In his 'Two Treatises of Government' the political philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) laid the ground for the classical liberal concept of 'property'. This concept is not only highly influential in contemporary economical and political thinking. It moreover forms our modern understanding of the (educated) 'individual' until today. Providing the basis for the conceptualization of the individual as the proprietor of his own 'person', Locke´s writings were of utmost importance for the foundation of the modern philosophy of education, too. But how and why did Locke construct this concept at all? What did it stand for in his time, and what does it imply for educational thinking up to the present?My presentation will follow two strands of questions. First I will decipher the references to the 'Americans' or 'Indians' which are eye-catchingly numerous in those parts of his writings where Locke forms his concept of property. What was the role of 'America' and the 'Indians' there? Secondly, I will ask how Locke connects industriousness or industry - one of the modern proprietor's prime virtues - to his ideals of the individual´s education. My argument will aim at a critique of the liberal concept of the individual (person) as constructed from a naturalization of 'property' and the exclusion of the Other. In a combination of socio-historical views and new approaches to the history of ideas my contribution will be based on an analysis of Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1689) and Some Thoughts concerning education (1693) and will interpret them with the help of postcolonial studies which criticize the modern dichotomy of center and periphery.My presentation is part of my doctoral thesis with which I would like to make a contribution to overcome the eurocentric perspective in modern educational thought. I would like to stress the point that educational theory since its classical liberal beginnings is based on ambivalent mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion of the Other who, in the chosen example, is represented by the 'American'. ARNIEL, Barbara, 1998. John Locke and America. The Defence of English Colonialism. 2nd edition. Oxford.LOCKE, John, 2000 (1693). Some Thoughts concerning education. Edited by Yolton, John W./ Yolton Jean S. Oxford.LOCKE, John, 2005 (1690). Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Laslett, Peter. Students Edition. 17th printing. Cambridge. DUSSEL, Enrique, 1995. The Invention of the Americas. Eclipse of 'the Other' and the Myth of Modernity. New York. OVERHOFF, Jürgen, 2004. Quentin Skinners neue Ideengeschichte und ihre Bedeutung für die historische Bildungsforschung. Jahrbuch für Historische Bildungsforschung vol. 10, Bad Heilbrunn.