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History Dept | Brooklyn College Library

HIST 3320: The History of Childhood

An OER for Prof. Swapna Banerjee

Unit 7 Readings and Assignments Fall 2024

Week 7: John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft

Tuesday, Oct. 8; Thursday, Oct. 10

Read

Required Reading

Tuesday Oct. 8

Primary Sources

Required Reading

Thursday Oct. 10

Primary Sources

Recommended Reading

Discussion Questions

  • Discussion Questions:

  • What does John Locke advocate in his Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)? Do you think it is still important to us?  
  • Do you think Jean Jacques Rousseau Emile, or On Education or Émile, or Treatise on Education (1762) is fundamental to the understanding of the modern child in the West? Do you think his ideas of education were gender neutral? Substantiate your answers with suitable examples. 
  • What role did Mary Wollstonecraft play in envisioning education for women?
  • The readings for this week are revealing in developing an understanding of modern childhood. What kind of reactions do the readings, including the primary sources, evoke in your mind? Do you think Locke, Rousseau, and Wollstonecraft are important for our understanding of modern childhood?