Jean Jacques Rousseau, modern developmental psychology, and education

Abstract

All the writings of Rousseau lead to development and education. His pedagogical thinking conquered Europe via the German group of pedagogues called the Philantropines and via the Swiss pedagogue Pestalozzi. The ideas also reached the homes of modern upper-middle class citizens, particularly in the Netherlands. The second half of the eighteenth century marked the beginning of the establishment of Primary Schools (De Swaan, 2004) in Prussia. They were inspired by both the Philantropines and Pestalozzi. The schools were basically modelled after Rousseauian principles. It is therefore not surprising that Jean Piaget empirically found developmental processes in elementary school children of the twentieth century that resemble the developmental phases described by Rousseau in the eighteenth century. It is clear, however, that today the Rousseau–Piaget tradition has had its time and that we should again develop an innovative pedagogy. Rousseau still shows the way to achieve that.

Keywords:

• Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Enlightenment
• Philantropines
• History of development and education

Notes

¹ For precise references to Rousseau’s work I simply refer here to Doorman (2012) and Wain (2011).