Jean Jacques Rousseau Research Paper

John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau both had different views on child development. They both made several experiments and had different stages that they thought that children where development. John Locke was more like an environmentalist which is a person who thinks that the child’s mind is blank slate and that children gain knowledge from the environment. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that children learn naturally meaning that the way the child grows comes from nature. He believed that children would learn from their own experiences and that have that the children are born with knowledge already. I agree with John Locke because my cousin’s son which is 5 years old would come up to me and do what he saw someone did in school

He came up with four stages of development which are infancy (birth-2years), childhood (2-12years), late childhood (12-15years) and adolescence. In infancy, infants gain experience of the world through their senses. This is the stage when infants start to explore and everything that they can so they will know how everything feels. In childhood, the child gains the knowledge of doing things on their own such as walking, running and feeding themselves. In late childhood, the child gains physical strength to be able to do work as adults would do like do groceries or ride a bike. In adolescence, he said that puberty begins and that children start to develop a social life. He said that a social where they become dependent on others besides themselves. He said they grow and learn on their own which is biological maturation. He also had an educational method in which he says that nature will guide children’s development so they can be independent. He talked about his imaginary pupil name Emile through his four stages of development. He found out that his stages of development were beneficial for Emile which I found it hard to believe. I thought that it wouldn’t work because children need that environment and society influence to in some cases decide what they become later in life. Unlike Locke, Rousseau believed that children weren’t blank slates but they gain their way of thinking and way of behaving through