5 Naturalism and Education

I. Naturalism
A. Naturalism is based on the assumption that nature is the whole reality. Nature is a total
system that contains and explains all existence, including human beings and human nature. It
holds that there is but a single order of reality, which is matter in motion; many Naturalists,
especially in ancient Greece, were materialists who denied the belief in a supernatural order
of reality.

B. Unlike the neatly defined categories of Idealism, Realism and Thomism, Naturalism is difficult
to define. There are also varieties of Naturalists.
1. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) veered back and forth from a romantic view of
human nature to the rationalist perspective of the Enlightenment.
2. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746- 1827), who also used Rousseaus ideas in his
educational method, retained a belief in a supernatural God.
3. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) recast Darwinian evolutionary theory into a sociology of
knowledge that stressed a highly competitive ethical system.

C. Naturalism either rejects or diminishes the importance of the supernatural, it provides some
clear contrast with Theistic Realism. Pragmatism barrowed some of the themes of
Naturalism.

D. Naturalism influenced the progressive view of the child-centered teacher.

E. Naturalism has the following common elements that contributed to the twentieth- century
progressive education:
1. Childrens learning should originate with direct sensory experience in their immediate
environment rather than with verbalism such as lectures, preachment, and books.
2. Childhood is an appropriate, necessary, and valuable stage of human growth and
development; the curriculum and instruction should low from the childs impulses and
instincts.
3. Childhood and adolescence are not of one piece but are cumulative stages of human
development that have their own readiness for learning and appropriate learning
exercises.
4. The school should not be regarded as separate from but should be an extension of the
childs environment.

II. Rousseau: Proponent of Naturalism

A. According to his book Confessions, Rousseau, who was born in Geneva, Switzerland, was a
precocious, sensitive, but undisciplined child. The son of watchmaker, Rousseaus mother
died when he was a week old and his father was forced to leave him when he was ten. As a
youth, Rousseau served as an apprentice to an engraver and to a notary but these were
unsatisfactory and disappointing experiences to the young man.

B. Rousseaus Confessions show him to be a proponent of permissiveness. Teachers in

Rousseaus style, were permissive individuals who learned with their students.

C. In Emile, Rousseaus didactic novel, a boy, in experiencing a natural education, has his
character formed in such a way that his original inclination to amour de soi is so developed
that he can resist and overcome the social temptations and pressures that lead to amour
Page | 1
 proper. Rousseau has Emile develop naturally, on a country estate, away from corrupting
social institutions and conventions. True to his belief that human beings have their own
timetable for learning, Rousseau organized education according to Emiles stages of
development. For each stage of development, the child, Emile, showed signs that he was
ready to learn what was appropriate to that stage; his actions, or learning episodes and
activities, were also appropriate to the particular developmental stage. Based upon these
stages, human learning could be viewed sequentially with educational results that were
cumulative.

D. Rousseaus concept of childhood sharply contrasted with the view of the child that was
dominant when he wrote mile. The early eighteenth century view, still influenced heavily by
John Calvin, saw childhood as a necessary evil to be gotten through as quickly as possible.
Children, particularly the very young, were dirty, noisy, mischievous, and prone to evil and
idleness. In the traditional view, the good child was as adult like as possible. The good
child, a miniature adult was dutiful, quiet, and obedient. The shorter the time devoted to
childlike play, games, and behavior, the better. Seeing the child as a primitive innocent,
Rousseau viewed childhood as the most natural stage of human development. It was a time
that was to be enjoyed and savored as long as possible.

III. Naturalist Themes in Education

A. Nature and the Natural
1. Nature and the natural were the key elements in educational theory. This view of
human nature as being originally good or at least unspoiled contrasted sharply with the
doctrine that human beings fell from grace because of sin.
2. In many commentaries, the Naturalist in education are referred to as reformers who
were rebelling against supernaturalism, religious indoctrination, classicalism and
verbalism in education. Rather than looking to the supernaturalism of the Church or the
Greek and Latin classics as authorities, the Naturalist looked to nature as a source of
truth and human experience.
3. Naturalists were influenced by the Enlightenment. They view nature as a universal
mechanism of which human beings are a part. If nature was mechanism, the human
beings could discover how it functioned. Education was to prepare people to follow their
human nature and to live according to its dictates. They were revolutionary in their
questioning of the old order. The old order would be natural in both society and in
education.

B. Epistemology, Knowing, and Naturalism

1. In terms of epistemology, Naturalism was not a radical departure from Aristotelian
Natural Realism. Indeed, it was an early form of scientific realism.
2. In terms of educational method, naturalism signaled radical departure from verbalism as
a method of instruction. Naturalisms focus was on sense experience as a means of
analyzing or breaking down reality into its components. It saw reality in each individual
rather than in the whole.
3. Naturalists stressed simple beginnings, immediate experiences, and concrete cases.

C. Axiology, Values and Human Nature

1. Values arise from human beings interaction with the environment. Instincts, drives and
impulses need to be expressed rather than repressed.
2. In Rousseauean terms, the child was totally good at birth. Because children are good,
education-if it is to cultivate moral persons- should follow childrens impulses and
inclinations. The curriculum and instruction should come from the childs nature.
3. The love of self and self-esteem gradually radiated outwardly over the association with
other persons. From the love of self comes a natural ethic that cultivates a sense of
human equality that institutions based on rank and privilege could not impede nor
deflect.

Page | 2
 4. Education for moral development had both positive and negative aspects. Enjoying or
suffering the consequences of ones own action was its own reward or punishment.

D. Human Growth and Development

In developing their educational theory, naturalist look to human beings to provide
both clues and cues for education. As they go through the life span from infancy to old age,
human beings exhibit stages of development. The theory of stages of development leads to a
special kind of educational appropriateness. Instead of preparing a person for an
appropriate social or economic role, Naturalist construe appropriateness as being correct for
the persons readiness and development. That is, education should not be training to be
either a prince or a peasant.

IV. The Naturalist Curriculum

For Naturalist, genuine education is based on the readiness and needs of the human
being. For many of the nineteenth-century Naturalist reformers and the twentieth-century
progressives, the childs nature, interest, and needs provided the basis of the curriculum.
Children learned what they were ready to and wanted to learn. Human experience provided
a richly varied range of activities that led to growth and development. Naturalists and their
later-day adherents saw learning as activities, projects, and problem-solving.

V. The Teacher and the Learner

1. Rousseaus ideal natural teacher
a. The tutor is a person who is completely in tune with nature. He is aware of human
nature and its stages of growth of development, does not force the student to learn
but rather encourages him/her to explore and to grow by his interactions with the
environment.
b. The tutor, as an educator, is not in hurry to have the student learn. He is patient,
permissive and nonintrusive. The student learns when he is ready to learn. As a
teacher encourages the learners own self-discovery.
c. The teacher emphasizes activity, exploration and learning by doing. He is not a
teacher who stressed books, recitations, and amassing information in literary form.

2. The nature of the learner

a. The child is a noble savage, a primitive unspoiled by the vices of a corrupting society.
b. The childs needs, instincts, and impulses are to be trusted and relied upon as the raw
ingredients of further education.

Reference:
Gutek, Gerald L. Philosophical and Ideological Perspectives on Education. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
Page | 3