Student Reviews, Critiques
of Primary Source Documents

Each student will read, summarize, and discuss two of the assigned documents from The Portable Enlightenment Reader. You can pick articles from the ones that interest you the most. BUT, each of the articles should be from a different part or section of the collection. Note that the collection is divided up into five parts with sub-sections in parts 4 & 5. The idea is to experience some diversity.

The summary should consist of:

1) a description of the content of the document along with a brief statement about the author. About a half to two-thirds of a type-written page.

2) the student's assessment of the historical value of the document. What does the document tell you about the topic and the writer? What is its context, the time and place it was written? What did the student learn from the document? This should be about a half to two-thirds of a page.

The initial summary should be about a page to a page and a half.

Each student should submit their summary to me by e-mail for posting on the class website by the due date.

After the summaries are posted on the website, each student should read their classmates' summaries and comment on them for posting on the website. Students are encouraged to critique their fellow students' work and to engage in productive dialogue about the issues raised by student commentaries.

Please keep your comments polite. Having a disagreement over historical fact and interpretation is fine, but you must support your arguments historically. Avoid personal insults and gratuitously nasty comments.

“Education And Childhood”  
The Portable Enlightenment Reader
John Locke

By Roger Bunn

John Locke was one of the greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment. Locke was born on August 29, 1632, and died on October 28, 1704. Widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, Locke and his writings influenced many Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau. Locke had an influence on many during and after his life’s works.

The article, entitled “Education And Childhood” by John Locke, presents a clear message. This article became a principle guide on “how to breed” children for most Protestant Americans during the eighteenth century, but I also believe that it could be applied in today’s society. Locke believed that children should be disciplined, but also believed that the discipline received shouldn’t be in the form of child abuse. He believed that severe punishment for children did little good and also did great harm in educating the child. Locke believed that breaking the mind of a young child would also lower his self esteem.

Locke also believed that rewarding kids with material things would harm them in the long run. He believed that children should want to learn on their own without being rewarded for it with money or other incentives. Locke also believed that we shouldn’t remove the fear of punishment, because he believed that that was the end of all discipline.

Locke also believed that children should always be learning. He said that once a child learns English, he should immediately start learning another language. After reading this article I felt like I could apply some of these methods to my children in the future. It’s really hard to believe that this article is over 300 years old and still so up to date.

“Mathematical Principles Of Natural Philosophy”  
The Portable Enlightenment Reader
Isaac Newton

By Roger Bunn

Isaac Newton’s article on “Mathematical Principles Of Natural Philosophy” starts out with mathematical definitions, which basically set-up Newton’s Laws of Motion. Newton’s First Law of Motion basically says that an object will remain at rest unless a force acts on it. This is called the Law of Inertia. I believe that the Second Law of Motion states that if you apply a force to something, that object will travel in the direction from which the force came. For example, if you hit a baseball with a bat, the baseball will travel in the direction from which you swung the bat. This law is also directly related to gravity. The third and final law states that to every action there is an equal or opposite reaction. For example, a rocket will eject gasses out of its engine and they will build up, pushing against the ground and causing the rocket to rise. This article gave me a better understanding of Newton’s laws, but it was still very difficult.

What Is Enlightenment?  
Part 1 The Enlightenment Spirit: An Overview
What is Enlightenment? Pg. 1-7
Immanuel Kant

By Alana Norris

This article is about being enlightened. Enlightenment is thinking for yourself and using your own reason without the help of another. Kant says being a coward and lazy are reasons why Enlightenment does not happen. If other people think and make decisions for you, then why do it yourself? It is difficult for people to change. Enlightenment follows freedom. “Argue as much as you will, and about what you will, but obey!” Freedom of thought is especially necessary religiously. Kant is a German philosopher whose teachings are still taught today.

For the most part I think I agree with this article. I had to read each sentence a couple of times for the true meaning to sink in, which was tedious and made me daydream. Toward the end it gets a bit confusing. A statement was made about having less civil freedom leads to more thinking. “A greater degree of civil freedom appears advantageous to the freedom of mind of the people, and yet it places inescapable limitations upon it; a lower degree of civil freedom, on the contrary, provides the mind with room for each man to extend himself to his full capacity.” That seems to me to contradict the former reasoning. Possibly I missed something. I think it is interesting how what he said then is still relevant today. It is totally true that people do not think without help from others. Help is good, but forming your own thoughts and opinions is good, too!

This document tells me the writer was very involved in the Enlightenment movement. The document explains what the topic of Enlightenment is and how it is translated through life. I believe this document is historically valuable. It was written in 1784, which attributes to the fact that it is hard to understand. I personally learned the definition of the Enlightenment. I had never given it serious thought and this document explains everything you need to know about being enlightened.

Some Thoughts Concerning Education  
Part 4 Reason and Humanity: Education and Childhood
Some Thoughts Concerning Education Pg. 222-228
John Locke

By Alana Norris

Locke writes that punishment is not necessarily the best policy. He understands that it can be detrimental to always be bullied. His advice is to start very early in the child’s life and control them so they will know no different. Don’t wait because it will cause issues. Constantly tearing a kid down will do them no good. You must let the child be free and jovial, but you must lead them on the right to path to a place they will not naturally gravitate.

This balance is hard. Rewards are just as bad. Kids will not truly enjoy doing the things they are made to do if they are rewarded. Do not reward. Once the child has learned English they should learn French and then Italian. He says to not teach grammatically but by sound. He insists that by only using the language you are teaching helps students to learn far better than learning the grammar of that language. John Locke is not usually known for his writing on education, but this document was deeply influential in eighteenth century Protestant America.

This document was published in 1693, but I believe it was little bit easier to understand. This document is historically valuable. I think we can learn from what they did before us. We can evaluate what worked and what did not work. The document tells us that Locke had some good ideas on education. I was not too sure I agreed with controlling the child all their life before they know any different. This can definitely cause issues, but besides that, I think Locke was on the right track. It also tells us that they were looking for new ideas on how to raise their children. For whatever reason, people wanted to change their methods of raising their children. I suppose everyone changes it up a little bit. I learned that surprisingly not much has changed over time. People deal with the same issues. Maybe if people paid attention they could learn from the past. The main point is to not use rewards or severe punishments and just guide the child to knowledge.