British philosopher John Locke's [1632-1704] views about education dated 29.08.2022.

Hello friends. Welcome to Philosophy Network Channel on YouTube. I am your host Lalit Rao.

Today is Monday 29th August, 2022, an important day for philosophy as it was on this very day exactly 390 years ago that the famous British philosopher John Locke was born. John Locke is universally acclaimed for his work ‘‘An essay concerning human understanding’’ which appeared for the first time in 1689. It is considered to be a detailed as well as systematic philosophy of mind and thought.

In this video, I am going to talk about some of his important views about ‘Education’. His views about education were presented in the treatise ‘‘Some thoughts concerning education’’ which was published in 1728. It was composed from a series of letters which Locke wrote to his friend Edward Clarke about the education of his children.

In seventeenth century England, classical languages were learned through rote memorization. Locke considered that this wasn’t of much use. He emphasized the importance of teaching practical knowledge.

Locke was quick to recognize that the children learn best when they are engaged with the subject matter. While fully recognizing that habits and prejudices formed in youth could be very hard to break in later life, Locke focused more on morality and best ways to instill industry and virtue in ‘‘Some thoughts concerning education’’. While rejecting authoritarian approaches, Locke was in favor of methods which would help children to comprehend the difference between right and wrong in order to cultivate a moral sense of their own.

According to John Locke, the goal of education is to create a virtuous man, a person who obeys reason instead of passion. He stressed upon the fact that learning should be enjoyable. If the children are forced to learn, it is certain that they will not like books as much as they like toys. Example and habit are given importance by Locke as he believed that children generally do not understand rules. Hence, he believed that teaching by rules is counterproductive.

The importance of parents in the lives of children has also been discussed by Locke. According to him, when the children are young they should be put under the strict authority, once a child has become a rational creature, the parent can retain the authority by inspiring love and reverence.

Finally, Locke ends ‘‘some thoughts concerning education’’ by talking about an accomplishment which every student should make. Locke suggests that every student should learn a manual skill as it would enable to relax and refresh the mind after it has got tired of studies.