Rousseau and Education

    Childhood education was pushed forward when philosopher Rousseau claimed that women and men should not be treated the same in terms of education. He believes that both men and women are equal yet, men and women do not possess the same biological traits meaning that they should not be treated the same way in school. Rousseau believes that his way of teaching both men and women should be viewed as equal in a way and that the way women are treated in school is no less or greater then how the men are treated in school.  

    In the text Rousseau explained that men are seen as strong individuals while women are weak and supposed to be submissive. Today these social norms are still something that is said. We use these words to describe women and to me it seems to limit them. As we have come so far from Rousseau's harsh beliefs we also have a long way to go. Women in the country now are not viewed as such in school yet, our society still will say things about women and their role within the world. As women and for all of the amazing women who have pioneered the movement of women having more rights and being viewed as an equal to all no matter the biological makeup we have come very far and will continue to come far. Rousseau's views are not dated for the time and I can understand why he would think the way he did however, looking through it with a different lens it is now clear that there was a huge difference between the way women were treated in comparison to the men. When we place limits on women and men we are not allowing them to be fully who they are. We are manipulating a world in which we as a society think is the right way to act or do things or treat people. During this time period this was especially true and it is not until as of late that we have started to notice the limits we have put up and tried to break them down. As I have said before we still have tremendous amount of work to do and for generations to come we will have to continue to fight for what is right and just yet, one day it will be better then before and all we can ask for is that each day is better because we did something to ensure that change was going to happen.


Comments

  1. Anastasia's BlogSeptember 24, 2020 at 9:33 AM

    Hi Mary,
    I like the quote you placed at the top before you began your argument. I think it set the right tone. I agree with the point you brought up that stated that when limits are placed upon a certain group of people, they begin to believe those are truly their limits. While it is also true that we have progressed tremendously, we still have a very long way to go. What are your thoughts about the gender pay gap in the United States? How do you think it influences our society?

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  2. Runa's blogOctober 4, 2020 at 6:11 PM

    Hi Mary, I really like the quote on the top of your discussion because I think it makes a lot of sense that men can’t get away with hurting women and expecting everything to keep running smoothly without getting some punishment for it at some point. You are right to say that a lot of limits have been imposed on women throughout history, and even today there are still some limitations. With the freedom we are starting to gain there is also a harsh price with it. If women want to work or dress a certain way, they are called names and identities are slapped onto them. Some of these are coming from fellow females who are not completely enlightened yet on the wicked tricks men pull, and most of them are coming from men who do not feel comfortable with a woman being equal to them while also being respected and treated well.

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  3. Dr. NoraOctober 13, 2020 at 2:49 PM

    Hi Mary,
    You mentioned that "Rousseau's views are not dated for the time and I can understand why he would think the way he did". Can you expand on this a bit? What about Rousseau's views make more sense when you consider them in historical context?

    ReplyDelete

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