John Locke is one of the most influential political thinkers of all time, known as the father of liberalism. He was also a very important figure in the development of philosophy, following in Francis Bacon’s tradition of British empiricism. Though much of his philosophy centered on politics, Locke was also deeply invested in epistemology, developing the theory of mind, and trying to understand human nature. Uniting these more personal aspects of philosophy with politics and the acquisition of knowledge, Locke made forays into educational philosophy, producing revolutionary ideas for educational reform in Britain. Locke’s treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education outlines his pedagogy that constitutes a major break from the education system of his day and echoes many of the messages presented in Michel de Montaigne’s essay Of the Institution and Education of Children.
Locke’s pedagogy, remarkably similar to that of Montaigne, begins with a fundamental distrust of the education system of his contemporaries. Locke finds that the fact-focused, memorization heavy education style common in Britain at the time does not adequately prepare children to navigate life ethically and independently upon reaching adulthood. To rectify this, education must instead be primarily moral and center on cultivating “virtue, ability and learning.” Much of the Thoughts is dedicated to demonstrating the importance of instilling virtue and rationality in children as well as the proper method to do so.
Reason and virtue in Locke’s pedagogy are analogous to Montaigne’s faculty of judgement. Montaigne calls for education to enhance a child’s natural faculty of judgement such that they can develop their ability to form opinions and think independently. Locke calls for education to instill in a child the faculty of reason and the concept of virtue in order to prepare them for a rational existence. For Locke, his ‘blank slate’ theory of mind makes education entirely manmade, requiring this element of civility in the form of reason and virtue to be introduced externally and then made permanent in the mind through the formation of habits. Consistent with this doctrine, children cannot reason for themselves and must be guided by the rationality of their parents until these habits are sufficiently cemented in the mind. Montaigne sees the faculty of judgement as an innate power of the human mind that must be strengthened through education to allow the expression of one’s own opinions and ideas, free from blind acceptance of those of others even in childhood. While the goal of education for these philosophers is similar, the pretenses under which education is being carried out as well as the methods employed differ pretty significantly.
For young children, Locke primarily advocates habituating them to rationality through the practice of self-denial. Submission to reason is a “power [that] is to be got and improved by custom, made easy and familiar by an early practice… children should be used to submit their desires, and go without their longings, even from their very cradles (Locke).” But, he argues, children have no capacity to reason at a young age and therefore their actions must be authorized not by their own reason but by that of their parents. It is this habit of direct submission to another that prepares one for independent, rational self-control later in life. This opposition between reason and natural human desires calls the utility of reason into question as a force to guide human action. Locke clarifies that human desires are not wicked in of themselves but the actions that they precede can be, so the denial of the desires avoids any possibility of wicked action arising without attempting to clear the mind of them. Montaigne asserts similarly that one should “be able to do everything, but love to do nothing but what is good (Montaigne).” Whether it be reason and virtue for Locke or judgement for Montaigne, education must allow an individual to retain their humanity by experiencing desires while using these principles as a guide to deny them and avoid wickedness.
Echoing Montaigne’s essay, Locke dedicates a substantial portion of the Thoughts to the subject of physical education. He believes the body should be “hardened” by exposure to physical hardships and labor to make both the body and mind more resilient. Again, citing the importance of habits, he encourages parents to accustom children to plasticity in activity so that they may be more adaptable throughout life. Like Montaigne, Locke warns of the danger of parental control in this arena: that maternal desires to protect children as well as paternal tendencies to overprovide are dangerous to a child’s self-reliance and development of physical endurance. Living with the comfort of an inheritance or impermanent parental protection only serves to degrade a child’s independence and deny them important experiences, impeding the acquisition of new ideas through experience and hindering their education.
One of the most important facets of education for Locke is the pleasure and happiness it must convey to children, and this carries with it a message of the importance of individuality and personal expression that is exactly in line with Montaigne’s praise of judgement and the personalization of education. Locke’s focus on a moral education ensures that “conscience, reason, and pleasure go together (Locke).” Education should teach a child “to be in love with his book, to take a pleasure in learning, and to desire… to be taught more (Locke).” Though there is a central moral and ethical theme based on the principles of virtue and reason, a specific curriculum is not discussed at any significant length in the Thoughts. Children should be allowed to freely study what they want so that they enjoy it rather than coming to hate it for being a chore. Reason, however, will be sure to guide them to study rather than sloth, whether that reason is their parents’ or their own. In near direct repetition of a sentiment from Montaigne’s essay, Locke asserts that “each man’s mind has some peculiarity, as well as his face, that distinguishes him from all others; and there are possibly scarce two children, who can be conducted by exactly the same method (Locke).” This is an abject rejection of impersonal group education that necessitates familiarity with, and respect of the children being taught in order to ensure that their education is effective. These ideas are still being explored and experimented with in modern education, underscoring the significance of the educational thought forwarded by these two philosophers.
Overall, Locke and Montaigne had similar ideas for the role of education in a child’s life. Morals and ethics should dominate early schooling to ensure that children have a strong sense of right and wrong, are able to think independently (upon reaching adulthood, for Locke), and enjoy the act of learning. Their bodies should be strong and healthy. They should be practical people who can think, speak, and write clearly. Locke would prepare children to become citizens of their nation, able to navigate the political landscape and laws of the land with rationality as a primary guide. Montaigne would encourage children to be citizens of the world, applying their knowledge of philosophy to navigate human affairs with their own opinions and sense of morals to guide them. These two philosophers made their marks in educational theory attempting to improve their societies, to make them happier, wiser, better, through the rejection of custom, a focus on practicality, and the revolutionary idea of common sense.
References:
1. Tarcov, N. (1984). Locke’s Education for Liberty. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
2. Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Vol. XXXVII, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/37/1/.
3. Michel de Montaigne. (2006). Of the Education of Children. In W. C. Hazlitt (Ed.) & C. Cotton (Trans.), The Essays of Montaigne, Complete (Vol. 3). Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 9, 2021, from https://gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm
home
biography
philosophical position
comparison
closing argument
bibliography