“….. but there is one little boy in my class that I hate. His name is…” said one little girl. I believe most of you have watched the reels. We saw the lady next to her stopped her to continue her speech. We could imagine if she continued it the parents of the boy might feel embarrassed and made the boy sad although we can call it as her freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is the right to express ideas and opinions without anyone interfering. The connection with the reels is, when the lady stopped the little girl from speaking further, it shows that the little girl should be guided to wisely use their words to express her opinion without hurting anyone else. From that video, the message that they are trying to deliver is that schools should guide children to use the right words and know when to stop when expressing their opinions without delivering any hateful intentions towards others.
We all know that freedom of speech is something to use when trying to express our opinion but, is it always right to use it for spreading hateful comments or spreading misinformation? Before we express our opinion, we should think about the consequences to us, the audience, and the situation we create. Because of that, we have to teach students to be able to use proper words rather than using words that include hateful intentions.
The context “we” refers not only to schools, but also the family as the upbringing factors and the surrounding as the influential factor shaping a character of someone. The process of building one’s character should start from a young age. Take it as a tree…it should be nurtured and flourish through good examples and implementing good values in daily life.
Why early age? Because studies have found that children between 7 to 9 years old tend to remember things more vividly, so this is the best time to teach the essential the freedom of speech to young children. Children under this age tend to imitate what happen in his/her surrounding whether it is good or bad, which in turn will build up their character in the process of learning.
According to National Institutes of Health (NIH) of United States it shows that 53.6% victims of bullying were verbally bullied. If we also have to include the victims of cyber-bullying, it also adds 13.6% of the victim’s percentage that goes against freedom of speech. It shows that unfortunately many people have ignored that freedom of speech should not include hatred or anything that involves bullying.
Other than teaching the students to choose their words wisely, we also have to build a character that prevents them from forming a mindset of being more superior than others. In addition, they also need to learn not to prejudice or mistreat others because of their status or where they come from. This element is pivotal to later on make them understand that everybody is equal and none of them is above the law.
Yet there are the cons to it. If we limit the students too much or too strict, they might develop doubt or feeling scared when expression their opinions therefore, schools also need to encourage students to speak up their opinions by giving them certain times to express their opinions in given time in good manner.
Teaching students to be able to use proper words in early age is very important. Why so? When they have been taught on using the right words, they will be able to deliver the right message without delving into bad intentions in the future. Therefore, school should teach students freedom of speech from early age so that they do not misuse it.
After talking about how we should be teaching the children how to choose their worlds wisely when trying to express something, we also have to acknowledge that freedom of speech also covers the element of responsibility and accountability. How so? When talking about responsibility from freedom of speech’s aspect, we should take responsibility with the impact of our own actions to others. This includes not spreading misinformation, hate speech, or harmful content. It’s about how we should be mindful of one’s actions could affect others.
With accountability, we have to acknowledge that whatever we say, consequences will follow its way. In other words, we cannot just go around saying anything without any sources of trusted information’s, especially with spreading misinformation that could ruin another’s image, without facing the consequences.
Now you might be wondering, has the author ever experienced this kind freedom of speech thing moment? Well, of course I have. Especially this one particular story that’s mended into my brain.
Back in middle school, there was this senior that started to spread misinformation about me, talking about how I wasn’t beneficial or wasn’t working enough for the organization there. Of course, I thought about it and eventually spoke up because, I didn’t want my picture to be easily so broken just because of some misinformation. And later on, the senior faced consequences by doing duties for the school.
So, is it important to teach our children to learn how to use the right intentions without hurting anyone when using their freedom of speech? Of course. With them knowing that they could use words that doesn’t hurt other parties when trying to express other’s feelings is definitely something that should be taken seriously and should’ve been taught since the start. Other than teaching children/students to work on their freedom of speech, we should also acknowledge that with freedom of speech comes with responsibility and accountability.