. The American public school; a genetic study of principles, practices, and present problems . and education. 22 ROUSSEAU 23 It is, of course, his educational writings with which weare concerned in this book. The Social Situation. — The French Revolutionbroke out in 1789, soon after the close of our ownRevolutionary War. Rousseau published his greateducational work, ^The Emile (A-meel); in 1762,thirteen years beforethe battle of Lexing-ton and twenty-sevenyears before the storm-ing of the Bastille. Itwas one of the causalfactors in the great rev-olutionary upheavalsof that time. The keyto an u
. The American public school; a genetic study of principles, practices, and present problems . and education. 22 ROUSSEAU 23 It is, of course, his educational writings with which weare concerned in this book. The Social Situation. — The French Revolutionbroke out in 1789, soon after the close of our ownRevolutionary War. Rousseau published his greateducational work, ^The Emile (A-meel); in 1762,thirteen years beforethe battle of Lexing-ton and twenty-sevenyears before the storm-ing of the Bastille. Itwas one of the causalfactors in the great rev-olutionary upheavalsof that time. The keyto an understandingof that remarkablebook is a clear idea ofthe social and politicalconditions in Franceat the period when itwas written. Rous-seaus aim was to reform the abuses of the society was very unnaturally, and thereforevery unjustly, organized. Practically all the land wasowned by a very small percentage of the population, by the church and a few noblemen. The nobles,the clergy, and the king with his courtiers maintainedan expensive, wasteful government, and hved in the. Jean Jacques Rousseau 24 THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL most extravagant and senseless luxury. They weresupported by the rent of the land; and by rich incomesfrom government positions, the duties of which wereusually merely nominal. The masses of the commonpeople, on the other hand, paid both the rent and thetaxes. Hence they were poverty stricken and grounddown almost beyond imagination. These social conditions produced an unnatural lifefor everybody. Appointments to government posi-tions were secured chiefly through social favoritism;hence there swarmed about the court a crowd of am-bitious idlers, competing for the favor of those inauthority. This court society was regulated by anelaborate and artificial system of etiquette, in whichit was of supreme importance to be strictly versed,since the prizes depended upon social graces ratherthan upon any sort of practical efficiency. And asones prest
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