Locke on Education 11/10

#11/10/11: John Locke's 1693 treatise called "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" acts as a sort of "how to" for the rearing of children, both in the New World and on the European continent. Locke, seeing that the corruption of youth had gotten to a point where many parents did not know where to turn, or what to do to remedy it, Locke--a legendary philosopher, writer, scientist, and apparently educator--offers up distinctly Enlightenment-esque advice on raising children. Locke, ever the empiricist, gives his own version of the age-old adage about the carrot and the stick, but his justification for doing so is extremely typical of the type of philosophy Locke adhered to, and the sort of empiricism characteristic of the Enlightenment era. Locke writes, "But if you take away the rod on one hand, and these little encouragements, which they are taken with, on the other; how then (will you say) shall children be governed? Remove hope and fear, and there is an end of all discipline." This emphasis on pragmatism, and finding a middle ground is reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin's own words of wisdom, and his emphasis on practicality in all things. This focus on pragmatic thinking is evident in many Enlightenment works, including Gulliver's travels, and is evident in Franklin's own writings. Locke insists that, "children are to be treated as rational creatures" and in so doing, he confirms another Enlightenment idea, namely, that all creatures are motivated by reason, even children, and as such we must appeal to the rational faculties of children, just like we would an adult, to properly raise them to maturity. I thought it was really cool to see Locke talking about education, because all of my readings of him have been primarily political or economic in their nature, so to see Locke sort of taking on psychology and biology was really interesting. This was compounded by his attempt to apply his own philosophies to children, and I believe, he makes a very good case for a type of pragmatic education that puts an emphasis on reward versus punishment. Locke is not primarily focused on what a child should learn, but rather how a child should learn, and it is this focus on methods, and making changes to the very way we conduct something as fundamental as raising children that sets this piece apart as a truly magnificent look at Enlightenment era thought.

11/8/2011 – Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Despite the morbidity with which I’ll say this, John Locke’s practicum on “how to breed” children read like a dog training manual to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve just now adopted my first puppy, and I am going through similar processes to achieve more desirable behavior from Ramsey (my black lab mix). Maybe it’s because I’m a morbid person. Either way, I saw some potentially dangerous parallels.

In the first line, Locke urges, “errors in education should be less indulged than any.” This is a statement I agree with wholeheartedly as I believe that if these errors are left uncorrected too long they will be uncorrectable. While this is more of a philosophical approach to education (as opposed to a practical one), it bears significant importance as a preface to the rest of the instructions. Moreover, he dissuades the use of corporal punishment as well as positive reinforcement. After reading this, I was at a loss for alternatives (perhaps because I was still thinking about the piece in relation to my pup). He suggests the treatment of children as “rational creatures.” It is in this line of thought where he and Jean-Jacques Rousseau differ. With the implication of reason, brings new emotional reactions to utilize other than pain and pleasure. “Esteem and grace, of all others, the most powerful incentives to the mind.” Ah, that’s why I can’t seem to get my dog to bring the stick back to me once he retrieves it. It’s because I can’t embarrass him if he doesn’t—because he don’t possess that emotion. Children on the other hand do, and according to Locke, training them to relish in praise and avoid disapproval at all cost will encourage the mind to enhance itself.

What I think Locke missed is the instilling of a love of learning into children, so that they want to learn new things to better themselves instead of their image in the eyes of others. For example, when I was a toddler, I discovered a love of mythological gods. I read about them endlessly while my friends read comic books. While they talked at the lunch table about Superman, I envisioned Thor wielding a mighty hammer. Collecting this information didn’t help me earn praise or credit from my peers, but it did lay a foundation for historical interest that still exists in me today (which is perhaps why I’ll spend countless hours jumping from Wikipedia page to Wikipedia page looking up the different types of saxophones, instead of doing my homework). This inherent love of learning about the world we live in should be the driving force in education, in my humble opinion.

