Emile, Julie and Other Writings (Jean Jacques Rousseau)

This is a 1964 edition of an abridgment of Emile, containing some passages from Julie. Published by Barron's Educational Series the 278 page text attempts to offer, through a translation of the original text and through summary, the key ideas from Rousseau's works on education.

Julie, from the viewpoint of the modern reader is a highly offensive work in which Rousseau advocates for women to be taught subordination. Women are to be treated as the weaker sex, are to avoid abstract theories and education, and are to be taught the art of homemaking instead. Needlepoint is especially valuable, as is anything that will please a man. To add a final blow, women are described as lacking the capacity for reason.

Putting 18th century prejudices aside, Emile proves an interesting read. Rousseau believes that man is born naturally good and it is life and fellow man which corrupts him. He suggests that by raising a boy in nature and allowing him to discover things for himself, apart from books and lectures, the child will become a better person than those raised in the traditional way. Rousseau declares foreign languages useless and criticizes the idea of  extensive travel. He idealizes an upbringing in which a boy is left for the first few years, entirely to his own devices at a rural home with no education save the implicit lessons taught by his parents. The majority of the boy's childhood is to be spent with a tutor who also teaches largely by indirect methods. Rousseau imagines that somehow a child can be raised through his "natural" method to will reflect all that is good in man.

Although the work is an impossible utopia (or perhaps a dystopia?) it does offer some interesting reading, as the very least from an historical point of view.