Twenty-three hours, 59 minutes and 10 seconds.
Hands fidgeting, lips clenched, fingers counting down the last few seconds of a 24-hour vow of silence.
“I can say stuff again!” yelled one boy at 9:12 a.m. when the silence broke. The rest of the room erupted in sighs.
Nineteen students at Wild Rose Elementary School zipped their lips starting on Thursday, April 18 as part of Free the Children’s We are Silent campaign. The international vow of silence, now in its ninth year, aims to raise awareness for children’s rights.
“It was so hard!” said classmates Ryan Charron and Brianna Stals.
“I can’t believe it’s done because now my throat hurts from not talking,” added 12-year-old Charron.
It was an uphill struggle for Grade 5 and 6 students, unable to speak to – or text – their friends for one full day. Many resorted to using hand actions, mouthing words or carrying around notepads.
“It was too hard not to communicate at all,” said 10-year-old Stals. “Me and my friends were joking around that we were olden-day texting because we were writing notes on pieces of paper.”
Despite not being able to talk, students were still required to attend a full day of classes. After school they watched documentaries and listened to interviews of impoverished children in Third World countries. Malnourished and forced to work at young ages, children around the world are denied their basic human rights, students learned.
Continuing their vow of silence into the night, 19 students slept over at the school.
“Last night … I was crying before I fell asleep,” admitted Charron. “I felt really sad for the kids that have to go through all of this, yet we have this awesome life where we get to go to school and we get to go have fun.”
This was the first We are Silent Day held at Wild Rose Elementary, although students have for several years participated in We Day – another social action initiative by Free the Children to fight poverty.
“It lets [the students] know that there are kids around the world that have had so many rights taken away from them, they can’t be kids anymore. They took it to heart and they did so well with it,” said teacher Carolyn Dickey.
She explained the students jumped right on board with the concept introduced to them earlier this month. They constructed signs and picketed the streets during gym time to raise awareness for their cause. Passersby honked their horns in support.
“The highlight of yesterday was when we walked around the schoolyard protesting,” added Charron. “All the division-one little kids were just following us screaming ‘we are silent.’ It was awesome. We just couldn’t believe it!”
Students and staff of Wild Rose Elementary hope to continue the We are Silent tradition next year. They are in the process of totalling all the donations received for charity.
