The Quarterly Review of Education - John Locke

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The following text was originally published in PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of education

(Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. 24, no. 1/2, 1994, p. 61Ð'-76.

Ð'©UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, 1999

This document may be reproduced free of charge as long as acknowledgement is made of the source.

JOHN LOCKE

(1632Ð'-1704)

Richard Aldrich

John Locke was a great educator on several counts. In an immediate sense he was himself a

practitioner and publicist of good education. This profile is concerned with his life in education, his

theory of knowledge, his advice to parents on the upbringing of their children, and his educational

priorities with specific reference to the curriculum. But Locke also made significant contributions to

human understanding in such fields as theology, economics, medicine and science, and particularly

political philosophy. This dual prominence places Locke, arguably the most significant educationist

in English history, in a long and honourable tradition. As Nathan Tarcov observed: Ð''philosophers

have been able to stand out in the realms of both educational theory and political theory ever since

the two fields of thought first flowed from their common fountainhead, the Republic of Plato'

(Tarcov, 1984, p. 1Ð'-2).

Seventeenth-century England

In the seventeenth century England experienced two revolutions. In 1649, after years of civil war,

the first culminated in the execution of King Charles I of the Stuart family and the establishment of

a Commonwealth, replaced in 1653 by a Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell. In 1660 the

monarchy was restored under Charles II and, on his death in 1685, the throne passed peaceably

enough to his younger brother, James. Once again, however, the country's parliamentary traditions

and Protestant Church were perceived to be in danger. Further resistance to the Stuart monarchy

arose and in 1688 a second revolution occurred, though on this occasion James II fled to France,

thus avoiding the fate of his father. The throne was assumed by his elder daughter Mary and her

husband, Prince William of Orange.

These events must have touched the lives of many, if not all, of those who lived in England,

Ireland, Scotland and Wales during the seventeenth century. They are integral to an understanding

of the life and work of John Locke, who was both a keen observer of, and at times a participant in,

the political, constitutional, religious, economic and educational controversies of these momentous

times. Indeed, he was closely connected with one of the great politicians of the day, Anthony

Ashley Cooper, the first Earl of Shaftesbury.

In 1683 Locke thought it politic to remove himself to the Netherlands, though whether for

his political or physical health is not entirely clear. In 1688 he returned to England as a supporter of

the new regime and indeed was favoured by William of Orange with the offer of the post of

ambassador to the Elector of Brandenburg, a post he refused. Nevertheless, other government

appointments followed: as Commissioner of Appeal and member of a new Council of Trade. But

the 1690s were important not mainly for Locke's involvement in politics, but because it was now

possible for him to publish his major works, works which in some cases he had been preparing for

many years. These included the Letter concerning toleration (1689), An essay concerning human

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understanding (1690), Two treatises of government (1690), and the book upon which his

reputation as an educator mainly rests, Some thoughts concerning education, the first edition of

which appeared in 1693 (hereafter referred to as Thoughts).

A life in education

John Locke was born on 29 August 1632 at Wrington in the county of Somerset in the south-west

of England. His father, also named John, was a lawyer and small landowner who supported

Parliament against Charles I and served as a captain in the Parliamentary army during the English

civil war. His mother Agnes, the daughter of a local tanner, Edmund Keene, was some ten years

older than her husband, and 35 years of age when John, the first of their three sons, was born. It

would appear that Locke's father was a stern man (for example an advocate of the severe whipping

of unmarried mothers) who did not believe in indulging his son as a child, but in keeping him in awe

of his father and at some distance. Whether Locke as a boy appreciated the benefits of this severe

regime is not clear. Certainly as an adult he counselled parents to a similar course: Ð''For, liberty and

indulgence can do no good to children: their want of judgement makes them stand in need of

restraint and discipline' (Thoughts, s. 40). Ð''He that is not used to submit his will to the reason of

others,