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Of The Education of Children
Of The Education of Children
French essayist
He was the first person to use the word essay to describe his
writings. Today, it can be said that Montaigne was the first blogger.
Michel was raised in the company of a tutor who spoke only Latin to
him, so that Latin, rather than French, was his first language.
He was at the same time working on the Essais, whose first edition, in
two books, was published in 1580.
While still in Italy, Montaigne was informed that he had been elected
mayor of Bordeaux.
Different illnesses beset him during this period, and he died after an
attack of quinsy, an inflammation of the tonsils.
Both before and after his death, Montaigne's essays were widely read.
On Friendship
inspired by Montaigne's relationship with the late tienne de la Botie,
whom he had befriended at the Bordeaux parliament,
He spent the years from 1571 to 1580 composing the first two books of
the Essays, which comprise respectively 57 and 37 chapters of greatly
varying lengths; they were published in Bordeaux in 1580.
Montaigne's Skepticism
Around 1576, when Montaigne had his own personal medal coined, he
had it engraved with his age, with Epecho , I abstain in Greek, and
another Sceptic motto in French: Que sais-je?: what do I know ? At
this period in his life, Montaigne is thought to have undergone a
skeptical crisis, as Pierre Villey famously commented.
Neither the Hellenistic Sage, nor the Christian Saint, nor the
Renaissance Scholar, are unquestioned models in the Essays. Instead,
Montaigne is considering real men, who are the product of customs.
Here they live on human flesh; there it is an act of piety to kill one's
father at a certain age ().
School was primarily for boys, and in his essay Of the Education of
Children, Montaigne does not mention the education of girls. However,
Montaignes advice for educating boys can be applied just as well to
the education of girls.
The instructor must allow his pupil to speak too. The instructor must
not merely lecture the pupil; he should engage the pupil in discussion
and allow the pupil to form opinions.
focus on the behavior of Hannibal and Scipio, and then judge those
behaviors.
Montaigne agrees with Plato that boys should be assigned duties based
upon their faculties and capacities rather than upon their birthright.