Locke: Example

Some Thoughts Concerning Education - by John Locke, 1693

§ 71 Example. Having under consideration how great the influence of company is, and how prone we are all, especially children, to imitation, I must here take the liberty to mind parents of this one thing, viz. That he that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son. Maxima debetur pueris reverentia [The most scrupulous respect is due to boyhood]. You must do nothing before him, which you would not have him imitate. If anything 'scape you, which you would have pass for a fault in him, he will be sure to shelter himself under your example, and how then, you will be able to come at him, to correct it in the right way, I do not easily see. And if you will punish him for it, he cannot look on it as a thing which reason condemns, since you practise it; but he will be apt to interpret it the peevishness and arbitrary imperiousness of a father, which, without any ground for it, would deny his son the liberty and pleasures he takes himself. Or if you would have it thought it is a liberty belonging to riper years, and not to a child, von add but a new temptation, since, you must always remember, that children affect to be men earlier than is thought: and they love breeches, not for their cut or ease, hut because the having them is a mark or a step towards manhood. What I say of the father's carriage before his children, must extend itself to all those who have any authority over them, or for whom he would have them have any respect.

§ 72 Thus all the actions of childishness, and unfashionable carriage, and whatever time and age will of itself be sure to reform, being exempt from the discipline of the rod, there will not be so much need of beating children, as is generally made use of. To which, if we add learning to read, write, dance, foreign language, etc., as under the same privilege, there will be but very rarely any occasion for blows or force in an ingenuous education. The right way to teach them those things, is, to give them a liking and inclination to what you propose to them to be learned, and that will engage their industry and application. This I think no hard matter to do, if children be handled as they should be, and the rewards and punishments above-mentioned be carefully applied, and with them these few rules observed in the method of instructing them.

§ 73 1. Task. None of the things they are to learn should ever be made a burden to them, or imposed on them as a task. Whatever is so proposed, presently becomes irksome: the mind takes an aversion to it, though before it were a thing of delight or indifferency. Let a child be but ordered to whip his top at a certain time every day, whether he has, or has not a mind to it; let this be but required of him as a duty, wherein he must spend so many hours morning and afternoon, and see whether he will not soon be weary of any play at this rate. Is it not so with grown men? What they do cheerfully of themselves, do they not presently grow sick of, and can no more endure, as soon as they find it is expected of them as a duty? Children have as much a mind to show that they are free, that their own good actions come front themselves, that they are absolute and independent, as any of the proudest of you grown men, think of them as you please.

§ 74 2. Disposition. As a consequence of this, they should seldom be put upon doing even those things you have got an inclination in them to, but when they have a mind and disposition to it. He that loves reading, writing, music, etc., finds yet in himself certain seasons wherein those things have no relish to him; and, if at that time he forces himself to it, he only pothers and wearies himself to no purpose. So it is with children. This change of temper should be carefully observed in them, and the favourable seasons of aptitude and inclination be heedfully laid hold of, to set them upon anything. By this means a great deal of time and tiring would be saved: 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. If this were minded as it should, children might be permitted to weary themselves with play, and yet have time enough to learn what is suited to the capacity of each age. And if things were ordered right, learning anything they should be taught, might be made as much a recreation to their play, as their play is to their learning. The pains are equal on both sides: nor is it that which troubles them, for they love to be busy, and the change and variety is that which naturally delights them. The only odds is, in that which we call play they act at liberty, and employ their pains (whereof you may observe them never sparing) freely; but what they are to learn, they are driven to it, called on or compelled. This is that, that at first entrance balks and cools them; they want their liberty: get them but to ask their tutor to teach them, as they do often their play-fellows, instead of this calling upon them to learn, and they being satisfied that they act as freely in this, as they do in other things) they will go on with as much pleasure in it, and it will not differ from their other sports and play. By these ways, carefully pursued, I guess a child may be brought to desire to be taught any thing you have a mind he should learn. The hardest part, I confess, is with the first or eldest; but when once he is set right, it is easy by him to lead the rest whither one will.