The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-03-29
".

Now let US glance at what our lecturer
a y about Emile" IL is acknowledged
that this celebrated book CONTAINED excel
lent ideas, not all Of which, however, by
.eny means we're original. That mothers
should nurse their children; that there
should be plenty OF cold water and outdoor
exercise-all that Ia very good. Very good,
also, TO love childhood, to wish IL gay and
happy. II is quite right that to make a
nan is not TO construct a machine, but to
develop a living being M. Lemaitre also
Acknowledges that progressive studies,
ap%portioned to the physical and moral
development Of the child; experimental
education by the view and contact Of things;
the superiority Of education Heading forth
over instruction; the reaction against
worldly education, and ALAG against that
found solely in books; the plan Of forming
a mar thoroughly equipped for life: all that
ia prsiseworthy and just All which in
Emile belongs exclusively TO Rousseau 10
the an~ti-natural idea Of a supposed eduoa-
ton according to nature, which requires
the dispossession Of parents and the COM
plete sacrifice OF a tutors life TO a single
pupil, and also the idea Of an education
which, were il possible, would deprive each
generation OF the labor and thought Of those
generations that had gone before. In a
word this education, IL It's aim is not the
entire subserviency Of the pupil TO his
tutor, tends TO the breaking up Of all ira
ditions. Our lecturer reminds us that ira
dition economies time by transmitting
from the parents to the children self-evi-
dent opinions. IL thereby unites and har-
monies the efforts Of successive genera
tons. Teach children their fathers belief.
Later they can free themselves from this
belief II they choose; but II most Of them
hold toit, what strength mankind, Of which
they form a part, will find in this c%ontinu-
ityl What would become Of a nation IL
each child were to be left free TO judge Of
life and 10 construct for its own use a relig-
ion and a code Of morals2'
NJ. Lemaitre does not hesitate to say that
10 become an anarchist or his tutors satel-
lite would have been the destiny Of a child
brought up strictly according to Rous-
seau's theory, Nothing, in fine, out Of
Emile could be put in practice except that
which had previously been advocated or
suggested by Locke, Montaigne or Rabe-
lais. OF the original part, that which
really belongs TO Rousseau, and which is
the worst part, there is nothing which can
be used proftably. This lie not to say that
in Rousseau's contribution there is nothing
at all which can be used. As a matter Of
fact, IL is just the worst part Of the system
OF education propounded in Emile which
has been adopted in modern France. The
present French system Of education. 30 far
as the Government schools are concerned,
is based on the assumption that the child's
liberty must be respected and its conscience
must not he ~infinged. Hence no religious
instruction, and for that matter no moral
instruction, until the child can choose for
himself his religion or his philosophy. Our
lecturer insists that what to-day lie called
neutrality, and Is in fact the irreligon Of
the Government schools, may he found
already in embryo in Emile and Ia GER
tainly implied in Rousseau's system OF
education.
An the same Emile had great success.
It was considered the authors masterpiece.
Women saw in 1t chiefly the novel OF
Sophie and the theory Of maternal nursing;
at the opera fine ladies' had their babies
brought to the box, 80 that at the back Of
II they might suokle them between the acts.
Az Ia, the men. they saw in Emile what
ever they chose, because everything was
in it,"