that the oppression of women is largely due to lack of female education. Although the term feminism wasn’t coined until decades later, Wollstonecraft paved the way for future women’s rights movements by advocating equality in education for women. She believed men and women should be equal in the very basic aspects of life, such as in loyalty in marriage. Wollstonecraft openly calledRead MoreAnalysis of Vindication of the Rights for Women by Mary Wollstonecraft 787 Words   |  4 Pagesfor Women by Mary Wollstonecraft was published in 1792, during the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft preached that intellect will always govern to persuade women not to endeavor to acquire knowledge but convince them that the soft phrases, acceptability of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are most preferred. By intellect, I mean the men because they were the ones that were allowed to get an education therefore allowing them to become intellectual. Wollstonecraft cleverly doesRead MoreThe Romantic Period Of Jean Jacques Rousseau1915 Words   |  8 Pagesduring the Eighteenth Century, influential ideologies, portrayed in literature, from religion to nature, to childhood and education began to shape people’s perception and thinking on such matters. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a contemporary, and is considered one of the earliest prominent voices in Nineteenth-Century Romanticism. The Romantic period marked the gradual but significant shift from the rational thinking of the Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment to a more emotional and individual thinkingRead MoreWomen’s Inequality in Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women Rousseau’s On the Origin of Inequality1008 Words   |  4 PagesBoth Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft agree that in society women and men are not equals. Rousseau’s idea that socialization brings inequality in his Discourse On the Origin of Inequality is manipulated by Wollstonecraft in her A Vindication of the Rights of Women. She uses his arguments to prove that the inequality between men and women is not natural, but it comes from Rousseau’s idea of socialized inequality. The inequality experienced by women is a product of society, which WollstonecraftRead MoreThe Intersection Of Modernity And Gender1601 Words   |  7 Pagesmultidimensional. It does not have to prescribe to a socially acceptable norms. Mode rnity though the gender movements is explored though the works of Baudelaire s Flowers of Evil†, Marry Wollstonecraft’s â€Å"A Vindication of the Rights of Women†, Rousseau s The Social Contract â€Å", Virginia Woolf’s â€Å"A Room of One s Own†, and Goethe s Sorrows of Young Werther† which present the breakdown the rigid gender roles the challenges everyone faces for perspective lifestyles. Charles Baudelaire, a frenchRead MoreWomen in the Enlightenment Essay1406 Words   |  6 PagesThe Enlightenment allowed a period of educational growth to begin. A new love for knowledge and debate sprung up throughout the century. Women joined in with the intellectual banter by starting salons. â€Å"If Voltaire transformed the thoughts, and Rousseau the feelings, of the eighteenth century, it was the salons of Paris that the new conceptions of ‘reason’ and ‘nature,’ of ‘free thought’ and the importance of the individual, were sifted, codified, and eventually imposed.† Women played a central