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Following that, Dr. Chua stamped this year's Having said that, Dr. Chua proceeded to highlight
On Voice and Freedom:
A Perspective Parallel with Legacy
It all started with a text message to Miss
Foo.
Two official letters back and forth, three
phone calls from the secretary department,
and multiple drafts of interview questions later,
we were set to interview Dr. Chua Lee Lee, the
school principal. Frankly, we were nervous, but
our anxiety dissipated into thin air as soon as Dr.
Chua, poised with affable ease as she strode into
the teachers' meeting room with a smile radiant as
the sun, asked the first question.
“Have you two had your lunch? I've got
some bread in my bag for the both of you.” The
following interview was an illuminating one.
Shuffling her papers, Dr. Chua began by
expressing her joy at having us, the editors of the publication aspect.”
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School Principal - Interview Article
Kuen Cheng English Magazine, call for an
interview with her. “Our school's students have
a generally good command of English in daily
communication, but what we lack as a Chinese-
medium school is a deeper understanding of
the language. Chinese culture defines our core,
but multilingualism shapes our perspectives and
external selves. This is where the English Magazine
comes in.”
Much lauded by Dr. Chua, this magazine
convenes students who harbour the common
passion for creative writing to compose poems,
fiction and non-fiction proses. “Our students will
learn to appreciate the English language at a much
higher level, transcending the basic requirement of
communication. This is a foundational direction
for our school's future students from the school
English Magazine theme “Voices” as a the social symptoms that have grown rampant
meaningful one. “It spreads the beauty of the among students as a result of the aforementioned
unseen, it brings light to the aspects students don't lockdown. “Exposed to social media ideals on
normally bear witness to. In this sense, freedom of a daily basis, many students have begun to face
expression in literature is paramount. a lack of self-esteem. Some put up facades for
the sole purpose of making a good impression
“We can never fully imagine the scope of on others, but they end up concealing their true
transformations the future will usher in, the degree selves. Another repercussion of the lockdown is
of ground-breaking technological advancements the loss of academic focus among students due
humanity will make. We can only rely on procured to the previous state of excessive liberty, and the
knowledge to adapt to changing times. Unlike decline in their ability to concentrate on what truly
the past, our current dynamic society presents a matters.
new universal necessity for students, that is to be
participative in a wide range of extracurricular We organize manifold extracurricular events
“Our school strives to combat this.
activities. This is precisely why there has to be
freedom of expression: for students to innovate, throughout the year to facilitate students'
and to explore new possibilities.” growth by providing them with a wide range of
opportunities and experiences. Through this, we
Nevertheless, Dr. Chua stressed that there aim to cultivate students' communication skills
is a limit to “freedom”. and empathy, as well as to help them gain self-
confidence and independent-thinking skills. At the
“Take for example the immense degree same time, we have our teachers to thank, as they
of liberty students lived in during the COVID-19 have willingly adopted new teaching methods to
pandemic lockdown. Some families pulled reignite students' interest in school commitments
through, managing to maintain a healthy work- post-lockdown.”
life balance, but what about those students who fell
through the cracks? Some lost track of time, some Driven by passion for students' well-
spiraled down into the abyss of gadget addiction. being, Dr. Chua had this advice to share: “There
are many happenings in life that are beyond our
“From these circumstances, we can see control. What matters most is our ability to self-
that freedom is governed by our morals and self- motivate, and to adapt to external changing
awareness. Another instance would be our school situations. Life is as such, containing not only bliss
publications. There are certain limitations in but also pain.”
school writing as to avoid discomforting others or
portraying distasteful images before our school's
demographics. From this, we can infer that a
writer's freedom is ultimately determined by his/
her target audience.”
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