John Locke: "Some Thoughts Concerning Education"

While John Locke’s “Some Thoughts Concerning Education,” is not as well known today as some of his other works (e.g. “The Two Treatises of Government,” & “The Essay Concerning Toleration”), the piece was widely read and was deeply influential in the eighteenth century. First published anonymously in July of 1693, in London, Locke’s detailed exposition largely deals with the education of males at the time. The treatise was published by A. and J. Churchill at the Black Swan in Paternofter-row (as is seen on the cover of the first edition) a few short years after Locke had completed the first version of another influential work entitled, “The Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” This work is of importance when discussing “Some Thoughts on Education,” as he completed it three years prior to Some Thoughts, and in the human understanding essay he outlined a new idea on the human mind that he would later use. He asserted that a male’s mind was a “tabula rasa,” or in English a “blank state,” that did not have any preconceived worldly views. Thus, “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” builds upon this idea of the blank slate, and explains Locke’s views on how to educate the mind using three distinct methods: the development of a healthy body, the formation of a virtuous character, and finally the choice of an appropriate academic curriculum.

For the better part of a century, the work was considered the most important philosophical work on education in England. Throughout the eighteenth century it was translated into almost all of the major written European languages as it was seen as such a ground-breaking treatise. In short, the book was a huge bestseller. For instance, during the eighteenth century alone, Some Thoughts was published in at least 53 different language editions: 25 English, 16 French, 6 Italian, three German, two Dutch, and one Swedish. Interestingly, it largely influenced the theoretical basis of much children's literature at the time. According to James Secord, an eighteenth-century scholar, many early children’s literature publishers included Locke's educational advice from Some Thoughts in order to legitimize the new genre of children's literature.[1] By the end of the eighteenth century, Locke's influence on educational thought was widely acknowledged. For example, in 1772 (another Enlightenment era education writer) James Whitchurch wrote in his Essay Upon Education that Locke was “an Author, to whom the Learned must ever acknowledge themselves highly indebted, and whose Name can never be mentioned without a secret Veneration, and Respect; his Assertions being the result of intense Thought, strict Enquiry, a clear and penetrating Judgment.”[2] In addition, even Rousseau acknowledged the large importance of Locke even though he challenged Locke’s central claim that parents should treat their children as rational beings: “Reasoning should not begin too soon—Locke’s great maxim was that we ought to reason with children, and just now this maxim is much in fashion. I think, however, that its success does not warrant its reputation, and I find nothing more stupid than children who have been so much reasoned with” (229).[3]

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[1] Secord, James A. “Newton in the Nursery: Tom Telescope and the Philosophy of Tops and Balls, 1761–1838.” History of Science 23 (1985), 132–3.

[2] Pickering, Samuel F., Jr. John Locke and Children’s Books in Eighteenth-Century England. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press (1981), 12

[3] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Children and Civic Education." The Portable Enlightenment Reader. By Isaac Kramnick. New York: Penguin, 1995. 229-35. Print.

Being that the first edition of the book was itself well over 200 pages long, Locke’s expansion on his writings in the later three editions of the book further propelled his ideas about the common English family. The second edition was also published in 1693, and thus was not different from the original edition except for the fact that Locke put his name on the second edition. Locke was widely known as being a very timid man, and had previously published works anonymously, so this was nothing out of the ordinary for him. The third edition was printed two years later in 1695, with Locke adding over one-hundred more pages to Some Thoughts. With this addition, he largely expanded upon his previous major themes of reason, of the difference in education between males and females, and his thoughts on the proper academic curriculums. The fourth edition was published in 1699 (5 years before Locke’s death), and had the same page count as the third edition with just minor editorial changes instilled. Of mention is that, “When he died, in October of 1704, he had just completed the notes for the fifth edition of the Essay,” which was eventually published posthumously.[4]

However, an interesting point is that Locke never even intended to write about education, as he was far more interested in the topics of religion, politics, government, and human understanding. Locke only wrote “Some Thoughts Concerning Education,” primarily as a favor to a longtime friend. In 1684, Locke “was approached by his friend Edward Clarke, who asked for Locke’s advice on how to best raise his newborn son.” Ironically, not only was Locke “a childless bachelor,” but at this time Locke had actually been exiled from England due to the fact that people he closely associated himself “were discovered to be plotting the assassination of [then] King Charles and his brother James.” Locke considered himself “in acute personal danger,” and fled to Holland to continue his work on the essay concerning human understanding. But, at the same time, Locke responded to his friend Edward Clarke “with a series of letters, which he continued to send all the way up until 1691” (totaling seven years of letters). During the course of these letter-writing years Locke “was forced to go underground” for a majority of the time due to the remaining threat back in England against his life.[5]

