Whether one is amazed with Rousseau's insight into what was many decades later to become behavioral, cognitive, and social learning psychology, or one is irritated by his many disputable and destructive ideas, Emile is a fascinating reading experience. In the first of the five books, Rousseau stresses that education begins at birth.
Early infancy is discussed in great detail.
The young child's drives and needs are the focus. The second book takes Emile at about the fifth year, and conducts him to about the twelfth year. The first thing the child most needs to know and learn, according to Rousseau, is to suffer, since it is an inevitable part of life. The second is developing his strength. The most important rule of all education, he adds, is not to gain time but not to lose it.