Popular Posts

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Understanding the Eastern and Western Ways of Living Freedom and Teaching Children to Live the Freedom within Social Context and Values


   Jeanna Albano, MBA
 
A Doctoral student in Developmental Management of the Divine Word College of Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
Abstract.
Understanding and applying the concept of freedom is contextual. Living life freely within the social context. Thus, since it is within the social context, freedom is not a license to do whatever you want to do, it is not an absolute. Your freedom ends when you cross the boundaries of the freedom of others and cultural, social and moral values. Western society and eastern society may understand and apply freedom in different way, not necessarily the same.  The purpose of education is to teach children to live their freedom within the context where they are.    
   Key Words:  Freedom, social context, values.
Introduction
Freedom is one of the most frequently used words in our time and often it is misused. Thus it is necessary to be defined and well understood. Proper understanding of freedom will help us to conduct ourselves properly.
Different societies often time emphasizes different meaning of freedom. Western and eastern societies may emphasize different freedom. One might emphasize outer freedom and the other inner freedom. Outer freedom is freedom of action, political or social freedom. Inner freedom is freedom of the mind, freedom from the bondage of ignorance of human nature and its potentialities. Ignorance breeds fear, suspicion, hatred, and confusion.  
However, in order to function in the society, one must give up his identity, conform to anonymous authorities and adopt successful roles (Monte Mayor, 1999). Thus he escapes from inner freedom. The more he escapes from his inner freedom to act according to his will, the more powerless he feels and the more meaningless his life seems to be. If life loses its meaning because it is not lived, man becomes desperate. The ideas of freedom and democracy deteriorate into nothing but irrational faith once they are not based upon the productive experience of each individual but are presented to him by parties and states which force him to believe in these ideas.
This article would like to discuss further the meaning of freedom and how we are going to live this freedom within context and teach the children to live freely within context. In this article, the context that the researcher wants to emphasize is eastern context.
Freedom Defined.
           What is freedom? Freedom is not license to do whatever we want. The word freedom has many different meanings depending on the context. Each person's construction of meaning for their own life depends on freedom. There are two kinds of freedom: The first is freedom of thought, freedom of mind or freedom of conscience.  This is what we call inner freedom, a function of maturate growth or maturity or self-actualization. The second is freedom of choice or freedom of action. This is called outer freedom. The two are interrelated. True freedom emerges when true inner freedom translates into authentic outer freedom. 
       The definition of freedom varies with the cultural context. The principles of freedom and democracy are based on responsible freedom which is freedom of thinking and feeling derived from the activity of the human conscience. Inner freedom is a function of morality; it means maturation of personality integration of conscience. Conscience is the biological mechanism for maintenance of integration of the human personality in a complex social environment. The human conscience is a free conscience and development of the human conscience depends on fulfillment of human needs for unconditional love, work etc. Morality is a function of moral development. Moral development is a function of the development of the human conscience. The human conscience is the human spirit. It is the guardian of the integration of the human personality. It is the core of human values which have evolved through natural selection as a result of its survival value to the human organism's need to adapt to a complex social environment. It is a biologically based intrinsic valuing system which is developed as a protection for the integrated human organism. It is the result of evolutionary processes. The human organism depends on the conscience and the spirit; it is for survival of the individual organism and survival of the species.  Development of the human conscience results in humanistic morality or free morality as opposed to authoritarian morality. Free morality is morality based on inner freedom. Development of free morality is a result of development with inner freedom. And it is the biological basis of the so-called higher values.
       Still in line with the meaning of freedom, according to Mortimer Adler (1963), there are three distinct meanings of freedom: 1) an individual is said to be free when external circumstances permit him/her to act as he wishes for his own good; 2) an individual is said to be free when he/she has acquired enough virtue or wisdom to be able willingly to do as he ought, to comply with the moral law, or to live in accordance with an ideal befitting human nature. This kind of freedom resides in an individual’s state of mind or character; and it is quite independent of all external circumstances; 3) all men are said to be free because they are endowed by nature with the power of free choice, the power to decide for themselves what they shall do or become.
The Western Concept of Freedom
       The Western concept of freedom is a freedom of choice. In the Western world, freedom is perceived in terms of the ability to satisfy personal desires and impulses for self-expression in the absence of obstructions and restraining influences of authoritarianism.  The emphasis is on external factors of freedom as they relate to the outer aspects of life or politics - freedom of expression, autonomy, self-determination, self-dependence, self-regulation and democracy.
