I am comparing and contrasting the contribution to the study of education made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke as I believe they are two of the biggest contributors to education. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 12, 1712. His mother died soon after his birth, and his father Isaac Rousseau, abandoned him to be orphaned at the age of twelve. Rousseau addresses freedom more than any other problem and aims to explain how man is given total freedom without restrictions.
Rousseau believes there are two reasons for this, first if he is not restricted by rules of state or dominated by others. The second is that if he is free from the need of artificial or material things in modern society. These make up a large amount of Rousseau’s philosophy, but the second is part of his more insightful philosophical process. Rousseau believed that modern society has changed man into being run by his own needs, he thinks that this enslavement to their own needs is to blame for exploitation of others to self-esteem issues.
Rousseau has a famous phrase, “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains,” he says that modern states withhold the physical freedom that is our birth right, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society. Rousseau strongly believes that young children at a certain age must focus on the physical side of their education. Like animals they must be left to their own devices to discover the world they live in and how things work it is very important when it comes to learning later in life.