“ It is no part of a child's business to know right and wrong, to perceive the reason for a man's duties. ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education (1762). copy citation
Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
---|---|
Source | Emile, or On Education |
Topic | duty reason |
Date | 1762 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Barbara Foxley |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5427/pg5427-images.html |
Context
“Go beyond it, and the child will not understand you. What sort of use is there in such teaching? I should greatly like to know what you would substitute for this dialogue. It would have puzzled Locke himself. It is no part of a child's business to know right and wrong, to perceive the reason for a man's duties.
Nature would have them children before they are men. If we try to invert this order we shall produce a forced fruit immature and flavourless, fruit which will be rotten before it is ripe; we shall have young doctors and old children.”
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