Freedom and Education True education is more than preparation for a job We remain fearful anxious frightened of life So is it the function of education to help us understand the whole the process of life or merely to prepare us for a vocation Education has no meaning unless it helps you understand the vast expanse of life with all its subtleties extraordinary beauty sorrows and joys You may earn degrees and have a very good job but then what Isn t the true function of education to cultivate in you the intelligence which will try to find the answers to life s problems Intelligence is the capacity to think freely without fear or formula so you begin to discover for yourself what s real and true but if you re frightened you ll never be intelligent Living safely generally means living in imitation and therefore fear To create an atmosphere in which there is no fear requires a great deal of thinking Function of education is to eradicate the fear that destroys human thought relationships and love The Problem of Freedom We are condemned to be free were always obliged to make some kind of choice Even if I can t choose my circumstance I can choose attitude I take and response I make in light of it Order both constricts and creates freedom Freedom also requires resources Redundant Freedom too many rules Virtue of Constraint with constraint comes freedom Culture is a series of constraints that enable people to exist and survive together Cognitive Choices We have no choice but to choose Choose what is handed to us as this is the way it is or question our culture s meanings to see if that is really in our best interest The moment we want to be something we are no longer free we begin to embody whatever we want Facets of Freedom Autonomy freedom from others independence of our judgment Agency our ability to discern alternatives evaluate choices and the will to choose Without bias from internal or external sources Choice a range of alternatives Resources means to actualize choice Freedom involves the range of alternatives choices the ability to discern evaluate them independently and want to choose among them agency and then independence and freedom to choose among the range of alternatives we desire autonomy 2 ways people can exercise their freedom when faced with constraints 1 Exit the ability to withdraw stop supporting company leave job with bad environment divorce from bad marriage 2 Voice making your will know Taking action in managing one s affairs Protests voting holding public office Freedom to more liberal Freedom to do something you ve never done before Education income upbringing grant people choices Freedom from more conservative Freedom from crime so you need laws Freedom from interference Of Dogs and People Dogs communicate with Signals universal and unchanged meaning stands for one thing only People use Signs agreed upon open to change may have more then one meaning depends on what people decide it means Signs allow for experience of the past and future Time binding taking past experiences to make something that did not exist before use to evolve How language gives us a past Social Constructionism That it is nonlinguistic physical here What it is linguistic culturally created arbitrary what we call it determines what we plan to do with it We do not live in the world of things we live in the world of the meaning of things A culture whatever its language is a way of minding the world One doesn t learn from one s experiences One learns from one s interpretations of ones experiences Mind how we see understand make sense of something not something you have something you do with language culture Mind isn t something just inside your head it s part of your language environment your culture Unlike thinking where your back in your head reflecting Naming Social Constructionism Greatest freedom is defining things on your own terms but there are consequences Every definition of anything contains the agenda and objectives of some group of people Those people who can use language to explain and persuade are the one s whose view of the world becomes the way it is Manipulate control Price of Human Communication Knowledge of death so we are driven to live meaningful lives to the fullest 1 Cognitivism Brain maps reality Backed by modern philosophies of mind and reality For modernist science tech math and sound logic are the tools to understand and improve life Life made meaningful by solving the problems that keep us from living out life s potentials Searching for unchanged reliable and universal patterns Emotion and experience are unreliable because they are inconsistent To the extent that we understand the patterns of the Universe and of ourselves we will live longer lives of quality experience Requires measurable empirical objective evidence Separates reality out there from the human mind in the head To understand how the mind maps reality looks for what kind of behavior leads to positive and negative conflicts more effective ways to persuade celebrate and comfort Human behavior caused by things like locus of control authoritarian personalities attachment patterns People do not really choose their responses in life Focus is on the cognitive schema or personal construct Personal Construct how do I see people How complexly Our mental maps Lumping people together lack of complex Schemas ways to categorize things in certain categories Locus of Control do I feel in control of my life or do I feel something else does Attachment Patterns how much can you rely on caregiver as child Predicts what happens as adult Human beings will enjoy greater freedom and security aka quality of life in relation to the precision that they can map the world around them their own minds their cultures and relationships 2 Existentialism Meaning of life is found in one s choices Not determined by anything outside of an individuals actions and choices The human life is understood as a structure of concerns Human being at its most fundamental is found in the concerns one has and the care one takes It is action rather than thinking that make life meaningful We are condemned to be free to choice Even if no choice of situation still choice of attitude A meaningful relationship with God isn t found among the rituals and rules of a church but in the lived experiences of faith but most existentialists atheists It s the acts of faith done in uncertainty in fear and in trust that makes for meaningful relationship Don t ask whether