John Locke was born August 29, 1632, in 

Wrington, Somerset, England. Regarded as one of the most influential

Enlightenment thinkers, he was known as the Father of Classical Liberalism. He was an economist, political
operative, physician, Oxford scholar, and medical researcher as well as one of the great philosophers of the late 17th
andearly 18th centuries.
 Locke created the philosophy that there was no legitimate government under the Divine Right of Kings theory,
which emphasized that God chose some people to rule on earth in His will. Therefore, the monarch’s actions were
the will of God and to criticize the ruler meant you were challenging God. However, Locke did not believe in this
theory and wrote his own to challenge it.

     Locke’s writings also greatly influenced the founding fathers of the United States when writing the Constitution.
They implemented his idea that the power to govern was obtained from the permission of the people. He believed
the purpose of government was to protect the natural rights of its citizens. He stated that natural rights were life,
liberty, and property, and that all people automatically earned these simply by being born. When a government did
not protect those rights, the citizen had the right to overthrow the government. These ideas were incorporated into
the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson. Once they took root in North America, the philosophy was
adopted in other places as justification for revolution.

     Locke believed that children are born with their mind a blank sheet of paper, a clean slate, a tabula rasa. He also
maintained that children are potentially free and rational beings, and that the realization of these human qualities
tends to be disillusioned through imposition of the sort of prejudice that perpetuates oppression and fallacy. Locke
believed it was the upbringing and education that hindered the development of children's humanity. Locke noted two
consequences of the doctrine of the tabula rasa: egalitarianism and vulnerability.

    Locke believed the purpose of education was to produce an individual with a sound mind in a sound body so as to
better serve his country. Locke thought that the content of education ought to depend upon one's station in life. The
common man only required moral, social, and vocational knowledge. He could do quite well with the Bible and a
highly developed vocational skill that would serve to support him in life and offer social service to others. However,
the education of gentlemen ought to be of the very highest quality. The gentleman must serve his country in a
position of leadership.

     For gentlemen, Locke believed that the he must have a thorough knowledge of his own language. The schools of
the Puritans in England broke with tradition completely. They sought to educate one for the society in which he
would live. The schools were called, therefore, schools of social realism. Locke, in keeping with Milton and other
Puritans, held that the content of the curriculum must serve some practical end. He recommended the introduction of
contemporary foreign languages, history, geography, economics, math and science. 

     Locke proposed the following for the education of the gentleman: 

          a. Moral Training. All Christians must learn to live virtuously. 
          b. Good Breeding. The gentleman must develop the poise, control and outward behavior of excellent manners.
Education must aim, therefore, at               
               developing correct social skills. 
          c. Wisdom. The gentleman ought to be able to apply intellectual and moral knowledge in governing his
practical affairs. 
          d. Useful Knowledge. The gentleman must receive education which will lead to a successful life in the
practical affairs of the society, as well as that which 
                leads to the satisfaction derived from scholarship and good books.
In his final years he lived in the country at Oates in Essex at the home of Sir Francis and Lady Masham. Before his
death, Locke saw four more editions of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. He died at Oates in Essex on
October 28, 1704.

John Locke has long been considered a “pioneer”[1] of schooling and of what we might consider to be a ‘good’
education. His work not only contributed to much of our understanding in relation to the childhood development, but
also showed us the integral role of education and schooling in the formation of our children. His work has influenced
many educational philosophers since its root during the 17th century, and his ideas have found their way into much of
the curricular theory (what we teach), pedagogy (how we teach) and policy that we build our schools on and around.
His philosophical reach was such that not only did the entire function of schooling in England shift as a result, but
from which entire moral and social philosophies emerged. Scholars often credit Locke for inspiring the American
instinct towards public education, and in particular, the importance of the relationship between teacher and student. It
makes sense, then, that having been one of the forefathers of our American public education system today, we
consider what he would think of the state of public schooling today, particularly in a politicized age of standardization
and accountability? Would he be satisfied with where we have come, and where we seem to be going? What would
he change about the way we educate our children, and how would he change it?

The Birth of Student-Centered Education and Teaching the Whole Child

It was at Westminster, and then Oxford, that Locke truly began to develop his educational philosophy, mostly in
opposition to his own experience at these places. The strict disciplinarianism and the way in which he and his peers
were made to feel inferior to their instructors, lent to a subversive streak in Locke, ultimately getting him expelled
from Oxford. Having been, essentially, home-schooled for much of his youth by a loving father served as a stark
contrast to his experiences in Westminster and Christ Church. Following his expulsion, Locke began writing, sharing
his ideas with a readership that, given the scientific ideals of the Enlightenment, didn’t quite buy into the empirical
ideal that his ideas had come from — the scientific method and the rise of rationalistic thinking during the late 17th
century did not exactly jive with Locke’s focus on personal experience, observation using the senses and reflection.
We can certainly see, today, the bias to the former in our schools, particularly with the rise of STEM and the relative
fall of the arts and humanities. Truly, what concerned Locke, both as a psychologist and a philosopher, and certainly
as an educator, was the concept of the mind, how the individual self identifies with it, and the power of learning that
can come from one’s own understanding of it. In many ways, he advocated for the earliest forms of student-centered
learning, of the idea of the whole-child approach to education, as well as the educational ideal of differentiation. Quite
essentially, he put the student’s learning experience on par with, if not above, the teacher or subject-matter’s needs,
wants and values; in his world, the teacher’s responsibility is to help students find themselves within their learning
first and foremost, and to learn the content second.

