Locke’s stance against using corporal punishment against children to educate them looks very progressive from our point of view, but he also takes the surprising view (and acknowledges how paradoxical this seems) that we should accustom children to pain, for their own good. This is a theme familiar from Ancient Greek writings on education, and indeed Locke makes explicit reference to Sparta (p. 225) as evidence of how far one could go in this direction – though he has in mind a more modest aim of increasing resilience to bodily pain (rather than inspiring Spartan toughness). In making his…