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A review by jocelynw
Emile: Or on Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3.0
Rousseau's mistress bore him five children, and he turned each of them over to a foundling hospital on the day of their birth.
As I started reading this treatise on education, in which Rousseau writes about how differently he would educate his theoretical pupil than what was done conventionally at the time, and goes about congratulating himself on how much better this theoretical pupil will turn out than the
losers that comprise the rest of the world, my first thought was, "Did Rousseau have any children, and if so, did he educate them according to his theories?" And it turns out he had five chances, and took none of them.
Thus I'm not sure why I should spend 350 pages on a treatise on childrearing by this dude, but I did, and my husband can probably tell you that it is the book that has most rankled me in a long time. Part of our pillow time two nights in a row included a large number of preposterous or offensive quotes that I read aloud to him in an arch and sarcastic manner. And having now completed it, I can tell you that the insufferable self-congratulation about his nonexistent subject's awesomeness continues from start to finish. It is slightly irritating.
There is also a bonus sexism section! You get to find out all about the contradictory expectations he has of women.
I will give the guy this: he is relentlessly quotable. At least my reading this resulted in flagging a number of quotes that will be helpful to my husband the next time he teaches his philosophy and gender class.
As I started reading this treatise on education, in which Rousseau writes about how differently he would educate his theoretical pupil than what was done conventionally at the time, and goes about congratulating himself on how much better this theoretical pupil will turn out than the
losers that comprise the rest of the world, my first thought was, "Did Rousseau have any children, and if so, did he educate them according to his theories?" And it turns out he had five chances, and took none of them.
Thus I'm not sure why I should spend 350 pages on a treatise on childrearing by this dude, but I did, and my husband can probably tell you that it is the book that has most rankled me in a long time. Part of our pillow time two nights in a row included a large number of preposterous or offensive quotes that I read aloud to him in an arch and sarcastic manner. And having now completed it, I can tell you that the insufferable self-congratulation about his nonexistent subject's awesomeness continues from start to finish. It is slightly irritating.
There is also a bonus sexism section! You get to find out all about the contradictory expectations he has of women.
I will give the guy this: he is relentlessly quotable. At least my reading this resulted in flagging a number of quotes that will be helpful to my husband the next time he teaches his philosophy and gender class.