This is my peer response to Gabrielle’s post.

I agree with Gabrielle when she states nature and experience were Rousseau’s main focus. He kept Emile away from the traditional school system, so he could fully develop his skills and imagination freely. Giving Emile freedom, he gained the “wisdom of a child” while being “free and happy” (Rousseau, 14), as Gabrielle states.

However, in the novel Black Shack Alley, Jose’s experience from formal schooling was very different from Emile. Jose’s teachers had the utmost authority; anything a student did that undermined their authority or even if they made a mistake, the teachers had the ability to beat them. Jose even describes the principal, Mr. Stephen Roc, hitting children with his bare hands, “… the entire proceedings unfolding not without his clouting him a few times on the back of his neck or ears” (Zobel, 104). This is obviously very restricting, making the children afraid of making a mistake or even speaking their mind, their learning driven by fear, “…waiting to receive the fatal blow on my head, on my back, even wising it would land as quickly as possible” (Zobel, 94). Because of this very strict way of learning, Jose implies how unhappy everyone was, even wishing his instruction mistress, Mam’zelle Fanny, were dead, “As for me, she made me wish night and day that she were dead and I had sworn a long time to burn her alive when I grew up” (Zobel, 92).

According to Rousseau, a child should be able to “live the life of a child” (Rousseau, 14), but that is not the case with Jose. Gabrielle makes a very good point when she proves that Jose was limited in what he could do because of the arrangement between Mme Leonce and M’man Tine. Jose even states himself, “I had never been prevented from playing. As a result, the time I spent each day at Mme Leonce’s dark kitchen and yard was for me a horrible experience” (69). What child would want to spend their free time doing chores for another person, a person they did not even live with!

As Gabrielle states, Rousseau’s idea of education, especially for young children, includes freedom and happiness, but Jose rarely had both. Although he was free at school, he could not fully utilize it because of other people who used their over him to do what they thought was best. Jose was rarely happy due to his empathy for his classmate’s misfortunes or even his own troubles which he had to deal with. These influences do impact a child’s motivation to learn, which is evident when Jose goes on to study at lycee towards the end of the excerpt.