ABSTRACT
The historian G. M. Trevelyan says that, if even half the endowments of the chantries had been devoted to education, England would have had the best secondary education in Europe. In order to see John Locke’s thought in its proper perspective it is necessary to take a more careful look at what had been going on in English educational thought and practice during the century or so before his time. The enthusiasm of the Renaissance scholars for all things classical tended to enhance the backward-looking glorification of the past which had for centuries been part of our educational tradition. In education the new spirit meant a profoundly significant change of perspective, away from rote-learning and formalism to practical use, and from the authority of tradition to discovery. Educational progress is always slow; and one must remember that it is never easy for practising teachers to make radical reforms.