       Such concept of freedom has influenced economy and political concepts. The freedom and capitalism denigrate the value of true freedom in American capitalist society. In American culture, the ideals of political freedom are used by the propaganda machine in the interests of capitalism to divert people's attention to the choice of products which they as consumers can buy. In the consumer society people are kept ignorant of the real meaning of freedom and conditioned to think that they enjoy the freedom to choose.  Freedom of choice as outer freedom is not the translation of freedom of thought. The inner freedom is to act from conviction and internal harmony according to one's own will or conscience.
Freedom of conscience is not encouraged or even allowed. Freedom of capitalist society is the outer freedom which emphasizes the outer aspect of life and is often confused with political and social freedom. As a result of suppression of inner freedom, the individual does not know what he wants, what he thinks or what he feels. He is not free according to his own will, acting from inner harmony and conviction. In order to function in the society, he must give up his identity, conform to anonymous authorities and adopt successful roles. The more he escapes from his inner freedom to act according to his own will and conscience, the more powerless he feels and the more meaningless his life seems to be. Freedom as inner freedom emphasizes the inner aspect of life and can be likened to the German word for freedom - 'freiheit' in which the root 'heit' refers to the inner condition or state of mind or consciousness state. The closest English equivalent would be 'freedom hood' meaning 'freedom of one's consciousness state, the conscious inner struggle for inner freedom for which all human beings striving for understanding and knowledge of one's connectedness with the world and other beings in the world (Maguigad, 2005)
 The Eastern Concept of Freedom
The Eastern concept of freedom is a freedom of the mind. In the Eastern world freedom is perceived in terms of the ability to act according to those convictions which result from internal harmony and freedom of conscience or free will. Emphasis is on internal factors of freedom as they relate to the inner aspects of life or the inner life - freedom from conditioning, freedom from fear, freedom from desire, and freedom from sorrow. Inner freedom is not a question of will but of observation and contemplation. Inner freedom is based on the ability to see reality as it is, with a sense of responsibility or caring i.e. love in the sense of loving-kindness, wisdom of compassion and creative intelligence. Creative intelligence is functional in normal growth and development of social. Social intelligence is a function of optimal mental health. Social intelligence is also a capability to sense social reality and taking social reality into consideration when making decision or action.  Education for social intelligence is education for cultivation of the total human being; example is the holistic education. Holistic education is responsible education which allows for freedom to learn from experience or experiential learning.
Teaching the Children to Live Freedom within the Eastern Context and Values
To teach the right meaning and practice of freedom can be done through holistic perception and holistic education.   It should be reminded that freedom is the most important condition necessary to ensure the cultivation of natural development - not freedom as license but freedom with control and responsibility. Although freedom in the eastern context is the freedom of the mind, the ability to act according to the conviction which results from internal harmony and freedom of conscience, however, the application of such freedom is not absolute, in the sense that someone cannot just act based on his conviction alone but social realities and moral values are factors to tame freedom. In the eastern context, freedom is not regarded as free ticket to do whatever you want to do but freedom that is placed within the social context.   Such concept should be inculcated in the beginning of childhood. Since childhood, a child is oriented what it means to be free within the context.
Learning is a natural function of the brain and the healthy mind. There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education functions either as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. The development of an educational methodology that facilitates this process will inevitably lead to tension and conflict within our society. But it could also contribute to the formation of a new man and mark the beginning of a new era in Western history.
Real freedom is a consequence of development and education; it is the consequence of latent guides, aided by education. It is the construction of the personality, reached by effort and one's own experiences; it is the long road which every child must take to reach maturity. Development cannot be taught. Freedom does not consist in keeping up an uninterrupted and unimpeded external activity, but is something achieved through conquering, by personal reflection, the difficulties that prevent immediate overflow into action and spontaneous success and genuine freedom is intellectual. It rests on the power of thought. To cultivate unhindered, unreflective, external activity is to foster enslavement, for it leaves the person at the mercy of appetite, sense and circumstance (Kesson, 2010).
