JOHN LOCKE: LIBERATOR OF CHILDREN

Jenna Broderick Infant/Toddler Methods Spring 2010

A little about the man himself…

1632 - 1704 Born first of three

sons Stern father – stay in

awe and at a distance Tutor to many Never

married No children

of his own

History Writings on education

Some Thoughts Concerning EducationLetters to his “cousin”

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Blank slate, blank sheet, empty cabinet…

“I think I may say that of all the men we meet with, nine parts out of ten are what they are… by

their education.

”

Follow a child from its birth and observe the alterations that time makes, and you shall find, as the mind by the senses comes more and more to be furnished with ideas, it comes to be more and more awake; thinks more,

the more it has matter to think upon.

How is this so radical?

As the Puritans saw it…

During the Salem Witch Trials, four-year-old

Dorcas Good was accused by older girls of

witchcraft. Dorcas was sent to prison. The

long months that she spent chained to a

wall in a dark dungeon scarred her for life.

In prison she was not even allowed a doll

for solace, since dolls were considered

instruments of witches for casting spells.

After finally being released from prison

Dorcas was, for the rest of her life, in such a

mental state that she had to constantly be

under the care of an adult.

…children were born with inherently evil, idle demons

Toddler Accused of Witchcraft

Children be free and play…

“There may be dice and play-things, with

the letters on them to teach children the alphabet by playing; and twenty other ways may be

found, suitable to their

particular tempers, to

make this kind of learning a

sport to them.”

“Recreation is as necessary as Labour, or

Food.”

“Play-things, I think, children should have, and of divers sorts…”

But not without limitations…

Meet the parents…

“Fear and awe ought to give you the first power over their minds, and love and friendship in riper years to hold it”

Vs…

“But, as I said before, beating is the worst, and therefore the last means to be us’d in the correction of children, and that only in cases of

extremity, after all gentle ways have been try’d, and prov’d unsuccessful; which,

if well observ’d, there will be very seldom any need of blows.”With a flip side of course…

Meet the parents cont…

“Another thing of greater consequence… will be his

friendship…. And I cannot but often wonder to see fathers who love their sons very well, yet so order the matter by a constant

stiffness and a mien of authority and distance to them all their lives, as if they were never to

enjoy, or have any comfort from those they love best in the world”

“Though I have mention’d the severity… I think it should be relax’d”

“Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.”

Grab something to read….

John Locke even had something to say about toilet training

Regular visits with enforced sittings

He must have seen John Locke coming

The environment will create the child…

Full learning should involve input from all the senses… intellectual, social and physical.

“I imagine the minds of children as easily turn’d this or that way, as water it

self…”

John Locke and our Ten Principles of Caregiving

Principle 1:

Include infants and toddlers in things that concern

them.

 

“Another thing of greater consequence, which you will

obtain by such a way of treating [your child], will be his

friendship… Nothing cements and establishes

friendship and good-will so much as confident

communication of concernments and affairs...”

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Principle 2:

Invest in quality time; do not settle for supervising

groups without focusing on individual children.

For Locke, the best means of education was that,

“children should from their first beginning to talk, have

some discreet, sober, nay wise person about, whose

care it should be to fashion them aright, and keep

them from all ill, especially the infection of bad

company”John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Principle 3:

Learn each child’s unique way of communicating

John Locke advised parents and tutors to study their

children and to note their dispositions and dislikes: “for

a child will learn three times as much when he is in

tune, as he will with double the time and pains, when

he goes awkwardly, or is dragged unwillingly to it”

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Principle 5:

Respect infants and toddlers as worthy people.

“As children’s enquiries are not to be slighted; so also

great care is to be taken, that they never receive

deceitful and eluding answers. They easily perceive

when they are slighted or deceived; and quickly learn

the trick of neglect... We are not to intrench upon truth

in any conversation … we not only deceive their

expectation… but corrupt their innocence, and teach

them the worst of vices.”John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Principle 8:

Model the behavior you want to teach.

“Parents wonder why the streams

are bitter, when they themselves

have poisoned the fountain.”

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

IN CONCLUSION…

“You know my opinion is that

[children] should be

abroad in the air at all time and in all weathers, and if they play in the sun and

in the wind without hats

and gloves so much better. “

John Locke liberated the young child.He awarded the child liberty and freedom…

The freedom to be and the freedom the become…

Aldrich, R. (1994.) John Locke 1632-1704. PROSPECTS. 24(1/2), 61–76. Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/lockee.PDF

Borstelmann, L. (1974). Dr. Locke and Dr. Spock: Continuity and Change in American Conceptions of Childrearing. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Brophy-Herb, H., Fitzgerald, H. & Honig, A. (Eds.). (2001.) Infancy in America: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/

Chudacoff, H. (2007). Children at Play: An American History. New York University. Retrieved fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/books/Chudacoffchapter1.pdf

Cox, R. (1996). Shaping Childhood: Themes of Uncertainty in the History of Adult-Child Relationships. Chapter 3: The child of the Enlightenment: The example of Locke and Rousseau. (pp. 46-75). Routledge. Retrieved from SocINDEX with Full Text database.

Krogh, S, Slentz, K. (2001). Early childhood education: yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Routledge. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/

Locke, J. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909-1914. Retrieved from http://www.bartleby.com/37/1/10.html

(1988). JOHN LOCKE, PHILOSOPHER AND PHYSICIAN, ON REARING CHILDREN. Pediatrics, 82(3), 354. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

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