In different versions of free education, teachers have different views on the need to form a personality for a certain social or moral ideal. Rousseau on the pages of «Emil, or On Education» demonstrates that the educator not only persistently teaches, but also persistently educates, purposefully forms the personality of his pupil. Rousseau has his own, fairly definite educational ideals, he knows what he will not allow, what he will be indifferent to and what he will definitely bring up.
According to these non-ideals, you will not necessarily become a patriot or a public figure, you will not be made an advanced specialist, priest or lawyer, you will simply become healthy and happy. But in fact — not only healthy and happy, but also a decent, hardworking and free-thinking person: the way Rousseau wants to see you. We remember that Rousseau is one of the French enlighteners who proclaimed the slogan «Liberty, Equality, Fraternity». His ideal is a free-thinking person who lives by his own work. It is such a person for him that is as natural and natural as possible.
The fact that Rousseau has a well-defined image of the future pupil, a well-formed image of the required result, is especially clearly seen against the background of the fact that he has a completely different educational program for a boy and for a girl. According to him, it is most natural and natural for a woman to be dependent and narrow-minded. Adaptation to the opinions of others, the absence of independent judgments, even of one’s own religion, submission to someone else’s will — this is the destiny of a woman. Rousseau was convinced that «girls feel made for obedience», the «natural state» of a woman is dependence, and no serious mental work is needed for a girl. See →
So, Rousseau has quite definite educational ideals, within the framework of which he methodically intends to form and, if possible, forms his pupils. And Rousseau somehow combines this with the idea of a free upbringing. Let me emphasize once again: at least on the example of Rousseau, it can be shown that free education is not education without a pedagogical model, not education “what grows up, grows up”. According to Rousseau, the purposeful formation of the personality of the pupil is quite compatible with the idea of free education.
Free upbringing and choice of life path
Free education, as a rule, prides itself on the fact that it always leaves the choice of the path of life to the pupil himself. See →