Once Clarke received the letters he passed them on to friends of his, and soon enough “Locke’s ideas on education were circulating among a small group of parents“ in England.[6] The preface of “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” is written specifically “To Edward Clarke…”, and contains a few pages explaining the following letters. Also in the preface, it is stated that “it was the members of this group of readers,” who Clarke had shared the letters with, “that ultimately persuaded Locke to publish his letters as a book.”[7] Eventually, Locke came back to England in 1688, after the “Glorious Revolution” had occurred, which ousted the Catholic King James II in favor of the Protestant, King William III.

In the excerpt reprinted in our anthology, the first paragraph is part of the preface to “Some Thoughts Concerning Education,”(which in addition to being tailored specifically to Edward Clarke) is clearly written more for the aristocrats of England, as they were most likely the ones concerned with the education of their children. The excerpt within our anthology has material from the first version of the publication: ranging from the preface, to a section from the middle of the book, to paragraphs taken from some of the final pages of Locke’s work.

Because it started just as a series of letters, Some Thoughts does not present a systematic theory of education as did later writers on the subject.[8] For example, in addition to the excerpt from Locke’s book, there are snippets of both Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s and Joseph Priestly’s writings in our anthology. Both these men wrote almost a century after Locke’s book had been published and thus had more advanced and specific ideas on the topic of education. For example, as the title to Some Thoughts indicates, it merely presents some thoughts on the topic. Nonetheless it shows a great deal of insight into child psychology within the context of education. When Locke speaks about "education," what he means is primarily moral education. The aim of education, in his view, is to give a man rational control over his passions and desires. Our anthology has examples of passages promoting this idea primarily through Locke’s disdain for the methods of chastisement and physical punishment in education. He believes that these types of acts harm one’s education, and that “those children who have been most chastised, seldom make the best men” (223).[9]

It’s very noticeable that “Locke’s work on education is clearly tied to his political work,”[10] as it shares many common themes with the “Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” For example, in Some Thoughts, one realizes that Locke is quite fascinated with the origins and development of human knowledge (in addition to writing on how to apply and utilize such knowledge). With regards to education, Locke sees the world existing within “certain laws of nature, stemming from God,” and that “we must only use our reason to discover these laws.”[11] Locke believes that “the most basic law of nature states that we must defend all of God’s creatures (both ourselves and others) because we are all children of God and beloved by him.”[12] It’s clear that Locke’s heavy religious views cannot be separated from his thoughts on education. Also in Some Thoughts, Locke discusses having the right to property, the right to punish those who do not adhere to the laws of nature, and that we shall use our reason to discover all natural laws in order to create the ideal civil society. In this way, Locke believed that we would avoid all human evils, and that if society functioned in this manner then we would have a moral citizenry that would populate Locke’s idea of a civil society.[13] Some Thoughts is not strictly about education, as it is about morality as well, and how these ideas (when combined) can create the moral and civil society that Locke believed was ultimately possible.

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[1] Secord, James A. “Newton in the Nursery: Tom Telescope and the Philosophy of Tops and Balls, 1761–1838.” History of Science 23 (1985), 132–3.

[2] Pickering, Samuel F., Jr. John Locke and Children’s Books in Eighteenth-Century England. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press (1981), 12

[3] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Children and Civic Education." The Portable Enlightenment Reader. By Isaac Kramnick. New York: Penguin, 1995. 229-35. Print.

[4] http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockethoughts/context.html

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] Ibid

[9] Locke, John. “Some Thoughts Concerning Education.” The Portable Enlightenment Reader. By Isaac Kramnick. New York: Penguin, 1995. 222-228. Print.

[10] http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockethoughts/context.html

[11] Ibid

[12] Ibid

[13] Ibid