Children as Equal Family Members Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Children as Equal Family Members - Essay Example It was Jean Jacques Rousseau who first stated that he believed that children should be encouraged to develop as befitted them the best and that they should learn what they had an aptitude to learn. He stated that â€Å"We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need a reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.†1 His ideas were that children should be lead along a path where they could learn and acquire knowledge in a manner that appealed to them. He also believed that children should be allowed to learn things that came naturally to them and they found easy to understand instead of being forced to learn about things that they did not want to know. These ideas influenced the thought of many philosophers and educators who came after him and it is believed that many of the institutions that are still viewed as progressive in this modern day gain their original inspiration from a man who was never properly schooled himself. The fact that he was not schooled and yet still came to be viewed as one of the greatest and most original philosophers of his day is a testament to his theory since he taught himself everything he knew and as such he would have followed his aptitude. Children were seen in the same light from the moment they began to talk until the time that they emerged as a true adult. There were no perceptions that at a certain point in their lives they thought and felt differently to their parents and other adults. There was no realization that they had different needs at different ages and as such these