Free Choice Examples

According to the dictionary, free choice is defined as the ability to choose, think, and act voluntarily. One would think we practice free choice in every embodiment of the tasks we perform. However, what if the choices we make every day were not as voluntary as we once thought? You would this to be impossible, would you not? I eat when I am hungry, I drink when I am thirsty, I wash myself when I am dirty, I sleep when I am tired. Are these not examples of free choice? Well, according to Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, they are not examples of free choice. Responding to our bodies needs is not a freedom because we are listening to our body and responding to the needs of our body, in doing this we become slaves to the constant requests. …show more content…
Society deems you must go to school and with that education you must get a job. When you get to school, most students are all taught the same method, a method that is believed to achieve higher marks. We teach students one way and expect them to use that way for the rest of their lives, except when you get to college the rules change yet again. Standardized testing is a prime example of forcing students to be able to all use the same method the way they were originally taught in order to achieve a high grade on these tests. The Regents, Common Core, SATs, and ACTs are all designed as a checkpoint at which each student should have peaked in one subject or a combination of subjects. Then when the tests are finished, you move on to college where the administration wants to see the individuality, they want to see you think outside the box when all your life, you have been forced to think a certain way because you were told that was the only way to get good grades. When you go to college you can get praised for something that you would normally get scolded about in any of the lower years. This is because there is much more freedom in college than in high school, which allows more room for the a supposed “free will”. In high school if you stray from an essay topic you will get points taken off, in college you can talk to your professor about changing the topic and be given permission. Students are not used to this type of freedom, they are not used to this type of free choice and odds are they might just stick to what the original topic was. As teachers “shape” a child’s mind, they are introducing them to the mind of society, which might take away their right to think for themselves as individuals. Instead they think of how to get the best grade, they memorize how their teacher thinks and use that acquired knowledge to do