Reasons why we studied Noughts and Crosses as part of our Get Up! Stand

Up! Unit.

1. It shows what happens when people haven’t stood up for their

rights.If people don’t stand up or appreciate their rights then why should they have them? If you start taking your rights for granted you won’t think that they could be taken away, but actually your rights can very easily be taken away. That is why we need people to Get up! Stand up! Therefore we won’t lose our rights.

2. It shows us that we need people to stand up for our rights

or otherwise they get lost.

Thankfully we have people who stand up for our rights and who protest. Sometimes we don’t have people who stand up for our rights, just think about what happened in Zimbabwe. Not enough people stood up for their rights and therefore they were lost. Now the government controls everything.

3. It makes us realise what our lives would be like if we didn’t

have equal rights.

In New Zealand we don’t really suffer from racism and everyone has equal rights. The book helps us understand what it would be like to have a split society where some people have advantages over others. It shows us how horrible the world would be if we didn’t have equal rights.

4. It makes us feel for those who don’t have equal rights and

want to help them.

In our world today thousands of people don’t get enough food and fresh water. It’s not fair. In the book the Noughts couldn’t get high paying jobs, but at least they could afford food. We need more people to Get Up! Stand Up! In our world so everyone gets what their body needs.

5. It makes us realise that’s it’s our obligation to make sure that there are human

rights for everyone.

We can learn from the past. If no one sticks up for what they know is wrong millions of people can be affected in the long run. Some people are helpless and even though they don’t ask us they actually need us to help them.