Talk About Kids

by Crystal

This is a letter I wrote to the UN in class as an assignment:

Dear Delegates of the UN,

My name is Crystal, of Canada. I come to you on behalf of children living in poverty. I come to talk to you about children’s rights.

I think that you have made some really good rules. Like everybody has a right to an identity. This is a very good right that has been in action. Everybody I know has a name and a personality (good or bad).

Also, you have done fairly well in insuring that we, the children, have fairly decent homes. But a lot of us don't have homes. You need to improve on that. That, however, is not what I'm here to talk about.

In your discussion, you stated that every child has the right to freedom of expression. Yet, I see that children are hiding their true emotions about things, because they’re afraid to be themselves. Sometimes what they like would make them embarrassed, because what they like is not ‘in’.

Girls and boys bully in different ways. These are examples of how girls bully. If children had real freedom of expression, we would’t have any fear to express ourselves. Since this is a right for children, we should be working to bully proof our schools, so that no one feels ashamed if what they like is not an 'in' thing. Take Poke-mon for example. If you read a Poke-mon book, everybody starts ragging on you. Another example is that if you don't wear certain clothes, you are not with the popular group. Also it's about who your friends are. If you have not perfect looking friends, people pick on you for being with that person. Once at lunch, people with the 'in' group started whispering and pointing at my friends and I. After lunch, my friend who had been sitting with the 'in' group told us what the people she had been sitting with said. They said that Amanda* was so fat that we weren't talking. Of coarse Amanda got mad and told a trusted teacher. The 'in' crowd got called to the office for questioning. But they weaseled their way out of punishment.

If this continues, the world will be full of fear, bullies, and people who are afraid to express themselves. How we could stop this, is by making bullying illegal. It in itself should be a crime (people trying to lower the self-esteem of others). This is a cowardly, cruel act of pure evil. If we see people committing inhumane acts like these, we should stand up for the person in the weak position. It is only if we stand together, that we, the children can have freedom to express our selves.

Freedom of expression is not some thing we inherit from our parents. You cannot put it in your will to relatives when your soul takes flight to the heavens. It is something that we have a right to. You cannot give it to us, nor can you take it away. The children everywhere have it, and have the ability to use it. Some choose not to use it, from fear of being bullied. But they still possess the freedom of expression. Some use it to the point of annoyance, and turn their opinion against other people. But they know that they have it, and they use it freely. These are the people who decide what is in fashion and what is not. They are the people who make other people feel insecure about using their freedom to expression.

So you see that the children's rights, set in 1989, have begun to come into play. But some we still need to work on. Like the issues that I have mentioned. We need to take action. Not just adults, but the people who the rights affect the most. The children.

*name changed for privacy

Now I have a mini quiz where you have to search through my hyperlinks to find the answers. Some of the questions you need to think about yourself. For these questions, get the facts from the hyperlinks. For Some, you'll just have to think about on your own.

Q: How might kids in Israel think about freedom, compared to Canada?

Q: Find four facts about bullying.

Q: You have been hired as a newspaper reporter for Israel. Your assignment is to write an article about Canada's facts. Make it interesting.