Childhood in the Romantic EraIn the 1700s and early 1800s, partly as a reaction to industrialization, childhood emerged as a rather idealistic symbol for authenticity, aesthetics, and innocence. Children were depicted in literature and art as pure, natural beings that were corrupted by a decaying society. In educational contexts, this view was materialized in a philosophy that was founded on strong connections between nature and children. As you will see in this and the following Module, theorists from this era, led by writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, postulated that childhood should be protected and that children were best educated through authentic experiences in a suitable (preferably natural) environment. The teacher was seen as a gentle guide that follows the child’s lead, so as not to interrupt the child’s "natural" course of development. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)The philosopher Rousseau lived in France before the French Revolution and his educational thought was a reaction to the precarious political, social, and cultural context of France during that time. In his early writings, he challenged the corruption of the upper class, as well as the absolute power of the monarchy and the church. The reaction to his writings was harsh; Rousseau was condemned and outlawed by the French authorities and had to spend the later part of his life in hiding. As you will see in this course, the influence of Rousseau’s ideas on early education theory and practise is still felt today. In the article that you are asked to read for this module, MacDonald et al. (2013 ) state that, “We see many strong images created by Rousseau that continue to linger as discourses in our current educational habits and practices” (p. 27). Emile or on education (1762): A political view on early education:Rousseau’s book, Emile or on education, can be viewed as one of the first writings that imbued early education with a political purpose to create a more civil, democratic society (Biesta & Stengel, 2016). The book tells the story of a fictitious child, Emile, who is raised and educated by a tutor away from society in a rural, natural environment. Protected from the corrupted society, Emile is “allowed” to be a child. Emile's tutor was to follow the child's lead and guide his learning according to Emile's curiosities. The overall goal was to raise a rational, autonomous man who can make sensible social and political choices. Watch the Videovideo iconRousseau on Education [3:20 mins]https://youtu.be/ZmZaGlaSiX0

The “natural child”Nature played a major role in Rousseau’s philosophy. The key to the education of Emile from infancy to young adulthoodgirl holding white flower during daytime was to remove societal constraints (Biesta & Stengel, 2016). In sharp contrast with the corrupt society, nature represented, for Rousseau, purity that mirrored an image of the child as innocent and pure. Rousseau believed that being surrounded by nature created many learning and teaching opportunities. In contrast with the view of education of his time that relied on didactic teaching of traditional curricula, Emile’s learning was to be guided by his natural development and supported by his tutor. Rousseau recommended carefully observing children to determine how to teach them responsively. He was adamant that formal, intellectual, and moral “training” will be withheld from the young child; therefore, Emile was to be taught how to read and write only when he turned twelve. Parents, theorists, educators, writers, politicians and philosophers never viewed childhood or education the same way after reading Emile. Despite a ban on his book Emile in France, the book was widely read throughout Europe and greatly influenced future early education theorists such as Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi and Friedrich Froebel (see Module 5). Gender biased educationWhile Rousseau’s view on the education of boys was innovative and radical for his time, his views on educating girls were rather conservative. The fifth section in Emile is dedicated to the education of Sophie and in it Rousseau discusses female education as inherently related to women’s duty as a wife and a mother (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2013). spiral iconSection 2: Spiralling Issues in the History of ECESpiralling Issue #4: Problematizing child-as-natureSince Rousseau’s publication of Emile, young children and nature have existed as tightly entangled concepts As we will see in the next module, the conceptual relationship between child and nature was solidified by Froebel, the inventor of kindergarten. The German word “kindergarten” means children’s garden and it conjures a romantic image of a garden where innocent children grow and develop according to a natural, biological blueprint (Duhn, 2012). Due to this Romantic legacy, until recent years early childhood theorists and educators have shied away from critical engagement with the conflation of child-as-nature and its underlying assumption that there is a division between culture and nature. However, as global issues related to environmental damage and climate crises have risen, an increasing number of ECE scholars began to question, problematize or unsettle, the image of the child as nature and its assumed/desired separateness from culture (Duhn, 2012; Pacini-Ketchabaw & Taylor, 2015; Phillips, 2014; Nxumalo, 2015).These scholars are concerned with the nature/culture dualism that Rousseau evoked for a number of reasons. Writing about Rousseau’s legacy, Peckover (2012) explains that “historically, humanity has viewed Nature as something outside of itself” (p. 91). The danger in this vision of nature is that nature can be viewed as a resource to be manipulated for the benefit of humans. Taylor (2011), in an article you are asked to read for this module, warns that an approach that supports sheltering children from the realities of our world (i.e., from societal and ecological issues) limits young children’s experiences and opportunities for meaning-making. Peckover (2012) argues that education can provide children with a vision of nature that is not separated from humanity or culture. This view corresponds to Indigenous perspectives on land as teacher, where language and culture are seen as closely interrelated with land and not as separate from it (see -Learning from the land: Indigenous land based

pedagogy and decolonization).