The result of good education must be to produce a mature person. A mature person would be a person who knows how to use his freedom in the proper context. Though the concept of freedom is universal but the application of such freedom is contextual. Contexts are always different depending where you are in this world. When you are in western culture, the application of freedom should be adjusted to western context and when you are in the eastern world, the application of freedom should be adjusted within eastern context. Western culture may emphasize individuality and independence, while eastern culture would emphasizes social harmony, interdependence. As a consequence, the application of freedom for the eastern would be limited by the concept of harmony. Your freedom ends when you destroy the harmony and the social relationship. It is not like ‘mind your own business’ and don’t mind my business as in the western culture. Thus children must know where they are and learn how to exercise freedom within the context where they. It is like a Filipino behaves like American and American behave like a Filipino. It is what is happening. Besides there can be no freedom independent of social, moral and cultural context. For the human individual in a cultural context, the nature of reality is determined by the nature of the cultural environment. The nature of the cultural environment is determined by the cultural values, moral values and belief systems.
Teaching Methodology
Teaching children about such freedom is not an easy job; given the fact the world has no boundary because of technology. Internet has communicated directly to the children or students what is happening around the globe. However, such situation is not an excuse for educator to teach children about the meaning of freedom within their cultural values and social values. Human are product of its environment.   
In line with that idea, educators must analyze the cultural context in which they are doing their work of educating. There can be no educational policy or practice independent of a social and cultural context and therefore there is no such theory as objective educational theory. For the human individual in a cultural context, the nature of reality is determined by the nature of the cultural environment. The nature of the cultural environment is determined by the cultural values and belief systems. Stimuli from the cultural environment are directly related to the basic assumptions underlying the values of the culture. They are peripheral to the stimuli in the field of focused attention. As peripheral stimuli, they are processed by the brain at the subconscious level. The cultural values are a product of the cultural belief systems which make up the cultural consciousness. The cultural belief systems are a product of the history of the culture. The cultural history forms the basis of the cultural consciousness, source of the peripheral stimuli processed subconsciously by the individual in a cultural context. The individual's thought and behavior patterns are influenced by the subconsciously processed peripheral stimuli from the cultural environment. Unconsciously perceived and processed by the brain, peripheral stimuli from the cultural environment are inherent in the so-called cultural consciousness. The educational process for the individual within a cultural context involves conscious thought patterns in the framework of unconsciously processed environmental stimuli of the cultural consciousness. The learning process combines the processing of environmental peripheral stimuli with conscious thought processes involved in cognition. Educational policies are formulated in the context of a prevailing cultural worldview which is inherent in the prevailing cultural belief systems and values. Cultural belief systems are created in the framework of the basic assumptions underlying the cultural view of the world - the reality which is perceived from the point of view of the people living in their own time. The individuals within a given culture perceive their own world from their own point of view, with the technology, the resources and the education accessible to them. They identify with the belief systems of their culture and perceive the world from the point of view of the cultural belief systems. An individual educated within the context of given cultural belief systems internalize the cultural values. The cultural values are derived from the cultural beliefs (Miller, 2005)
Conclusion
From the concept of freedom alone shows a difference between the west and the east. Thus human conduct must be different too. Human are product of its environment or society. Eastern world emphasizes social relationship and harmony and while western culture emphasizes on individuality. Such concepts naturally influence how human from two different context live life differently. Thus, the application of the concept of freedom is then contextual. For the western, freedom is absolute but for the eastern, freedom is not absolute. In that case, social context, values, cultures defines the boundary of freedom.   
References
Maguigad, R. B..2005. Philosophy of Man. Libro Filipino 90-D N. Ramirez Street, Galas, Quezon City
Montemayor, Felix M. 1999. Introduction to Philosophy Through the Philosophy of Man revised Edition. Navotas Press, Navotas, Metro Manila
Kesson, Kathleen. 2010. Critical Theory and Holistic Education: Carrying on the Conversation. http://wwwholisticeducation.com
Schaull, Richard. 2008. Introduction of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. http://www.paulofreire.com.
Miller, John. 2005. Holistic Education in a Prophetic Voice in Worldviews, Educational Orientations and Holistic Education. http://www.holisticeduactor.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Building a Better Society: The Role of Empathy, Integrity, and Active Citizenship

  Ronald T. Ventura, City of Batac National High School Poblacion Abstract Empathy, honesty, and active citizenship are essential for bu...