The golden rules of children's education: advice from philosopher John Locke

“The little, or almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies, have very important and lasting consequences”. Widely shared by psychologists and pediatricians today, this insight was written more than 300 years ago by British philosopher?John Locke?in his treatise?Some Thoughts Concerning Education, his response to a request by an aristocratic friend for advice on how to bring up his children. Published in 1693, the book soon became a reference work within the English-speaking world.??

When a good friend of mine, the recent father of two daughters, asked me if I could recommend a book on bringing up children, I thought of Locke. There are any number of more recent studies, but I opted for a classic work, one linked to the Humanist philosophical strain.??

While some may question the value of humanism in education or personal and professional development, I find it very useful to revisit my grounding in the classics. Growing numbers of parents, for varying reasons, are content for their children to be occupied for hours on end with smartphones or video games, despite the associated risks of addiction from uncontrolled use of these kinds of technology from an early age. Some are now debating the practicalities of robots designed to attend to children when both parents are at work and nannies are not an option, while critics say we are in danger of creating a dehumanized world where?AI?will perform the duties once carried out by parents, teachers and coaches.??

I believe technology offers myriad resources to personalize and boost learning, for adults and children, but I also continue to trust in?the contribution the Humanities and the Classics can make to education.?

Locke formulates?two key principles regarding children’s education.

-The first is that the task is primarily the responsibility of parents, even if it is sometimes necessary to delegate to other members of the family, teachers and even the state. This belief is particularly relevant today, when in most cases, people are able to plan their families and the decision to start a family is increasingly the result of mutual consent between partners.?

At the same time, based on its responsibility to guarantee the right to an education, the state and other public administrations are obliged to help parents in their endeavors. Given the importance of the early years in creating our personality, setting our values and developing our skills, the state, particularly in advanced countries, needs to provide free, high-quality nursery care. For example, infants find it much easier to learn new languages and are much more open to new information, as well as developing the basic characteristics that will shape their personality.??

?-The second principle is that education is the best investment one can make in one’s children, above any material assets. He refers expressly to the cost of good tutors. Fiction and real life have provided us with any number of examples of parents who strive to create empires for their children. A staunch proponent of private property, Locke doesn’t downplay the importance of inheritances, but he was aware of the value of education over material goods: “…the difference to be found in the manners and abilities of men is owing more to their education than to anything else”

In the final analysis, says Locke, we are the sum of what we accrue through education. Locke rejects the idea that we are what we are for innate reasons, what today we would call genetics, or the sole outcome of our environment or material assets. When we are born, he explains, we are a tabula rasa, ready to be written on. This idea is at the heart of empiricism, which argues that the only source of human knowledge is experience and that each proposition we make should be subjected to the information our senses and experience provide us with. Locke was one of the principal exponents of Empiricism, along with?George Berkeley?and?David Hume. Empiricism would have a huge influence over the development over analytical philosophy and positivism, which are still important aspects of thinking in the English-speaking world.?

Locke further argues that educating our children is not just about spending time with them: he criticizes parents who spoil their offspring, saying this deforms their character and results in willful and unreliable adults. Using an analogy from the Classics, Locke draws a parallel between education and the journey between?Scylla and Charybdis, as told in?The Odyssey. In Ulysses’ time, only experienced sailors knew how to chart this course through the Strait of Messina, with the whirlpools on one side created by Charybdis, which swallowed boats, and the rocks of Scylla on the other. Parents must find the balance between love and discipline. Locke says many parents make the mistake of trying to be their children’s friends, but it is only in adulthood, when we are able to reason and to understand the value of friendship that parents can establish this type of relationship with their children.?

Locke attacks the use of physical punishment on children, although this was widespread at the time, and would continue to be until just a few decades ago. He says corporal punishment should only be used in extreme cases of obstinacy.?

Rather than the carrot and the stick, says Locke, it is better to praise children publicly when they do well, while criticism, often simply through a look, should be made in private. I have found this approach to work well with adults over the course of my career.?

Locke was a pioneer in other aspects of education: the first chapters of his book anticipate the current theories of?wellness. Employing?Juvenal’s maxim?mens sana in corpore sano(a healthy mind in a healthy body), he recommended regular sport, time in the open air and a balanced diet, and was especially keen on swimming, citing the Roman maxim applied to the badly brought up:?nec literas nec natare?(he neither reads nor swims). He was also a keen proponent of cold showers and light clothing as a way to toughen up the young. His later influence is clear: the idea of combining physical exercise with intellectual development is at the core of all modern teaching methods.?

His ideas regarding nutrition reflect his study of medicine while at Oxford: he understood the benefits of eating certain foods, as well as of healthy habits, all of which are outlined in?Some Thoughts Concerning Education. He recommended a moderate diet, chewing one’s food, avoiding too much meat, as well as abstinence, noting “The Romans usually fasted till supper.”?

Locke also highlighted the importance of learning a trade or profession, one compatible with the study of the Humanities and the Liberal Arts. This is significant, given that his recommendations were being made to the nobility, who at that time didn’t work. In this sense, Locke can be seen as a forerunner of the educational model adopted later by many universities, combining generalist disciplines with a specialization intended to be applied to the world of work following graduation.??

In general, Locke followed the classic tradition of focusing children’s education on developing virtues and habits. Once again, virtues are not innate qualities, but acquired. To learn virtues, Locke provides examples: “Children do most by example,” he explains, particularly their parents’. “We are all sort of chameleons”.?

Children’s literature did not exist as a genre in Locke’s day, but he recommends Aesop’s Fables for young people, a choice I would agree with, along with other books written later that have played an important role in our education, such as the tales of?Hans Christian Andersen.?

?In short,?Some Thoughts Concerning Education?is a surprisingly modern book and one I would recommend to any parent. Locke’s knowledge, his intuition and his wisdom are particularly noteworthy given that he never had children. A modern, original and still very relevant author.?

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