Every school day children all around the state stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance and then they monotonously mumble the words along with whomever is monotonously mumbling it through the speaker that day. Immediately afterwards, it is time for the moment of silence.
This is a moment taken from the day in which students are supposed to honor everyone that has been lost. It is a time in which they are supposed to reflect on the bigger things in life such as loss, grief, determination, etc. This is supposed to be a moment in which the students quiet themselves and prepare for the school day, but all of this is lost completely on the younger generation.
As soon as the Pledge of Allegiance is completed all of the students, according to one senior at Prairie Ridge High School, “Drop into their seats and continue to talk about whatever it was they were talking about before. They completely ignore or forget the moment of silence.”
This is an act of disrespect, and it cannot be allowed to continue.
Every time students sit down and begin to talk their way through the moment of silence, they are turning their backs on everyone that it is meant to honor. It is as if every child is saying that the mass murder that took place in our country doesn’t matter and we don’t need to remember it every day.
The moment of silence is supposed to provide a little bit of reverence and remembrance, but the younger generation doesn’t have the attention span to sit still long enough feel the power of an entire school sitting silent at once. That reverence and remembrance is drowned out by the morning’s juiciest gossip.
Is it really so important to continue talking with friends, that they disrespect hundreds of people that have passed on before us? Would it really be that hard to just stop talking for one minute and sit in silence?