My daughter's essay - I thought it was worth sharing!!
Discipline
Prompt: Do people need discipline to achieve freedom?
There seems to be a negative connotation with the word ‘discipline’ in today’s society. Many people equate discipline with rigorous and legalistic rules and regulations on behavior patterns and habits. However, what many people fail to realize is that the greatest amount of freedom is only attainable through discipline.
Before I move on to how discipline achieves freedom, I would like to dispel a few myths concerning the definitions of discipline and freedom. Many people connect discipline with punishment. As a child, parents use punishments to discipline their child into following proper behavior patterns. This is a good thing; but when the child grows into adulthood, many never move out of that childish phase and begin to see that the true definition of discipline is not punishment, rather it is following behavior patterns that allow for success, growth, productivity, and essentially: their personal freedom. Similarly, people believe that absolute freedom is being able to act without restraint and not have to answer for the consequences, either good or bad, of such actions. This seems to be the antithesis of discipline, but when closely examined, one can recognize this as a fallacy in the mindset to which society clings. Freedom could be defined as unrestraint, but because this leads us to undesirable ends, a re-definition is required. Freedom is the ability to act without infringing upon the rights of others. This thought was first supported by John Locke, an American Philosopher, and has been shown to be a more widely acceptable definition.
Where do these two ideas connect? How does discipline lead to freedom? To put it simply, discipline is the ability to act within proper behavior patterns such as honesty, reliability, productivity and creativity. When one acts without restraint, more than one person is harmed because that definition of freedom does not account for the consequences of actions. When one acts with discipline, the product is a freedom as defined by Locke and allows the person to play upon their strengths and become a more effectual and impactful individual, achieving a greater sense of freedom than the concept of unrestraint could ever comprehend.
What is a practical application of discipline leading to freedom? All through history, there have been a plethora of instances where true discipline led to true freedom. Take for example, the American Revolution: the founding fathers were in pursuit of freedom from Britain and it was only through disciplining themselves and their followers that freedom was attained from the motherland and in the process, found freedom in themselves to live purposeful and impactful lives.
Nothing is more tragic than watching an individual failing to realize their full potential and robbing themselves of a bright and influential future because they refused to discipline themselves. Let us strive to prevent others from accepting the current mindset that discipline is punishment and freedom is a lack of restraint, and help them to connect to the idea that they can live impactful lives when choosing to discipline themselves and ultimately achieve a lasting freedom.
