Medieval Thinking
I. Introduction
Most of what we know today has been influenced by Christianity. The Middle ages started with the collapse of the Roman Empire and the started with the birth of the Renaissance period. The collapse of the Roman Empire ushered the dark ages in which tribal leaders rose and rampage the remnants of a fallen empire.
In this scenario, history has given us the markings of Europe as a story of city states emerging with new found freedom, and expression of ideals and beliefs. The invention of the printing press has given people the availability of books. And with books the possibility of being educated.
The history of the church framing and killing early advocates of free thought and scientific discovery were tamed with ex communication and death.
II. Activity
1) What are the barriers to freedom of thought and expressions? Explain.
2) As guidance counselors, what are the signs that clients are not able to fully and freely express their ideas. Explain.
3) How can a guidance counselor provide the an environment that free thought can be express with reason and maturity>
1) What are the barriers to freedom of thought and expressions? Explain.
ReplyDeleteI can think of three things as a barrier to freedom of thought and expressions: fear, control, and censorship. Fear of the unknown, unchartered concept, and people's reaction can limit one's trail of thought. It can also dampen the motivation to pursue expression, considering what others might think of. Control can be from political, cultural, or social standpoint that can lead to ignorance. People in power will try to abuse expression of freedom in order to pursue personal gains. Censorship is somehow related to control. Though the motivation and goal is to carefully evaluate first, sometimes, its usually the thing that also let the people of control get away with personal propagandas.
2) As guidance counselors, what are the signs that clients are not able to fully and freely express their ideas. Explain.
It is human nature to try to protect themselves and keep their thoughts on their own for the fear of other's judgement or rejection. Vulnerability is challenging specially for those who've always fend themselves, or even projected themselves as an ideal and 'okay' person. Clients will try to gauge in the genuineness and the care from the counselor first before they will try to trust them with their ideas.
3) How can a guidance counselor provide the an environment that free thought can be express with reason and maturity?
Providing a non-judgmental environment in the counseling process is very important. This entails attention to what the client is sharing rather than focusing or suggesting ideas and theories. As I've mentioned, genuineness and care are expected role from the counselor, allowing constructive discussion takes place.
Paulo F. Cereño, MACE-GC
ReplyDelete1) What are the barriers to freedom of thought and expressions? Explain.
-The medieval and the post-modern era draws common ground when it comes to barriers to freedom of thought and expressions. Some of these barriers are human ignorance, indifferent to existing conditions, legal injunctions, and frustration from past situations. Knowledge is one of the keys to express one’s self. Being ignorant might lead you to do diversely. Indifference to current condition is another issue. There are people who really doesn’t care of what is happening with their environment. Perhaps they just find them boring. Nothing more, nothing less. Another concern is legal injunctions. When the law says it’s illegal, it is therefore illegal. Thus some would violate their own freedom to express their thoughts to a certain individual or group to avoid legal implications. It has been said that, “Ignorance from the law excuses no one”. Lastly, frustrations from previous events. People are just people. They get exhausted from unlikely things that keeps on happening despite of their tremendous efforts to stop them through freedom of expressions.
2) As guidance counselors, what are the signs that clients are not able to fully and freely express their ideas. Explain.
-Notable gestures of silence through avoidance to queries and loss of focus or easily destructed might be signs of someone who is not able to fully and freely express themselves. The manifestation of these things are just an outer garment of what is the underlying cause. Yes, we are speaking here of victims of abuse, struggling with medical conditions (mental and physical), and even social and racial discriminations etc. Mostly these people are the ones who are inexpressive, silent, and distant.
3) How can a guidance counselor provide an environment that free thought can be express with reason and maturity?
-As guidance practitioner, I encourage my students to speak out their thoughts by providing them variety of questions about things or current issues and letting them choose the question that they think best for them to respond. Through this activity they will be able to express themselves equally even in a piece of paper.
1) What are the barriers to freedom of thought and expressions? Explain.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, of the barriers towards thought and expression is disregard of the responsibility that comes with them.
As every right has accompanying responsibility, one should be responsible in respecting others (non-discriminative), taking into account any governing rules (plagiarism, etc.) and considering reliable basis when claiming a stand. Missing on any of these, I believe, would actually result to having this freedom taken out of the person. If not deliberately, the person would sustain himself from practicing freedom of expression as he sees the effect on him – avoidance from others, jail time, or embarrassment.
Another barrier of freedom of thought and expression would be from the authority or care givers. Erik Erickson believed that young children should be helped in developing their sense of autonomy and initiative by their parents/care givers during their toddler years. If not nurtured, the child would rather develop a sense of doubt in one’s capacities and a sense of inadequacy. These would hamper one’s abilities to think well and express one’s thought well. We are all endowed with the capacity to think no matter what level our intelligence is, we are all free to say what we think and how we feel. However, if at the very young age, it was not really encouraged, the person’s freedom to speak out was already taken away from him. This may sound too deep; however, I find it a struggle for anyone to who may not even realize that they can really speak out.
2) As guidance counselors, what are the signs that clients are not able to fully and freely express their ideas. Explain.
One sign is when they have trouble expressing their thoughts or emotions, since they are not used to doing so. We do have children, who seem to rely on others to validate their thoughts and feelings all the time like when they say, “masaya naman sila so masaya na rin yon para sakin.” They may also sound robotic, for instance when asked “what does her mom do that you really like” they say “sya po ang nagtatrabaho para sa pamilya” and when asked the same question pertaining to the father, the student would still say the same “sya po and nagtatrabaho para sa pamilya”. Other students of the same age (and even younger) would enumerate fun activities shared with the mom alone and with the dad alone.
3) How can a guidance counselor provide an environment that free thought can be express with reason and maturity?
First, it is important to start building the rapport to make the student comfortable to speak out. The student should be made to understand that he could trust the counselor and that there is no judgment happening in the counseling office, only understanding. This way, when the counselor sees the need to apply some technique that would challenge the student’s thoughts and reason, the student would see it as a venue to reflect on his thoughts and see if it is helpful in his situation. Our hope is that the student would be open enough to learn how to express his thoughts with due consideration of the effects on others as well as on him and his present situation. Moreover, he would learn how to discover his way of thinking and discover healthy and mature way of expressing his emotions.