Similarities Between John Locke And Early Childhood Education

Thesis: Homeschooling environment is an effective approach in education due to evidence of higher achievement on placement tests, success through college, engaged socially with activities outside homes, and students becoming active members of society.

The methods or style of parenting, teaching and engagements strong impacts on the child development as it is the primary socialization point for children. It gives children a point of reference as when they are young they grow observing and learning keenly on what their parents are doing. Studies show that, children that are raised by active, involving and playful fathers performs better in school, have higher IQ and can cope with school related stress easily compared to those that are raised in families where father figure is absent or less involving. It also shows

Children model their own behaviour on others and if adults can effectively communicate and exchange age or developmental appropriate information with children this can encourage them to behave in acceptable ways. Frustration at their own inability to communicate effectively can lead to behavioural problems.

Development of a child have been a thing that most of the parents have been neglecting without noticing that it is very important in the development of a child’s character and social

The previous discrimination that Locke had experienced along with his own philosophical ideas influenced him to improve black education in America. Locke’s past exposure to racism lead to his belief in Cultural Pluralism. Cultural Pluralism is the belief that individual cultures can maintain their own identities while still being a part of a broader culture if each of their members actively promote self-pride and self-respect. Furthermore, Locke also believed in Value Relativism, which stated that the values that humans place on different races are fictitious. These two philosophical ideas lead to Locke’s belief that giving the African American community an opportunity for a proper education would result in upward mobility (Gyant 71).

He believes that it is at that age that reason starts to develop until finally the child becomes an adult. In ‘Emile’ Rousseau emphasises that nature wants children to take advantage of being children before being adults and there is a period of acquiring knowledge before living in the real world. A theory of innocence of the child emerged giving a need to protect children from the harsh reality of the adult world.

On education, Babbitt and Rousseau exhibited contrasting ideas. Rousseau’s views on education centered upon human liberty in educational pursuits. However, Babbitt was more about structure in educational pursuits. Babbitt wrote, “[Bacon and thereby Rousseau] do not have the humanist’s passion for wholeness, for the harmonious rounding out of all the faculties.”2 In contrast to Babbitt, Rousseau and Bacon believed that one should “burrow ever more and more deeply into his own specialty.”3 Babbitt continued, “The scientific and sentimental naturalist are sharply at variance on many points, but in their views on education they often coincide curiously.”4

John Locke was the forefather of the Educational Constructivist movement, which theorized that children and learners construct their personal knowledge in both social and individual situations. Though his opinions were often disputed, Locke had many opinions and theories of the habits and social conventions for the education of young children. Specifically, and perhaps most importantly, he believed that “It is more accurate to think of the child’s mind as a blank slate, and whatever comes from the mind is from the environment” (Crain 7). This ‘blank slate’, or tabula rasa idea founded the theory of nurture. According to his theory, as babies we are born without knowledge of what we should fear or how we should act, it is up to our environments to teach us how to act and behave.

Rousseau, on the other hand, believed that education should be learned by nature. In Lecture 5, Dr. Norris had talked about Rousseau’s’ belief that every individual that is brought into this world is built innocent and it is through interaction with society, we bred evil and corrupt our own being (T. Norris, The Enlightenment,

If one compares Locke and Rousseau noticeable similarities and differences can be found. Both men advocate similar ideas with different outcomes regarding the state of nature. Furthermore, Locke and Rousseau both come to distinct actualization and prophecies. Regarding the progression and advancement of mankind. Therefore, by comparing and contrasting these two distinct teachings one can find the true principles behind the state of nature and the natural laws inherent in mankind.

I loved learning about Locke and his philosophy’s because he mainly focused on the child’s character. He focused on who the child was becoming as a person rather than focusing on what the child was doing. Locke’s educational philosophy had six main points, first of them being Self-Control. He taught about how we need to focus on the child’s physical health, and how to be firm with them if we want them to acquire self -discipline (Crane pg 9). The second point is, Best Rewards and Punishments which deals with how we reinforce our children’s behavior. We need to praise them for good behavior, but never for behavior that is “unreasonable or self-indulgent” (Crane pg 9). The third point is Small Steps, we need to help them get over their fears. Locke wanted to have children grow up to be brave and that can’t happen if we don’t help them overcome their fears. We can’t rush them into anything though, we need to take small steps and just work with them. The fourth point was Rules, which had two rules that we should follow. The first rule is to be a good role model because children learn from example. The second rule is instead of issuing commands, practice the desired behavior that you want to see with the children (Crane pg 10). The fifth point is the Children’s Special Characteristics which mostly deals with him saying that, “children have their own cognitive capacities that set limits on what we can teach them” (Crane pg 10). The last point is Academic Instruction which mainly

It is believed that by restricting children from the real world and its many problems through home schooling, they may never get the chance to learn both life lessons and social interaction skills on their own

The child has not been perceived like an individual until the work of eighteen century philosophers Locke and Rousseau, who expressed their thoughts on paper about the child's ability to

The novels, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell, each setup societies in which the government has almost complete control of the people. One of the most effective ways of gaining the loyalty of a society is to gain the loyalty of the youth. In Brave New World, the government does this by raising the children itself. Children are produced by the government and spend their young lives learning by hypnopædia, or sleep-teaching. On the other hand, in 1984, children are still raised by their parents, but they are taught by the government to distrust them. Overall, in both novels the children are cultivated by the government to be their ideal citizens, but while Brave New World does this by making sure that they have a direct and single line to the child’s mind, in 1984 they instead influence the children that loyalty to the government is the best possible choice rather than thinking for themselves, and in the end, it is shown that both of these processes are effective.

Education has been ever developing since the inception of the first schools. The early theorists believed that children were mini adults. Children were treated the same as their adult counterparts. They were given jobs at early ages, and dressed the same as their parents. This belief, that children were just little adults, was called Preformationism. Though this may seem like an antiquated idea, aspects of Preformationism are still scene in today’s society. “We often lapse into the same thinking today, as when we expect young children to sit still for hour, or when we assume that their thinking is the same as ours” (Crain 5). Clearly there was the need for new theories, which would better explain child development and education. This is where Locke and Rousseau come in.