Comments on: Social Engineering in the 1790s

By: Arthur D. Hlavaty

Arthur D. Hlavaty — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 12:36:18 +0000

A similar program (without the palm irritation) produced the Buddha, though not quite in the way intended.

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:59:28 +0000

But the way D and W went about raising young Basil was Rousseau-influenced, wasn’t it? Or wasn’t it. And Wedgwood was peripherally involved in that project, if I remember correctly. Via correspondence, influence, etc? Or do I not remember correctly. There’s something so right, so as it were providential, in the intermingling of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods – in the fact that Darwin was half-Wedgwood, and also married one.

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 09:23:52 +0000

Damn – beaten to it. I was going to mention The Lunar Men . There’s an online edition of Emile href=”http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/Projects/emile/emile.html” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/Projects/emile/emile.html , being a complete French text and a rather good reworking by Grace Roosevelt of Barbara Foxley’s translation. It isn’t clear from the excerpt from Wordsworth whether the Wedgwood scheme is Rousseauian or not. The key feature of Rousseau’s programme is, basically, that the tutor does not seek to educate the child by command (since that would awaken the reactive attitudes prematurely) but rather manipulates the child’s environment so that the child discovers the world for itself but in an order and in a manner selected by the tutor.

By: Mr Spectator

Mr Spectator — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:30:43 +0000

There seems to have been a lot of it about, back then. Rousseau scholars beware!

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:15:02 +0000

I was just expecting the extract to end with ‘and lo, we have succeeded and the many children of this method now blog at crookedtimber.org’ They can be found doing tireless work on certain other blogs, irritated palms and all.

By: clew

clew — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 05:52:02 +0000

I was just reading a Maria Edgeworth story that includes the “Rational Toy-shop”, but the children’s walls certainly weren’t painted grey.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 05:27:59 +0000

I was just expecting the extract to end with ‘and lo, we have succeeded and the many children of this method now blog at crookedtimber.org’

By: PG

PG — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 00:42:39 +0000

Also like Peter in “City of Glass.”

By: Conrad Barwa

Conrad Barwa — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 00:02:07 +0000

Puts me in mind of the Alan Moore comic, ‘Tom Strong’ where an earnest Victorian dad takes his pregnant wife to some Pacific Island where he plans to bring up his son in a completely controlled environment; which involves, if I remember correctly some sort of pressurised chamber to develop a stronger bone structure and physique; meaning that his wife and himself can only ever interact with the child while wearing pressure-resistant suits. Being a comic book, this doesn’t quite traumatise the child in the way it should and he grows up to be remarkably well-adjusted. Ah well, a silly idea, if ever there was one.

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:48:18 +0000

Well, I wanted to post the thing about Mill but I was too late too. William and Dorothy W. did better by little Basil than a grey box, at least.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:39:35 +0000

Damn you, John! I wanted to post that first.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:30:07 +0000

I trust I’m not the only one immediately reminded of the episode of the Simpsons where Maggie goes to the Ayn Rand School for Tots to learn to “develop the bottle within.”

By: Jolhn Isbell

Jolhn Isbell — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:28:21 +0000

Dr. Marvin Monroe, explaining to Mr. Burns why he needs a million dollars in order to raise a child from infancy inside a small box: “I expect him to grow up with inadequate social skills and a deep-seated hostility to me.”

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:09:47 +0000

Except for the continually irritated palms.

By: nolo

nolo — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:07:27 +0000

Sounds like the way John Stuart Mill was brought up . . .