John Locke

Who is John Locke?

John Locke was born August 29, 1632,

in Wrington, Somerset, England. Regarded as one of
the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, he was
known as the Father of Classical Liberalism. He was
an economist, political operative, physician, Oxford
scholar, and medical researcher as well as one of the
great philosophers of the late 17th and early 18th
centuries.
 John Locke’s Contribution to Education

John Locke has long been considered a “pioneer”

of schooling and of what we might consider to be a
‘good’ education. His work not only contributed to
much of our understanding in relation to the
childhood development, but also showed us the
integral role of education and schooling in the
formation of our children.
 His work has influenced many educational
philosophers since its root during the 17th
century, and his ideas have found their way
into much of the curricular theory (what we
teach), pedagogy (how we teach) and policy
that we build our schools on and around.
 Locke emphasized the importance of the relationship
between teacher and student. Much of Locke’s work, and
many of his philosophical premises, seem to have, quite
naturally, been built from his own educational experience
as a student, and then later from his observations as a
psychologist and educator. Growing up in the English
countryside during the early to mid 17th century, he was
taught mostly by his father, a mentorship that he clearly
revered through his own philosophy.
 Much of his work idealizes the student-teacher
relationship as one of mentorship, and values pedagogies
(approaches to teaching) that support a more one-on-one
approach to teaching and learning. The influence of his
father’s guidance and the pastoral beauty of his childhood
home also allow us to better understand his opposition to
formal scholasticism, as well as his devotion to what he
called the “native propensities” of the youth.
 The Birth of Student-Centered Education
and Teaching the Whole Child

It was at Westminster, and then Oxford, that

Locke truly began to develop his educational philosophy,
mostly in opposition to his own experience at these
places. The strict disciplinarians and the way in which
he and his peers were made to feel inferior to their
instructors, lent to a subversive streak in Locke,
ultimately getting him expelled from Oxford.
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In many ways, he advocated for the earliest forms of

student-centered learning, of the idea of the whole-child
approach to education, as well as the educational ideal of
differentiation. Quite essentially, he put the student’s
learning experience on par with, if not above, the teacher or
subject-matter’s needs, wants and values; in his world, the
teacher’s responsibility is to help students find themselves
within their learning first and foremost, and to learn the
content second.
 Probably one of the most influential of his ideas, Locke presented
a concept that, at the time, was quite controversial. He argued that
children — that we all — are born with minds that are like ‘blank slates’,
or as he called it Tabula Rosa. His ‘blank slate’ attested that rather
than being born bad, our children are born, quite simply, without this
badness. By being ‘blank’ they have promise to be good, or bad, or
anything else for that matter. The means and purpose of education
become paramount then in how our children become who they become —
it means that we must take care in our education of them.
 Locke ideas provides a philosophy with which
schools can develop curriculum, promote pedagogies, and
enact policies that value the experiences of students,
that make them relevant to their own innate interests,
and that develop what Locke argued is the most
important goal of education: the habit of learning.
 Locke understood that a habit of learning
doesn’t just come all that naturally for everyone,
or for anyone, even though we are born with a
certain degree of instinct that we can confidently
rely on at times in our learning, he did believe that
discipline is necessary for a good education.
 For gentlemen, Locke believed that the he must have a
thorough knowledge of his own language. The schools of the
Puritans in England broke with tradition completely. They
sought to educate one for the society in which he would live.
The schools were called, therefore, schools of social realism.
Locke, in keeping with Milton and other Puritans, held that
the content of the curriculum must serve some practical end.
He recommended the introduction of contemporary foreign
languages, history, geography, economics, math and science.
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Locke believed the purpose of education was to produce

an individual with a sound mind in a sound body so as to better
serve his country. Locke thought that the content of education
ought to depend upon one's station in life. The common man
only required moral, social, and vocational knowledge. He could
do quite well with the Bible and a highly developed vocational
skill that would serve to support him in life and offer social
service to others. However, the education of gentlemen ought
to be of the very highest quality. The gentleman must serve
his country in a position of leadership.
Locke proposed the following for the education of the
gentleman:
a. Moral Training. All Christians must learn to live
virtuously.
b. Good Breeding. The gentleman must develop the
poise, control and outward behavior of excellent
manners. Education must aim, therefore, at developing
correct social skills.
c. Wisdom. The gentleman ought to be able to apply
intellectual and moral knowledge in governing his
practical affairs.
d. Useful Knowledge. The gentleman must receive
education which will lead to a successful life in the
practical affairs of the society, as well as that which
leads to the satisfaction derived from scholarship and
good books.
Implications to Education