Locke’s Influences on Education John Locke had a number of major influences on society in general, but his influences on education have stood the taste of time. His idea of Tabula Rasa, his introduction of empiricism, and idea of the use of all senses are all objectives that are used in schools today. The idea of Tabula Rasa is basically defined as a “blank slate.” Locke believed that everyone is born with a clean mind, a supposed condition that he attributed to the human mind before ideas have been imprinted on it by the reaction of the senses to the exterior world. “Thus the first capacity of human intellect is that the mind is fitted