Book review

Emile is Rousseau's famous work on education and an important document in the history of education in the world. It is Rousseau's 20 years of painstakingly written 3 years to complete, published in 1762 is a novel and half essay form of writings. The book consists of five volumes, taking the education and training of a boy of noble birth, Emile, as a clue, comprehensively exposing the absurdity and ugliness of feudal education at that time, and designing an ideal education blueprint that conforms to nature and develops children's nature.　　He believed that education for children must follow the requirements of nature and conform to human nature, and opposed adults' disregard for children's characteristics, forcing children to receive education against nature according to traditional prejudices, and interfering with and restricting children's freedom and development. He believed that the purpose of education is to cultivate natural man. The natural man envisioned by Rousseau was a physically strong, mentally developed and emotionally rich person, capable of love and benevolence, and a gravedigger of the feudal regime. He believed that the feudal education at that time shackled the human body and mind to the extent that they could not develop naturally, and made them succumb to become the victims of the existing system and customs.　　Rousseau believed that what people were born lacking, and what they needed in adulthood, was the result of education. And this education comes from three sources, namely, from nature, from what is around us and from what is outside. The inner development of our instincts and organs is the education of nature; the teaching of others how to utilise this development is the education of man; and the acquisition of good experience of the things that affect us is the education of things. When the three kinds of education are orientated in the same direction, when they are able to co-operate satisfactorily, then the child can be well educated. Of the three, the education of nature cannot be det