Child Labor Speech by Noah Siegel
"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."
-Diogenes
All
my life I have watched people, one person at a time, do great
things. I have learned about great men and women like Martin
Luther King, Mother Teresa, Al Gore, and I have always thought, I would
love to be able to do something like that, but how much of a difference
can a kid make? Well, in English and Social studies this year, we
learned about child labor. I had heard the phrase before, but I
never knew much about it.
When I read a book called Free the Children, I was disgusted at the horrors of child labor. I learned about kids who worked day and night for money, which they sometimes don't even receive. Kids don't get the education they need, so they are forced into slavery to help their parents and their whole family is cursed for generations, because they will have to send their children and their children's children to pay off the family debt. They don't have a chance without education. This book also inspired me, because it was written by a boy about my age. He started an organization called Free the Children. The whole book is about his trip around South-East Asia, talking with and seeing children who have to work.
So, a short time later, a group of kids wanted to help raise awareness of child labor, too. Thus, SANDBOCS was born. Our mission statement is to educate our communities about child labor. Saving All Neglected, Denied and Blatantly Oppressed Children from Slavery is what we call ourselves. The first step to saving those kids is education.
We may be only twelve or thirteen, but is that a disadvantage? As Diogenes would say, we are the foundation. In America, kids have a lot of rights, we have freedom, we have education, we have a lot more than the kids who are enslaved do. If the foundation of every state is the education of its youth, then how can they have a foundation? Diogenes lived in Ancient Greece, a place where freedoms and rights were extremely important. A time when new ideas were developing, well a new one is developing now. A foundation keeps people safe and free. It gives people rights. Kids need to be free, so they can make their kids freer, because today's children, are tomorrow's adults.
So as
SANDBOCS, we will let it be known what kids can do to make other kids
freer.
WOOOHOOOOOBRAVOBRAVO
Posted by: SMILEY MULE | July 09, 2008 at 04:01 PM
WOOOHOOOOOBRAVOBRAVO
Posted by: SMILEY MULE | July 09, 2008 at 04:01 PM
WOOOHOOOOOBRAVOBRAVO
Posted by: SMILEY MULE | July 09, 2008 at 04:01 PM
hi again
im posting cuz NO ONE TOLD ME JAKE WAS ON DA BLOG
way 2 go jacob!!
woot
Posted by: guppykins | August 01, 2008 at 03:56 PM