Jose’s description of his experience with school and education contradicts Rousseau’s ideas on education.

In Emile, Rousseau believes that a child should be educated in a way that cultivates natural tendencies. He suggests “man is truly free who desires what he is able to perform, and does what he desires.” (5). In Black Shack Alley, Zobel describes “It was painful to me to spend days on end without reading aloud and in unison with other children” (76). Jose enjoys being in school “ran about like young animals enjoying freedom” (71). However, he is deprived of his freedom.

Not only can’t Jose do what he wants to do, but he also has to do what he doesn’t want to do. Jose feels that “spend each day in Mme Leonce’s dark kitchen and yard was for me a horrible experience” (69). By the time he finishes the chores, “Raphael had already left and though I ran quickly, I still reached school late” (69). He has become accustomed to the “dish-washing chore as the logical task to follow the meal; whereas polishing shoes after lunch upset my digestion, made me drunk. And it made me reach school late every afternoon” (70). He can’t avoid “being scolded by the mistress for late-coming” (70). Another time, Jose “reached school later than usual because, after the dishwashing and shoe-polishing chore, I had to sweep the yard” (71). Everything Mme Leonce does prevents Jose from getting a good education. Furthermore, M’man Tine doesn’t listen to his complaints and even asks him to “remain outside on my knees until dinner time” (71). All these lead him to doubt “perhaps I don’t even have the right to arrive at school so early” (71).

Rousseau also proposes that education truly matters when it is relevant. When Emile receives letters, “The note is read to him at last, but it is too late” (12). Later, “He does his best, and at last he makes out half the note” (12). Emile wants to learn how to read deliberately because it is going to help him meet a need. In Black Shack Alley, Godmother Fanny tirelessly drags the whole class to along. In fact, “we had forgotten everything we’d repeated” (93). Students don’t learn effectively because they are beaten into submission instead of developing their individual natures. The mistreatment Jose experiences in school and the negligence of his mental health by his grandmother clearly violates learning of nature.