Hello, below, i shall be presenting an extremely limited, possibly bias, possibly ignorant, possibly logically-flawed, largely unedited perspective an argument on why freedom of expression should be taught in schools with the purpose of sparking more discussion on the topic.

I'm a 17 year old student in Singapore and am currently working on a project on healthy eating for the past few months. As i wrote the article, i knew that many companies and corporations wouldn't be happy with what i was writing. I was writing about the dangers of artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, High fructose corn syrup, and how the Singapore public is kept unaware of their dangers.

And i knew i had to write it in such a way as to put my message across strongly and at the same time, avoid being sued. And this thought came to me,"Why aren't we taught about the limits of our expression? How far can we go with our statements? What is "slander" and what falls under "freedom of expression"?"

I thought back about the education i received. Was i taught how much i could and was allowed to say? In a way. When i saw other people talk back to teachers, a lot of them would turn defensive and punish them in some way, as if they were in the wrong for talking back. I'm not going into what's considered disrespect and what's falls within freedom of speech. The point i want to make is...in my experience at least, i've been subconsciously taught to obey authority, to not question it and i haven't been taught where the boundaries of freedom of expression are.

A few months back, i read somewhere that MM Lee had a discussion with the supposed "next generation of leaders", students in their 20s-30s. The newspapers observed that these students seemed reluctant to come forward and press question, to such an extent that MM Lee actually had to bring up the more controversial issues. Does this suggest that the "younger generation" have been subconsciously taught not to question authority?

The more i think about it, the more i realise that the education system doesn't educate or encourage us on expressing our views. When we blog, we wonder whether we're "slandering" or if anyone really listens. The media is by and large, suspected to be er heavily government (will i be charged for slander?) - influenced by observers outside and within Singapore. Okay, and there's this website which i just found and presume to have been set up only recently. I may be talking from an extremely limited perspective, but as far as i can observe, my peers have little interest in expressing their views about the government and its politices nor have any idea how to do so. By this, i mean having a channel that is recognized, considerably far-reaching and fairly impactful.

Or maybe, there are! Just that i'm too ignorant and uneducated! Which brings me back to my point of not being educated or taught about it.

Now let's look at the purpose of education. It's to allow us to reach and express our fullest potential to function in life isn't it?

So what are we taught? Mathematics, biology, chemistry... We're taught the sciences for those interested in research and industry.

English, Mother Tongue, Literature...language based subjects to facilitate communication between people.

PE, Music, Art...for holistic development

Civics and moral education -> to develop integrity and compassion

Okay, all of the above are excellent in building a capable workforce and make for fine citizens of any country.

But what differentiates our workforce as "Singaporean"?

Rights as a Singaporean citizen, Freedom of expression, the Constitution -> To develop future leaders of Singapore, encourage Singaporeans to take an active role in the running of the country, to answer the question of "what being a Singaporean entails", to encourage Singaporeans to speak up and teach them how to speak up.

Are these taught? As a student, in my past 10 and a half years of education, i can't remember me being taught any of these. In fact, the only way i see these being taught is either through ltaking law or when people take it up on themselves to learn it.

Okay, maybe you might argue,"then its up to them to learn it if they want to express themselves isn't it?". Then i argue that students should be left to their own means and decisions on what to learn, when to learn, and that primary education ought not be compulsory, because it's up to them isn't it? Why don't we teach philosophy or media arts in primary school? Because at primary school, the broader subjects, the foundations ought to be first established and i agree with that. So freedom of expression isn't an important foundation to be established?

So let's ask," What's more important? Teaching Singaporeans how to be function as Singaporeans? Or teaching them how to function as workers?"

Back to my point about freedom of expression. Who questions government policies? We have debates in the parliament, we have mps and community leaders speaking up. We have Mr Brown and some bloggers raising questions and all. And what about the students? Actually, we have 4 million people in the country, one of the highest literacy rates in the world, most of us have shelter and food. Nearly all the criteria for developing an educated, politically active nation has been fulfilled. What's left? We haven't taught our students how to speak. They can make noises with their vocal chords, but they don't know what noise to make.