It must be an odd feeling that, when reading the “classics,” we find them addressing issues that still affect us to this day. How can that be? Is there something about human nature that doesn’t change over time? That can’t possibly be, since we are always becoming better, right? Unfortunately, no matter how great our technology or how fancy our clothes, humanity will be the same and we continue to get ourselves into the same messes.

Turning our attention to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile, the 1762 treatise on education is still relevant for today’s world. The work is oft neglected in today’s world, but the influence of Rousseau’s philosophical works can be felt today. In general terms, he felt that mankind was naturally decent but society had a way of corrupting the mind of the citizenry.

When describing how education works, Rousseau devoted a lot of effort in warning against the “mothering” of the education system through the emphasis on protecting emotions instead of teaching how to perform great deeds. By undermining the education of children, we strip away their ability to become good citizens and capable employees. They can no longer contribute to the work place or to society, and they become a burden on the state.

Rousseau believed that, when feelings are given preference to results, a child is conditioned to give up on intellectual exploration. There could be no drive for greatness, no striving towards improvement, in a system that such are no longer valued. These problems, in Rousseau’s mind, started at home because there was no universal education system:

The mother may lavish excessive care on her child instead of neglecting him; she may make an idol of him; she may develop and increase his weakness to prevent him feeling it; she wards off every painful experience in the hope of withdrawing him from the power of nature, and fails to realise that for every trifling ill from which she preserves him the future holds in store many accidents and dangers, and that is is a cruel kindness to prolong the child’s weakness when the grown man must bear fatigue.

In our current society, the system has become the mother who wishes to protect all children from anything difficult or painful. Schools care more about making people feel good and boosting self-esteem instead of passing out accurate grades or honoring the best. Trophies are given out for participation, and the smart and talented are often held back to make the other kids “feel good.”

Rousseau points out how such coddling prevents an individual from developing the necessary understanding to deal with reality:

Fix your eyes on nature, follow the path traced by her. She keeps children at work, she hardens them by all kinds of difficulties, she soon teaches them the meaning of pain and grief. They cut their teeth and are feverish, sharp colics bring on convulsions, they are choked by fits of coughing and tormented by worms, evil humours corrupt the blood, germs of various kinds ferment in it, causing dangerous eruptions. Sickness and danger play the chief part in infancy. One half of the children who are born die before their eighth year. The child who has overcome hardships has gained strength, and as soon as he can use his life he holds it more securely.

Life is harsh, but we no are no longer burdened by the ailments of Rousseau’s time. We lack the mass deaths caused by illness, which means that even nature can no longer teach us the truth about suffering. When we feel bad, we take drugs to numb our brain. When we sneeze, we immediately turn to anti-biotics. All pain is immediately met with an over reaction that weakens our body and destroys our ability to deal with things in a natural way. We inoculated ourselves to reality, so we are unable to cope. Medicine, which is inherently good, is abused in a way unique to humanity.

Rousseau goes onto say that we need to embrace nature’s lessons on suffering in our education if we wish to strengthen the mind of our children:

Provided we do not overdo it, there is less risk in using their strength than in sparing it. Accustom them therefore to the hardships they will have to face; train them to endure extremes of temperature, climate, and condition, hunger, thirst and weariness. Dip them in the waters of Styx. Before bodily habits become fixed you may teach what habits you will without risk, but once habits are established any change is fraught with peril. A child will bear changes which a man cannot bear, the muscles of the one are soft and flexible, they take whatever direction you give them without any effort; the muscles of the grown man are harder and they only change their accustomed mode of action when subjected to violence. So we can make a child strong without risking his life or health, and even if there were some risk, it should not be taken into consideration. Since human life is full of dangers, can we do better than face them at a time when they can do the least harm?

We no longer have the physical suffering, but we still have competition, limited resources, and a need for people to contribute their best in the workplace. The principles that would strengthen someone to fend against nature would also allow them to excel in society.

Rousseau also argues that pushing people and making them work hard early in life allows children to gain the mental attributes needed to deal with hardship and suffering:

Man is born to suffer; pain is the means of his preservation. His childhood is happy, knowing only pain of body. These bodily sufferings are much less cruel, much less painful, than other forms of suffering, and they rarely lead to self-destruction. It is not the twinges of gout which make a man kill himself, it is mental suffering that leads to despair. We pity the suffering of childhood; we should pity ourselves; our worst sorrows are of our own making.

It is no wonder that, in our ultra-sensitive society, so many people turn to drugs or outright kill themselves. Students lack the ability to cope with difficult situations, and suicides or mass-shootings tend to originate in ultimately minor emotional difficulties that the child was unprepared to handle. They were coddled at a young age, taught that everything they do, no matter how flawed, was okay. They were constantly told that all that matters is to feel good and that pain is awful. They were conditioned to a life in which they thought everything was perfect, and, when reality set in, they were ill prepared.

There will always be hardship. Not all romantic interests will reciprocate. Not all potential employers will hire you. Not everything will be handed to you on a platter. People, friends, family, and loved ones, will die, and we need to be prepared to accept our frail mortality. Rousseau was warning us long ago because he knew the self destructive tendencies of a system that breeds psychological infantilism.

If we care about the emotional well-being of citizens and their ability to contribute, we must expose them to reality. By providing children with competition and insignificant hardships early on, we prepare them for dealing with far more difficult situations later in life. We must also teach them subjects that they may not “enjoy,” making sure that they have a well-balanced understanding of life instead of just one that kept them entertained.

This essay was originally published as Using Rousseau to Reform the Education System on February 12, 2015.