Freewill and the Education of Our Youth

Do we have freewill? And, what does this question have to do with how we raise our youth? Many, especially in the West, assert that we do have it, absolutely. Indeed, this is for what so many battles have been fought starting with the American Revolution. Others, especially in the East, would deny freewill, saying instead that our karma conditions us. They would say we are bound by iron necessity. My answer may surprise some of my readers: I say no, we don’t have freewill. Or, actually, that we don’t have it yet. We are working on it. I will explain below.

To understand freewill requires us to clarify what freedom actually is. Is it the license to do whatever we want, like yell at a family member who annoys us, or hoard as much capital as we please, for example? Or, is it the freedom to do the good, beautiful, and true? Verily, especially in America, we think we are so free. Yet, many of us go on acting out of all manner of compulsions. We spend money on frivolous things, overeat, drink too much, say hurtful things to others, waste hours doomscrolling, etc. and call this freedom.

Freedom is not as free as many people think, however. Accumulating untold wealth despite the impact on others, overeating without considering our health, speaking freely without care for how it affects other people – these are not deeds of freewill. True freedom is attained over time through moral-spiritual growth. Actual freedom requires the responsibility of goodness. We become free by commanding ourselves to do what we do out of love, which at times runs counter to our habitual, animal, or other conditioned nature. The East is right in that karma binds us. However, what we do with that bondage is where freedom is won. For example, my body has animal needs like food, shelter, procreation, etc. In that I have these needs, I am not free. If I make my entire life about their satisfaction, I become the slave of my lower, conditioned nature.

So then, What IS Freedom/Freewill?

Freedom is encountered when we discover ourselves to be more than the shell we live in. I am born into a human body. My parents give me a name. Over time, I develop a role in the world, a job, persona, etc. When I die, all of that goes away. Who I appear to be in the world and even to my own physical senses cannot be who I actually am. When I look in the mirror, I’m not seeing my true self but a picture of who I am. It’s the same if we go to an art museum and look at a picture of a tree; we may recognize it as a tree, but it’s not the tree, just a semblance of it. All sensory reality is this way – a picture of an underlying eternal reality.

If I only know myself to be the picture, get bound in its maintenance, and call that my whole life, my will is not free. I must discover who I am beyond what binds me, beyond the animal, to truly free my will. I must come to know the angel within. For that, I must develop a spiritual consciousness and a sense of identity who transcend this temporal self. Then, that which binds me starts losing its grip. Suddenly, I can fast if I need to. Or, I no longer pursue money for its own sake, but for what it can do in the world. Or, I experience space between my knee-jerk reactions and my impulses to act. I begin commanding myself.

The greatest misconception is that freewill is something we are born with. It is not. Freewill is something we develop through effort and grace over time. We grow into it. Freewill is our human destiny, but it is not a given. We must work for it. In my own humble experience, however, I would assert that for every ounce of our own effort, our true self exerts a thousand pounds of the same. We are not alone in this endeavor. We have help.

Freewill and Our Youth

What does this have to do with Teen Empowerment? Do you remember being a teenager? It’s such a time of cheeky fun. I remember driving around with my friends wearing a Bill Clinton mask, stopping and impersonating the then-president and talking to people at stoplights about all his sexual misdeeds. It was naughty but hardly uncharacteristic of teenage-hood. Nearly all adolescents and teenagers, no matter how healthy, have the inclination to test boundaries. It’s natural, and it would be unrealistic to expect our youth never to do evil. That’s part of how they learn. They will play pranks, try new and perhaps unwholesome things, and at times walk on the wild side. Youth are an apt image for this discussion; the only way to become freely good is if we can become freely evil. That’s like the teen mantra, isn’t it?

We just have to keep them safe, physically, emotionally, and spiritually – keep them off drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, crime, etc. However, this is not the ONLY priority. We also need to plant the seeds of what a free life truly looks like so that when the wisdom of age lands on them like a feather later on, they will have a roadmap. Traditionally, that role has been played by Christian confirmation, Jewish Bar and Bat Mitzvot, indigenous rites of passage, and so on. Fewer and fewer families are opting for these traditional paths these days, however.

That’s where our Live, Weekly Teen Empowerment Class comes in. Imagine a group of tightly knit, warm, and welcoming peers with a loving guide who keeps them focused on the good, beautiful, and true. We do visioning exercises, keep a goals journal, do book studies, and work through the challenging and juicy topics that plague them. We do meditative exercises exploring our biographies and all the people and factors that shape who we are becoming. It’s not group therapy, but it is a place to explore who we truly are in a spiritual scientific way free from the distractions of mainstream life. Visit us at the following link to signup or get more info: https://enkindleacademy.com/live-teen-empowerment-class.

The Destiny of Humanity

Ultimately, it is the birthright and destiny of every human being to attain true freewill. In his lectures on esoteric science, Rudolf Steiner explains we human beings are on the path to becoming the next hierarchy of angels. We will in time become called the “Spirits of Freedom” or “Spirits of Love.”¹ In the meantime, we Americans kick and scream about the freedom to exercise our freewill, and I agree that we need a society that allows us, within ethical boundaries, to practice free choice. We only learn by failing, and denying humans free choice is not appropriate for the modern age. Yet, free choice and freewill are not synonymous. The former is a necessary but not sufficient condition to develop the latter. If we would complete the great work of human becoming, we have to start by admitting that we are not yet free. We are becoming free.

How to Connect

Enkindle Academy offers prerecorded and live lessons for students in grades 5-9, encouraging students to deepen their reverence for nature and adopt sustainable, regenerative attitudes towards her. We teach all academic subjects plus fine arts, creative writing and language arts, and empowerment groups for teens.

Our Creative Writing Class meets weekly. We are always accepting new students, and enrollment is growing rapidly. When we have enough students, we open up new sections. Visit us at the following link to signup or get more info: https://enkindleacademy.com/live-creative-writing-for-youth

Signup for a free sample lesson now.

References

1. Steiner, R. (1909, April 18). The spiritual hierarchies: Lecture X (GA 110). Rudolf Steiner Archive. https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19090418p01.html