Freedom is never total or absolute! Be careful not to trample other people's freedom as you exercise your own freedom. Freedom generally refers to peace ,independent,emancipation ,not depriving when exercising own wishes or rights. Thus freedom to the access of basic rights and fundamentals ,for instance freedom of speech,worship or choice.
Freedom is also described as absence of constraints ,restrictions ,limitations ,restraints thus allowance of being able to do what you want or exercising your free will as long as you aren't infringing other peoples' rights.
Freedom can be determined by time ,place or audience. The greatest Greek philosopher Plato onces says, ''Total freedom without any form of restrictions may lead to anarchy, chaos and a lot of disturbances''.
Therefore freedom becomes effective when the authority is exercised. These two cannot be seperated they are two sides of the same coin. For without authoritative imposition of rules and regulations freedom can only results into social upheavals or disasters.
Authority is the right and power to control something ,it is also the mandate of power given to govern and maintain order. Hence authority commands power or right to direct orders and make others obey them.
Whilst philosophy has been for some time seen concerned with the search for knowledge and wisdom. The branch also focused with giving meaning to human action ,language among their issues. Philosophy covers certain ideas of all human beings and inspired for irrespective of race or colour,equities ,democracy ,freedom and authority.
Therefore Education and authority is often associated with dogmatism and repression supported by threats ,deprivation of priviledges punishment (expulsion). Clef observes two contradictory (opposing demands) of Education ,thus demand for better freedom and increase of authority.
Education system demands for liberty and for the control and order. One may ask: ''Is it possible to have both freedom and authority at the same time?
There are two forms of freedom:
•Positive freedom to choose or associate of choice ,suppose in the form of constraints or control.
•Negative freedom from descrimination ,oppression, from threats abuse.
Authority is categorised into four groups:traditional ,legal ,personal and charismatic.
Traditional authority from tradition of our customs and values ,the law and power is handed from older generation to the succeeding generation ,this authority is conditioned by one's family or blood for example chiefs,father ,mother ,kings or employees.
Legal or rational authority comes from the law ,governments,courts ,police ,magistrates ,parliment ,judges ,teacher. Corporal punishment can be given to school children only from the headmaster or deputy or a delegeted teacher. Legal authority is derived from laws ,parliment,statutes teachers has legal rational authority.Schofied (1972:263)makes the observation that rulers and teachers passes legal rational authority .Both have to make laws and rules to guide content backed by authority.
Personal authority is derived through merit and Educational qualifications. The authority teacher possesses based on qualifications ,diplomas,certificates . Other personal authority is found in doctors,hair dresser,farmer ,dentist etc.
Charismatic authority is the ability to influence and convince others using 'unseen' powers and 'unseen' authority. Schofield(1972:262)says,''The most obvious possesser of charismatic authority is Jesus Christ himself ,he taught as one who has authority and not as the scribes''. Infact all religious founders Buddha ,Gandhi, Muhammad, Bab or socialists like Karl Max Lenin, Stalin are talented charismatic people.
Charismatic authority emergies naturally because ,it possesses special and qualities for example ,peer group ,star ,church leader among other charismatic leaders.These people are body without any authority ,but they gain it by being respected with others.
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