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Keeping the dream alive
Nancy Holland reads to her class
Warren L. Leeder/Tribune-Review
Clayton Elementary School chorus
James E. Knox/Tribune-Review
Kathy Heckman helps Shawn Mormur
Warren L. Leeder/Tribune-Review
Ashley Alpino
Warren L. Leeder/Tribune-Review
Kellie B. Gormly can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7824.
"It makes me feel like he could come back to life .. like he's still here," said Mason, a student at Center Elementary School in Plum Borough School District.
In observance of Monday's holiday honoring King, area school districts and teachers have found creative ways to teach their students about the slain civil rights leader and the ideals he stood for.
At Center Elementary School, for instance, Mason and his kindergarten classmates listened as teacher Nancy Holland read an illustrated children's book, "Young Martin Luther King Jr.: I Have a Dream." Many learned for the first time about the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the evils of prejudice and segregation.
After the story, Holland had students brainstorm about things they can dream about personally, discouraging materialistic wishes, such as getting a new Barbie doll. The children then wrote down their dreams and drew pictures to illustrate them. They also created a paper globe and decorated the surrounding border with multi-colored handprints to convey world diversity.
"They always talk about how mean (racists) are," Holland said. "They're very sad when they hear that when King was a little boy, he couldn't play with his friend because of the color of his skin. We say people just had some wrong ideas."
School activities largely are oriented around King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered in August 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Educators use the dream icon — perhaps the most well-known aspect of King's legacy — and encourage children to identify their own dreams, particularly the humanitarian kind that King promoted.
"Sometimes we can dream about things we want that are nonmaterial things," Holland said, summing up the lesson for her students.
Jordan Thomas, 5, like Mason, longed to see the man now known almost entirely through history books and documentaries.
"My dream is for Martin Luther King to be back so he can see all the kids," she said.
In the Penn Hills School District, where 47 percent of the student population is African-American, diversity is an everyday reality that administrators especially honor around the King holiday. Last year, they started a King essay and art poster contest in conjunction with an annual holiday celebration sponsored by religious leaders in the Penn Hills area. The contest and celebration are a prelude to Black History Month in February, school officials said.
"The awareness is, I believe, the key to keeping the dream alive," said Samuel DePaul, Penn Hills superintendent. "I think that's the whole focus."
The contest is divided into four grade clusters, and there are two winners from each: one for essays, and one for art posters. Both projects illustrate, either verbally or visually, one of King's ideals. Each grade cluster has its own King-related theme, including "Committing Ourselves to Each Other" and "Working Together." DePaul said he expects several hundred entries.
"By doing the extra research, conceptually, they can visualize what lifting one another up means," he said. "By looking at the framework for Martin Luther King's view, they can understand, 'What did that mean to him?'
"I think it's important for all children of all colors to know about the people who have had an impact on our life, our history and our democracy."
Brenda Sanders Dédé, who oversees a regional Martin Luther King essay contest at Clarion University for western Pennsylvania children, echoed DePaul's view about the importance of all youth learning about King. If children are in a predominantly white community, Dédé said they need to be exposed to black culture and learn its history. Minority youngsters need to appreciate how King, who was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tenn., suffered for their freedom.
"Considering that the kids in high school are two generations removed from Dr. King, they don't know the value of what his work was about," said Dédé, assistant vice president for academic affairs in charge of research and graduate studies. "They take for granted the privileges … they don't realize the number of lives that were lost just for that simple privilege."
Tim Stevens, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said learning about African-Americans and King's contributions should be part of the regular curriculum. Racial perceptions are strongly influenced by the educational system, he said.
"In black schools, they have knowledge of black people who have accomplished much," Stevens said. "For students who are not black, it's the same … and their image of black people can be formed at an early age in a positive way."
| Local observances |
Activities planned by organizations throughout the Pittsburgh area to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day include:
These events will be during the week after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
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