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                             %DECISIONS OF STUDENTS 730915

     Students make decisions every day of their lives. The
kinds of  decisions which they make depend greatly on  the
instructional  context in which they find themselves.   If
the instructional  context  is repressive and/or coercive,
the  decisions  will  tend  to focus on  coping  with  the
instructional  context,   rather  than  with  the  subject
matter,   its  personal  relevance,  and  future  learning
possibilities.  Real  students  in  an  oppressive  and/or
coercive   instructional   context  experience   emotional
responses  which  leave them  turned-off  to  the  subject
matter and to the possibility of further learning.   Their
attention  is diverted  to techniques  by which  they  can
assert  their  individuality,  and maintain their personal
integrity  within the   context imposed upon them.    Thus
there  is little personal energy and/or desire to focus on
relevant  knowledge,  useful skills,   and  true  personal
growth.

     It  is essential to grant maturing persons freedom to
engage in integrative decisions and actions.  This can not
truly  be  the  case unless people are free to suffer  the
natural consequences of unwise decisions, the agony of the
knowledge  that  they  are  free  to  suffer  the  natural
consequences of unwise decisions;  and the consequences of
saying "no" to one potentiality, in order to say "yes"  to
another potentiality. Not knowing that agony may well be a
sign  that  self does not in reality have the  freedom  to
choose---due to external  pressures which may have  become
internalized. Wisdom grows in living freely.

     Science   by  its  nature  appeals  not  to  personal
authorities,   but  to the authority  of  the  experienced
natural  consequences of certain chosen courses of action.
Before the modern scientific revolution rarely did  people
appeal  to the authority  of  the  natural consequences of
certain chosen courses   of  action---by way of  carefully
designed   experimentation   and  analysis   of   personal
descriptions of the experienced consequences.  The science
teacher  who fails to permit decisions of students to play
an essential role in formal instructional  activities---is
thus  offering students  disparate  messages via different
channels of communication.

                         (c) 1999 by Paul A. Smith in
  GO:  essayz.com     "Search for Integrity and Honesty"
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)

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