For Locke, important education took place both at home and at school. He encouraged parents to increase stress tolerance in their children (a process he called hardening) by having them sleep on hard rather than soft beds. Exposing children to mod- erate amounts of coldness and wetness would also increase tolerance for the inevitable hardships of life. Crying should be discouraged with physical pun- ishment, if necessary. Parents should provide their children with sufficient sleep, food, fresh air, and exercise because good health and effective learning are inseparable.
Concerning classroom practices, mild physical punishment of students was advocated but severe physical punishment was not. Teachers, Locke believed, should always make the learning experi- ence as pleasant as possible so that learning beyond school will be sought. If learning occurs under aver- sive conditions, it will be avoided both in school and beyond. A step-by-step approach to teaching complex topics was recommended to avoid over- whelming and thus frustrating students. For the same reason, excessive and overly rigorous assign- ments should be avoided. The primary job of the teacher should be to recognize and praise student accomplishments.
How does one deal with a child’s irrational fears? Locke used a child with a fear of frogs to exemplify his technique: matter in motion, and the motion of moving objects is explained by natural laws, which are expressible in mathematical terms. Berkeley correctly perceived that materialistic philosophy was pushing God far- ther and farther out of the picture, and thus it was dangerous, if not potentially fatal, to both religion and morality. Berkeley therefore decided to attack materialism at its very foundation—its assumption that matter exists.