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What were Voltaire's views on education and child rearing?
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Voltaire criticized traditional education, emphasizing the dangers of naively optimistic philosophies, as portrayed in his satirical work Candide. He opposed education dominated by religious orders, advocating for secular, science-based, and critical thinking-focused education. Voltaire rejected both Jesuit methods and Rousseau's belief in the inherent goodness of untutored children, suggesting that education should prepare young people to realistically and analytically engage with the world, avoiding reliance on authoritative dogma.
Voltaire was a universal critic. A reader with a thorough understanding of the historical context of Candide would be hard pressed to find an institution, a philosophy, or a political movement that Voltaire wasn't making fun of in it.
The story begins with the youth of Candide, and so we see from the beginning what Voltaire sees as wrong with the bringing up of the young. Candide's teacher, Pangloss, is modeled after the famous philosopher Leibniz, who espoused an extreme optimism, as expressed in the phrase repeated often in the book, "the best of all possible worlds." Candide is a hopelessly naive character, largely because the philosophy of his teacher is hopelessly naive. The focus could have easily been otherwise, but the message would have been the same: a teacher who sees the world incorrectly will corrupt his pupils with an incorrect understanding.
Other problems with Pangloss as a teacher...
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serve as supplement to this issue, such as the humorous incident in which Cunegonde sees Pangloss engaged in some sort of sexual activity with a household maid and, knowing of the man as a teacher of science, decides to practice the same "science" with Candide. Both children naively view Pangloss as a man of perfect knowledge, and so they are unable to see his flaws, both intellectual and moral.
When Candide is sent away, he finds no better teachers in the army that forcibly conscripts him, the conflicting religious sects that attempt to exploit him for their causes, and the various con-artists he encounters, who rob and cheat him. He is pressed again and again by unfortunate circumstances and the brutishness of humanity, but he maintains faith in Pangloss's optimism almost to the end.
The most unlikely teacher brings the final lesson in the farmer the group stays with, who encourages them to simply "tend the garden," which comes as a workable solution to the problems excessive optimism have opened Candide up to. The contrast between Pangloss, who has spent years trying to reiterate a philosophical understanding of reality, and this farmer, who offers a simple realism, suggests that, perhaps, life is much more simple than we give it credit for.
Of course, it would be too easy to just say Voltaire is suggesting we ignore formal and intellectual learning for an experience-based approach to school and child-rearing. Voltaire was an intellectual, and he valued science and rational thinking. The absurd parody of the philosopher in Pangloss is meant to represent the most extreme of what was popular in education and philosophy at the time. The key to understanding the lesson being taught by the story is to figure out the difference between viewing the world through the lens of an intellectual paradigm and finding truth by tending the symbolic garden of life.
Voltaire's approach to education and child rearing was a consequence of a wider philosophical system, which in many ways opposed traditional modes of thought and habits common in the France of his period. In a sense, his theories were as much negative suggestions about how one should not raise a child as positive suggestions about how one should do so.
The first strong negative belief we find in Voltaire was his opposition to all forms of superstition and priestcraft. He objected strongly to the Jesuit education he himself had received, and he was generally opposed to the predominant practice in France that placed education mainly in the hands of Roman Catholic monastic orders. He advocated a secular form of education.
Next, although he was opposed to Jesuit education, he was equally opposed to the system of Rousseau, doubting the inherent goodness of the untutored child and favoring critical thinking over Romantic intuition.
Next, after the Lisbon earthquake, Voltaire turned against the optimism of philosophers such as Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, arguing in Candide that such points of view ill-prepared young men for the real world.
For positive precepts, Voltaire would want young people educated in the sciences and critical thinking, taught to analyze the world rather than to accept the word of authorities.
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