Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Vow of Silence: Standing up for children's rights

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” ~ Malala Yousafzai


So, I'd like to write a brief post about the vow of silence. It is a truly amazing event and I hope many of you will participate next year. 

What is the vow of silence?!

The vow of silence is when kids all over first world countries try to spread awareness of child labor issues. We stand up for the right to play and the right to have a voice. We did this on May 2nd by going silent from 8:45-2:55ish on the school day. So we were pretty much silent for the whole school time except for a few minutes. 

We put on a sticker that said 'No talking' and we weren't allowed to talk, text, write notes or e-mails for that time. This is to represent people who don't have voice. 

The event inspired many and they saw how much we cared about the issue. 

How many times did we fail and talk?!

I'm sure many of you are questioning how I could have stayed silent for that time. It's not a very long time but I do like talking. 

Some people talked 4 times. Let me tell you about the times I failed. 

First, I spoke just before they told us the vow was broken. I said a whole sentence and then I was thinking "oops. what have I done?!??!?! I AM AN OUTCAST."

Secondly, like 3 seconds from when the vow was broken, I wrote a note to Jonathan saying "can we talk now?!" 
and he kinda broke his vow too and replied
"no." 

:P 

However, one of the teachers did say that this year's group of students were very good at it compared to other years. 

So some minor slip ups.... but we are spoiled children.... you can't expect much from us. 

I bet if children suffering from child labor knew we were taking this vow they would be like, "that's pathetic. It's not helping me in any way because I still have no education and have to work here everyday."
Except they won't be able to speak.... so they'd only think that. 

You know what I mean. 

Tell me your opinion or share your experiences

If you were someone who took the vow of silence and would like to share your opinion, do post a comment!! do leave a chatbox message, do +1 this to show your support. 

Under every post there's this thing. Click the link to submit a comment and use the +1 button to plus one it. 



Learn more at iamsilent.com

It will link you to a Free the Children page called 'We are Silent' which is related to the vow of silence. 

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