hers. These four philosophers though from two very different time periods had some very similar ideas about education.
             Jean Jacques Rousseau said that children are born innocent and pure, and become contaminated by the world, as they grow older. "Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man". (Cahn 163) This quote shows that Rousseau saw the world as an imperfect place that corrupted the youth. It was Rousseau's thinking that it is imperative to teach children what they need at an early age before they become corrupted. He said that children are like plants; they need to be nourished and for them to flourish and thrive. " Plants are fashioned by cultivation, men by education". (Cahn 163) The idea behind this is that children are given a good foundation from which to start and then there is nothing left that we can do. Rousseau said that aside from a human teacher people are also taught by nature and by things. " The internal development of our faculties and organs is the education of nature". (Cahn 163) He said that nature can teach us through internal growth and development and things teach through how they affect us. Something else that Rousseau strongly believed in was that the development of a child couldn't be rushed in the slightest. He said "let them be children when they are children, playing games and the like." Trying to force things on children would be bad for their development. Rousseau said that children should be left alone so that they can become more self-reliant, the more that they can achieve on their own the less they will have to come to others for help with. This is important because it will promote children to keep on educating themselves once they are out of school. If children or young adults rely on themselves they will go out and figure things out on their own in...