Chapter 15

[Joelyn]

The Philosophical and Value Ramifications (cont)

CHAPTER 15, Freedom and commitment

“Freedom to learn or choose; self-directed learning: these are completely untenable concepts in the minds of many behavioral scientists, who believe that humans are simply the inevitable products of their conditioning. Yet they are terms that I have used freely in this book, as though they have real meaning. . . . I do not pretend that I resolved the age-old problem of freedom and determinism, but I have, for myself, formulated a way of living with it. I hope my statement will be clarifying to those who are perplexed by differences between the mechanistic-behavioristic point of view in education and the humanistic approach to learning.” (p. 295)

“One of the deepest issues in modern life is the question as to whether the concept of personal freedom has any meaning whatsoever in our present-day scientific world. The growing ability of the behavioral scientist to predict and to control behavior has brought the issue sharply to the fore. If we accept the logical positivism and strictly behavioristic emphases that are predominant in the American educational scene, there is not even room for discussion. But if we step outside the narrowness of the behavioral sciences, this question is not only an issue; it is one of the primary issues that define the modern person.” (p. 296)

“One might ask, ‘Why do teachers and other educators need to know these things?’ If we take a mechanical view of teaching, then one skilled teacher is the same as any other skilled teacher. When a teacher leaves, we replace her with another person called ‘teacher,’ and all is well. . . . In this system, teachers are interchangeable parts.” (p. 296)

“From the way students are disciplined to the way teachers are evaluated, the method is one of control, reward, and punishment. So writing both as a behavioral scientist and as one profoundly concerned with the human, the personal, the phenomenological, and the intangible, I should like to contribute what I can to this continuing dialogue regarding the meaning of and the possibility of freedom. For if we see teaching as a facilitative process in which the individual is valued, then the words freedom and commitment take on very vital meanings.” (p. 296)

The Individual is Unfree

“In the minds of most behavioral scientists, humans are not free; nor can they as free humans commit themselves to some purpose, for they are controlled by factors outside of themselves. Therefore, neither freedom nor commitment is even a possible concept to modern behavioral science as it is usually understood.” (p. 297)

“This view is shared by some psychologists, educators, and other who feel, as did Dr. Skinner that all the effective causes of behavior lie outside of the individual and that it is only through the external stimulus that behavior takes place.” (p. 297)

The Individual is Free

“The need to have choices in the classroom is just as important in the evolution of healthy individuals. If all part of a child’s life are controlled, then control becomes the driving force in decisions about teaching and learning. What is taught and how it will be taught become controlling issues. After the child’s learning life is controlled for thirteen years in school, suddenly at age eighteen he or she is free to choose. The newfound freedom comes with little or no prior experience. If experience is the best teacher, then choosing and freedom are alien experiences for too many students in our schools.” (p. 302)

BIG IDEA

* a sense of free and responsible choice on the part of teachers and students in schools

The Irreconcilable Contradiction

“I trust it will be very clear that I have given two sharply divergent and irreconcilably contradictory points of view. On the one hand, modern psychological science, and many other forces in modern life as well, hold the view that the person is unfree, that she is controlled, that words such as purpose, choice, commitment have no significant meaning, that the individual is nothing but an object that we can more fully understand and more fully control.” (p. 308)

“So I am emboldened to say that over against this view of the individual as unfree, as an object, is the evidence from therapy, from the schoolhouse, from subjective living, and from objective research as well that personal freedom and responsibility have a crucial significance, that one cannot live a complete life without such personal freedom and responsibility, and that self-understanding and responsible choice make a sharp and measurable difference in the behavior of the individual. In this context, commitment does have meaning. Commitment is the emerging and changing total direction of the individual based on a close and acceptant relationship between the person and all of the trends of his or her life, conscious and unconscious.” (p. 309)

“What is the answer to the contradiction I have described? For myself, I am content to think of it as a deep and lasting paradox. . . often frustrating . . . very fruitful.” (p. 309)

BIG IDEAS

* personal freedom and responsibility lead to self-understanding and responsible choice
* purpose, choice, and commitment have significant meaning in the classroom to both students and teachers