15/10/2026
Now it’s World Student Day! To celebrate, here’s a book about education that got burned in public!
Published in 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Émile; ou, De l’éducation” is basically the foundational text of modern, student-centered learning.
Instead of memorising Latin under strict discipline, Rousseau argued that education should be tailored to the child's natural development by encouraging independent thought, practical experience, and learning through doing. (Sound a bit like UM’s Problem-Based Learning? 🤔)
Rousseau also included a section arguing that religion should be a personal, reasoned choice rather than state-enforced dogma. The Parliament of Paris was so outraged by this part that they banned the book, ordered public burnings of it and issued an arrest warrant for Rousseau - forcing him to escape to Switzerland.
It’s kind of funny that a treatise advocating for students to learn at their own pace was seen as a threat to national security, but rethinking how to teach has always been a high-stakes business.
