Free John Locke Too Elaborates On The Patterns Responsible For A Child’s Education In Regards To Human Development And Morals. Essay Example

Locke, Rousseau, and Diderot’s perception of the relationship between reason, human development and morals in Education and childhood and manners and morals.The three authors point out the influence of Education on the human being as a whole ranging from effects on the human way of reasoning, development, manners, and morals. Education begins when a child is born through to maturity; it is through education that men are taught to both love and hate.
According to Rousseau, reasoning is not the best approach to use when trying to bring up a child because the purpose of education is to teach them how to reason. He says that,” teaching them to reason from a tender age teaches them to be satisfied with words, find fault with what is said to them, to think that they are wiser than their teachers and to wrangle and rebel”(JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU). Rousseau points out that children should always be taken care of as children and one should not try to change the laws of nature by treating them as men. These have a different way of viewing life in comparison to adults in terms of how they see, think, and feel about life.
He condemns the means used while rising up children because they are so focused on the future of the child and forget to let him enjoy the best moments of his childhood. It is sad because the child ends up losing their childhood for a future that may never be for some who fail to make it up to the future they were prepared for.
Rousseau concludes that the main purpose for fathers should be to enable their children enjoy their childhood to the fullest by treating them as children and when fully grown to manhood then treat them n guide them as men to enjoy their manhood.

He encourages the means of educating the young ones to be changed in line with the different stages of growth. A critic of corporal punishment, John believes that the punishments should be more rigorous at the early stages of life when trying to teach a child on what is right and wrong, on what should be and should not be done though as they grow, the form of punishment should change. “Children most chastised don’t turn up the best men” (JOHN LOCKE)
John Locke emphasizes that a little corporal punishment for correction is good though too much of it is bad. The best way of bringing up a child is having the ability to help them grow up with a liberated mind that enables them to freely know what is good to do and not to do without any external forces trying to persuade them. To be able to enjoy themselves and utilize their potential to the fullest without fear because they are confident about life.
John also points out that the extreme use of the rod, a symbol of corporal punishment leads to children disliking what they are being taught to like because deep within them a tendency to rebel against the external pressure asserted on them rises up.
The children will submit and act obedient against their will because of the fear of the rod and when it is absent, they are bound to be rebellious and act as they wish. When bringing children up, corporal punishment should be used on lesser occasions that may really necessitate depending on the measure of offence especially if extreme. He also points out that parents should avoid enticing their little ones with gifts to make them accomplish a given task because this only trains them to be materialistic and grow the desire for pleasure embedded within them. Children should be taught to freely and willingly submit when they need to and to be able to adjust to different situations when they arise.
Through this system, a judgment about the morality, success (in terms of education), and the ability to reason current issues is passed. Men are judged failures because they are graded according to their success in education yet when there is a chance to be the best can be, a lot of potential is discovered in them. Therefore, if children are brought up as children and men as men, the world will have fully matured men ready for their responsibilities and children to enjoy their childhood to fullest.Children are supposed to be allowed to develop abilities to reason, behave, and act in a right way without coercion, use of force and enticement. This will give them a chance to know the difference between right and wrong freely and to become responsible citizens who reason intelligently and make right choices because they have been allowed to exercise their free will.

Work cited

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Peter H. Nidd itch. New York: Oxford UP, 1975.