Herbert Spencer
A philosophy of education is a statement (or set of statements) that identifies and clarifies the beliefs, values and
understandings of an individual or group with respect to education. ... A philosophy of this sort is critical in defining
and directing the purposes, objectives and focus of a school.
The pioneer that was strongly influenced by Charles Darwin's views. He applied the theory of evolution to society
and coined the phrase, "Survival of the Fittest." upgrading of the world as a whole. Phrase coined by Herbert
Spencer.

John Dewey
He was the most significant educational thinker of his era and, many would argue, of the 20th century. As a
philosopher, social reformer and educator, he changed fundamental approaches to teaching and learning. His ideas
about education sprang from a philosophy of pragmatism and were central to the Progressive Movement in
schooling. In light of his importance, it is ironic that many of his theories have been relatively poorly understood and
haphazardly applied over the past hundred years.

Dewey's concept of education put a premium on meaningful activity in learning and participation in classroom
democracy. Unlike earlier models of teaching, which relied on authoritarianism and rote learning, progressive
education asserted that students must be invested in what they were learning. Dewey argued that curriculum should
be relevant to students' lives. He saw learning by doing and development of practical life skills as crucial to
children's education. Some critics assumed that, under Dewey's system, students would fail to acquire basic
academic skills and knowledge. Others believed that classroom order and the teacher's authority would disappear.

Often considered one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, Dewey had a vital influence on psychology,
education, and philosophy. His emphasis on progressive education contributed greatly to the use of
experimentation rather than an authoritarian approach to knowledge. Dewey was also a prolific writer.

https://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/125414-Contribution-John-Dewey-Education.aspx
http://www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Faculty/nadams/educ692/Brameld.html
George Count
Counts, in full George Sylvester Counts, (born December 9, 1889, near Baldwin City, Kansas, U.S.—died
November 10, 1974, Belleville, Illinois), American educator and activist who, as a leading proponent of social
reconstructionism, believed that schools should bring about social change.

He wanted teachers to go beyond abstract, philosophical conceptions of democracy and teach explicitly about
power and injustice. He wanted teachers and students to count among their primary goals the building of a better
social order.

Heavily influenced by Albion Small and other Chicago sociologists, Counts saw in sociology the opportunity to
examine and reshape schools by considering the impact of social forces and varied political and social interests on
educational practice.

Theodore Brameld.
Theodore Burghard Hurt Brameld (1904-1987) was a leading educational philosopher of the 20th century. As an
American educator and educational philosopher, Brameld was best known as the founder of Social
Reconstructionism. ... Brameld dedicated his efforts to employing schools as agents for social change.

Brameld founded the educational philosophy of Social Reconstructionism which emphasized the addressing of
social questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide democracy (Philosophical Perspectives).
Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that emphasizes social reform as the aim of education.

Theodore Brameld believed that the goal of education was to employ schools as agents for social change. He is the
founder of the educational philosophy of Social Reconstructionism whichemphasized addressing social questions
and a quest to create a better society and worldwidedemocracy (Haindel, page 1).

Influenced by John Dewey's educational philosophy, Brameld urged that schools become a powerful force for
social and political change. He welcomed reasoned argument and debate both inside and outside the classroom.

Paulo Freire
was one of the most influential philosophers of education of the twentieth century. He worked wholeheartedly
to help people both through his philosophy and his practice of critical pedagogy. A native of Brazil, Freire’s goal
was to eradicate illiteracy among people from previously colonized countries and continents. His insights were
rooted in the social and political realities of the children and grandchildren of former slaves. His ideas, life, and
work served to ameliorate the living conditions of oppressed people.

Brazilian educator Paulo Freire argues that the purpose of education is to liberate human potential and, thus, is
much more than a teacher simply depositing information into the mind of a learner.
was a champion of what's known today as critical pedagogy: the belief that teaching should challenge learners to
examine power structures and patterns of inequality within the status quo.

Some of the early and lasting influences on Freire were his parents, his preschool teacher, and Aluízio Pessoa de
Araújo, the principal of Oswaldo Cruz ...

is the patron of education in Brazil. His main work - the Popular Education pedagogy - influences many educators
all over the world who believe in education as a way of liberating poor oppressed people. One of the outcomes of
Freire's work is a literacy method, developed in the 1960's.

was Brazilian educator whose ideas on the role of education for the poor, proved to be tremendously influential.
After training as a lawyer, he decided to become a secondary school teacher, rising to become Director of the
Department of Education and Culture in the Brazilian State of Pernambuco.
He later worked in various Brazilian universities, developing adult literacy programs. After a military coup in
Brazil in 1964, he lived and worked in Chile for five years, then with the World Council of Churches in
Geneva, not returning to Brazil until 1980. During his time of exile, he developed his ideas further and
published a number of books, the most renowned of which was Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972).  Freire saw
the moral potential in a transformative education—the potential to liberate.
A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level, inside or outside the school, reveals its
fundamentally narrative character. The relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient,
listening objects (the students) … Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize
mechanically the narrated content. Worse still, it turns them into ‘containers’, into receptacles to be filled by
the teacher. The more completely he fills the receptacles, the better a teacher he is. The more meekly the
receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are. Education becomes an act of depositing,
in which the students are the depositaries and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the
teacher issues communiqués and ‘makes deposits’ which the students patiently receive, memorize and repeat.
This is the ‘banking’ concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students only as far as
receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or
cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last analysis, it is [people] themselves who are filed away
through the lack of creativity, transformation and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system. For apart from
inquiry, part from the praxis, [people] cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and
re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the world, with the
world, and with each other