« Why Digital Literacy is Important: Reason #5,774,201 | Main | Machinima Strikes Back! »
April 19, 2007
A Day of Silence
Yesterday, April 18th, was the annual "Day of Silence."
Obviously, this blog participated, refusing to post in solidarity with the cause.
Day of Silence is a project of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Participants in the Day are encouraged to hand out cards that say something along these lines:
Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?
Though I support GLSEN and the Day, I'm not sure that more silence is the best approach. This seems to me to especially problematic given the increasingly oblivious college campus, where half of the student body at any given moment is listening to their iPods. The other half is split between people shrieking into their mobile phones and people click-click-clicking text messages at each other. Each of these groups render themselves completely insensate to the goings-on around them. And they seem to think that their ignorance of their surroundings is contagious. My cats seem convinced that when they can't see me -- because they're hiding under the covers on the bed, for instance -- that I can't see them or their zaftig kitty butts sticking out from under the covers. I bring this up because just the other day I was teaching class and a student received a text message. I knew this because I was standing next to her desk at the back of the room and her phone -- which was sitting on her desk -- started vibrating. BRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZ. Hard to miss. Then, in a fit of thoughtfulness, the student turned away from me and texted a message back. I was relieved that I couldn't actually watch her thumbs dance over hey keypad. Judging by the speed of her click-click-clicking, she's a whiz at it and the blur of her thumbs might have given me vertigo. When she had finished, the student closed her phone -- clam-shell snapping shut -- and placed it back on her desk, turning back to face me again. I wasn't offended, as much as I was puzzled. Who thinks it's okay to do this in class when the professor is standing next to you?! But I digress.
GLSEN encourages "Breaking the Silence" rallies where people speak out about their experiences after the Day, but this seems to me to be yet another preaching-to-the-choir "event" that fails to reach the people who most need to hear something other than the hate and derogatory humor and slurs that our culture still thinks is a-okay.
What do you think? About any of it?
Posted by reparent at April 19, 2007 2:51 PM
Comments
Just like at the theatre, cell phones and pagers should be turned off for the duration of the classroom performance. Someone could get hurt.
And, just like any other protest, the silent protest requires an audience. Its success or failure hinges upon whether the local media and/or the student newspaper devotes quality time to covering the event.
Will the UVM student newspaper do a story on the Day of Silence? Will the Burlington Free Press? If not, why not?
Posted by: coeurlion at April 19, 2007 5:24 PM
Reminds me of a conversation I had while selling books and tickets outside a Ralph Nader speech (my bookstore was hosting). One of the kookier among the faithful bent my ear about how the best thing we could possibly do for this country is to abstain completely from the voting process, as a sign of protest. She seemed quite convinced that "that'll show 'em."
That'll show 'em what? More effective, methinks, to protest silence with some noise.
Posted by: Liam at April 23, 2007 11:13 AM