I have a difficult time with the King holiday. I teach young children, and this is the time of year when many teachers "do" (in teacher parlance) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While I am very glad that there is a national holiday honoring King's life and his work, it feels to me as if the powers that be want to squeeze all of the life and meaning out of this holiday. In schools -- especially with the youngest kids -- it gets distilled down to "I have a dream that ...".I struggle with how to present this profoundly important man and what he stood for to 5 and 6 year olds. Some of the story is violent and scary, much of it is way beyond their comprehension developmentally, and personally I cannot separate King's civil rights teachings from his anti-war stance. Here's a rhetorical question, and I'm trying to work out an answer, but -- is it bad not to "do" MLK for a week or two in January if, through my actions and the culture of my classroom, I am trying to embody the teachings of Dr. King throughout the entire school year?
I know there are excellent picture books about Martin Luther King, Jr.; I have them and I use them. I love the materials from Teaching Tolerance. This is just a perennial struggle for me. It would be easier if I taught older students.
About a fourth of the children in my class are African-American. But a third of my students are Mexican, and outside of maybe cinco de mayo or dias de los muertos, nobody "does" things specifically related to them. There is little recognition of Latino History Month or the birthday of Cesar Chavez, for example. This is another issue for me.
I also struggle with this: No great teachers have developed their beliefs in a vacuum, and this is as true for King as for anybody else. So when I talk about King and civil rights, I want to talk about Gandhi, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, Pauli Murray ... and so many more.
I would welcome other people's thoughts about this.
8 comments:
I would be totally overwhelmed if I were a teacher of young children in this day and age...I admire you.
Unfortunately I think that the basic prejudices (or lack of them) start from the day the child is born and how can one teacher fight that? I know it can be done but it is an uphill fight. The best teacher is a good example, I have always thought. I am glad that Martin Luter King is finally being recognized...but in all honesty I think it is more political than done in reverence.
To change the subject...thank you for your heartfelt comment on my most recent blog. I am so sorry that you lost your daughter and hope that you have been able to come to a sort of peace with that.
It must be incredibly hard. All the best. Ginnie
Hi Suzy,
I echo Ginnie's words. I wouldn't know where to start. It seems like it would be very exciting for kids to learn about this great man and the millions who supported him.
I also feel like teaching through example is the best way. I had a lot of teachers who yacked on and on about "great" historical figures, but I couldn't relate. You, on the other hand, really embody so much of what MLK strove/strived/strivend for. I love thinking of you living in the same neighborhood in which you teach. That says a lot right there.
Also, the very fact that you are THINKING about these questions is a gift. I know that so many teachers just surge forth and back up all of the double-speak that we hear.
PS: I also really love the materials from Teaching Tolerance. Thanks for putting their link on your blog.
Ginnie: Thank you. My daughter's death was a profound learning experience. I am grateful that we are not given these life altering choices to make, that the experiences are just handed to us and then we find our way through them. Her death (which was of course preceded by her life, albeit short) has been a touchstone for me -- and I'd like to think a positive one. I actually welcome the sadness when it comes now, because it feels like a "hello" from her.
Do you experience that with your husband as well?
Caroline, thank you very much. I have a lot of teacher angst because I am rather unconventional, and then I think, "Is there something wrong with me? Why do I find these things so difficult?"
Truly I think that as soon as the King holiday became institutionalized, it lost a good deal of its meaning. What a paradox. I think I should get framed portraits of a number of people -- King, Rustin, Parks, Chavez, Gandhi -- and just have them up in my room all the time. I have a little money left in my classroom budget ... Do you know the Syracuse Cultural Workers materials? It's a wonderful catalog!
Suzy: to answer your question as to whether I hear from my husband in strange ways...sometimes I have the strongest connection to him when I see those rays that cut from the sun and seem to zoom down to the earth...do you know the ones I mean, the ones that divide the clouds?..and I feel like asing him "what are you trying to tell me?"
It's usually when I have something that's unresolved in my life.
cool post, lots to think about, no time to think, so i am going to copy it and re-read it when i come up for air, and will comment then. just to let you know the meme is done, (at 3am I might add!!)
it was fun
I can't wait to start teaching social studies for this reason: I heard Morgan freeman on the radio a while back, and he roundly denounced Black History Month. Not for the usual right-wing whacko reasons. It's because EVERY month is Black History Month. And Latino History Month. AND Women's History Month. Giving Black people a month (and the shortest one at that) segregates and marginalizes them - again. Nope, teach it all, all the time. Every time I find something new and interesting to diversify my literature or writing program, I bring it in. I sure don't save it for February. My wall has Langston Hughes next door to Walt Whitman and all those folks up all year long, all the time.
Teach it all. All year long. Period. Besides, it's more fun that way!!!
Suzy,
I found your blog through a comment you left on Brent Bill's blog.
Your post about MLK and MLK Day asks some really good questions. Your point about the powers that be struck home for me, since I've been reading a lot of Walter Wink lately. (If you don't know his work, you should!)
You might be interested in this post on someone else's blog:
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness."
I was proud and yet humbled by the reference to my Friends Meeting at the end.
-- Chris M.
PS Have you found www.quakerquaker.org yet? It's sort of the go-to place for Quaker blogs.
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