Rousseau blamed the most failings of children specifically upon the absence of a mother

ABANDONMENT AND LACK OF PROPER NURTURE

Rousseau blamed the most failings of children specifically upon the absence of a mother's love. Attacking mothers who refuse to nurse or care for their own children in early infancy, Rousseau insists, in a comment that self-servingly ignores a father's parental responsibilities (Rousseau abandoned his own children at the local orphanage):

"Would you restore all men to their primal duties, begin with the mothers; the results will surprise you. Every evil follows in the train of this first sin the whole moral order is disturbed, nature is quenched in every breast, the home becomes gloomy, the spectacle of a young family no longer stirs the husband's love and the stranger's reverence."

Without mother, without an early experience of a loving education, writes Rousseau in a statement that the creature's experience vividly confirms, "a man left to himself from birth would be more of a monster than the rest"

Mary Shelly powerfully evoked the creature's psychic response to the conviction that he is destined to be forever an outcast, as alone as the Ancient Mariner on his wide, wide sea- a horrifying spectacle that had haunted Mary Shelley's imagination since she head Coleridge recite the poem in 1806. Again and again the creature cries out:

"Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who clamed any intercourse with me. What was I? Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was....no Eve soothed my sorrows, or shared my thoughts; I was alone."

LOCKE ON A HEALTHY EDUCATION

~Paul Edwards, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York:1967, vol. 4~

"The late James G. Clapp, a noted authority on John Locke, here summarizes the philosopher's emphasis on attention, love and proper nurturing for the development of a well-educated and self-actualized individual. Tellingly, these are the very emotional elements missing from the Monster's life in Mary Shelley's novel.

In 1693 Locke... published the contents as Some Thoughts Concerning Education in response to "so many who profess themselves at a loss how to breed their children" His thought was marked by a ready understand of, and warm sympathy with, children. Three main thoughts dominate the work. First, the individual aptitudes, capacities, and idiosyncrasies [personal traits] of the child should govern learning, not arbitrary curricular or rote learning taught by the rod. Second, Locke placed the health of the body and the development of a sound character ahead of intellectual learning. In the third place, he saw that play, high spirits, and the "gamesome humor" natural to children should govern the business of learning wherever possible. Compulsory learning is irksome; where there is play in learning, there will be joy in it. Throughout he placed emphasis on good example, practice and use rather than on precepts, rules, and punishment. The work was an implicit criticism of his own education at Westminster and Oxford, which he found unpleasant and largely useless.

Writing almost as a physician, Locke advised "plenty of open air, exercise, and sleep; plain diet, no wine or strong drink, and very little or no physic [medicine or drugs]; not too warm and strait [tight fitting] clothing; especially the head and feet kept cold and the feet often used to cold water and exposed to wet" The aim in all was to keep the body in strength and vigor, able to endure hardships.

Locke urged that Early training must establish the authority of the parents so that good habits may be established. The prime purpose is the development of virtue, the principle of which is the power of denying ourselves the satisfaction of our desires. The child should be taught to submit to reason when young. Parents teach by their own example. They should avoid severe punishments and beatings as well as artificial rewards. Rules should be few when a child's young, but those few should be obeyed. Mild, firm, and rational approval or disapproval are most effective in curing bad behavior. Children should be frequently in the company of their parents, who should in turn study the disposition of the child and endeavor to use the child's natural desire for freedom and play to make learning as much like recreation as possible. High spirits should not be curbed, but turned to creative use. Curiosity too should be encouraged, and questions should be heard and fairly answered. Cruelty must always be discouraged and courageousness approved.
As the child grows, familiarity should be increased so that the parent has a friend in the mature child. Virtue, breeding, and a free liberal spirit as well as wisdom and truthfulness were the goals set by Locke in all his advice. Affection and friendship were for him both means and end of good education."

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