1. JEAN JACQUES
ROUSSEAU
By: Miriam Berry

2. CHILDHOOD
 Born in Geneva, Switzerland on June 28,1712
 Family was pious Calvinists and refugees from France
 His mother died shortly after childbirth
 His father was a poor watchmaker and dance master
 When he was ten his father fled Geneva
 He was then raised by his mothers sister

3. SCHOOLING
 He stopped traditional schooling at the age of 12
 Was apprenticed to several trades but had no success
 In 1728 he ran away from Geneva and joined the Catholic church
 Took a job as a footman to a noblewoman in Annecy
 Later became lover to a wealthy widow who provided for his education
in the classics and music
 In 1738 he journeyed to Montpellier to improve his health and when
he returned his lover had found a replacement

4. CAREER
 Attempted teaching but did not like it
 Was not recognized for his system of musical notation
 Was an unsatisfactory secretary to the French
ambassador in Venice
 Finally moved back to Paris after his failed attempts

5. FAMILY
 In Paris in 1745 he took a mistress, Therese le Vasseur
 They had five children
 Jean took them all to the Foundling Hospital to be raised as
orphans
 He later married Therese in 1768

6. PUBLISHED WORKS
 Wrote an essay called “Discourse on the Arts and Sciences” and
won a literary prize from the Academy of Dijon in 1749
 This gave him literary fame and he returned to Geneva in1754
 There he rejoined the protestant church and regained his
citizenship
 He published several essays and had some different mistresses in
the next few years.

7. EXILE
 In 1762 he published his most famous works, “The Social
Contract” and “Emile”
 Due to the content of these books about religion and his opinion
that there should be a democratic city-state in France he was exiled by
the government.
 He did not like it so in 1770 he returned to Paris

8. LATER LIFE
 Back in Paris he published several more less offensive works and
an opera.
 Rousseau suffered from psychological feelings of persecution and
lived in a cottage at Ermenonville for the last few months of his life
 Due to his mental and physical health problems he died of a
stroke on July 2, 1778

9. EMILE
 Rousseau wrote this novel to show his beliefs on education.
 It consists of five books and the different stages of learning
 Book 1: Infancy: Goodness of men, keep children should be
kept form forming bad habits
 Book 2: “The age of Nature”: purpose of education, school
environment, self motivated learning, discipline and physical
education

10. EMILE (CONTINUED)
 Book 3: Pre-adolescence : Intellectual education,
geography, science, history and other subjects are learned by
desire to learn them
 Book 4: Puberty: social attitudes, and natural religion
 Book 5: Adulthood: love, education of women

11. PHILOSOPHIES
 People are inherently good but they become corrupted by the evils
of society.
 He believed in liberty, equality, and fraternity
“Make the citizen good by training, and everything
else will follow.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau

12. SOURCES
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/ro
usseau.html
http://www.iep.utm.edu/rousseau/#SH1a
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm