This year, Day of Silence made me want to scream.
It’s not that I don’t support – I do, very, very much. I’ve done the Day of Silence since my eighth grade year, which ended in 2004. It’s a very enlightening, and yet difficult, experience, and I participate because it gets out the message that There Are Still People In This World Who Cannot Express Themselves, be it GLBT, or starving people.
This year, however, at my school, Day of Silence went on for all of the wrong reasons.
At first, when I walked in, everything was quieter. Even people who weren’t participating were whispering! The silence dominated the hallways. It was amazing.
My day went relatively great until fifth hour. Most people either knew what I was doing, even without my paper, or caught on pretty quick. Even the teachers seemed to understand, and I was asked to speak only three times that day. While some people may have been appalled by my talking, even when asked by a teacher, I have my own reasoning for it: everyone has to do something that they’re against at some point. My classes until fifth hour are mainly senior classes, with my first hour being a mixed junior/senior class. My fifth hour class, however, is gym, which means it’s a mainly underclassman hour.
That’s where I noticed that the Day of Silence was being abused.
Most of my friends in that class are freshmen, and most of them were participating in Day of Silence, or at least that’s what I was told… But that changed – most of them had talked by second hour, and they had just given up. The ones who hadn’t talked were wearing duct tape over their mouths, to keep them from talking… And some kids were talking to friends, but when the teacher (or anyone else that they didn’t wish to talk to) came by, they shut up. They just used Day of Silence as an excuse to ignore those who bothered them, and acted condescending to those who weren’t, or weren’t being as public about it. I didn’t have anything taped to my shirt, nor did I have a paper to carry around, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t doing Day of Silence! It just bothered me more than anything else that, despite my silence, I wasn’t taking action, according to them.
I think that the Day of Silence has officially worn out its welcome at my high school. It’s actually a sad thing, because the Day of Silence is a great cause… But it’s not being done because it’s what those who partake believe, it’s being done because they want to be “cool”, or just want to ignore someone, and have a reason to now. Day of Silence isn't something that should be used, and it isn't something that should be pressured... I think that’s wrong, and I wish that the pseudo-“Day of Silence” at my school would stop.
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