Teaching Civil Rights to Children

I call January:  JUSTICE JANUARY.  
The fresh slate of mind that the New Year offers sets up a strong context for study about hope and what Martin Luther King called a "dream."   I have taught about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in so many ways over the years and in so many diverse contexts -- and I have found it surprising, how powerful it is to do so, each time.  To me, the work we can do at this time of the year, thanks to the fact that American dedicated a holiday to this hero's birthday, is so deep and powerful in the mission of peace education, Ethical Education.  

This year, 2015, in the light of the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement it feels poignant, essential. My hope is that every school in the country takes pause in curriculum to educate about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement -- not just as history, but as a framework for understanding the ongoing mission of creating a safe and humane world.  MLK's teachings were so profound, and we have barely absorbed  or manifested them to their fullest potential.  

I ask my students to please look at a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and tell him where we are in helping his American "dream" come to full truth. I ask them to say and write dialogues with this hero, as well as other heros of history.  Then I ask them to look forth to the future of humanity and give their own personal "I have a dream" speech.  I ask my students to try to realize what a far-fetched unrealistic "dream" he had in his life, given the context of segregation -- how much courage and vision it took to insist that that dream comes true.

Visit my Ethical Body blog to sing the Rosa Parks story as THE WHEELS ON THE BUS.

I dedicate my teaching this year to my friendship with beloved Catherine Arline, who died this year, after a life of activism and organizing in Bed-Sty.