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Philosophical Groundwork of a New and Innovative Teaching

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The purpose of Montaigne's “Education of Children� is to lay down http://college-application-essay-writers686.mystrikingly.com/ the philosophical groundwork for a new and innovative way of teaching children. The purpose of this new system is to foster the child's intellectual growth as opposed to filling the child's head with facts that he regurgitates, but does not understand. In Montaigne's words, the education should put a child “through its paces, making it taste things, choose them, and discern them by itself� (110).
As well as encouraging intellectual growth, Montaigne also intends to promote wisdom, character and physical development as a way of education the entire person. Montaigne's assertion is that the purpose behind education should not be for the sole aim of the increase in knowledge, but “to have become better and wiser by it� (112). The overall effect of the education should be to produce an individual that is both wise and happy; according to Montaigne the two are irreconcilably bound, as “the surest sign of wisdom is constant cheerfulness� (119).