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Honoring a Legacy
By Renee Otero
To celebrate and honor the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, the entire School engaged in various activities and preparations to make the holiday a meaningful learning experience.
As part of their social studies curriculum, all lower school classes engaged in a study of change-makers and shared what they leaned at a lower school community meeting on January 15th, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, The kindergartners kicked off the morning with a discussion of what peace meant to them. The first graders talked about the change-makers Ruby Bridges and WW Law. Second graders presented stories about people who have made a personal difference in their lives.
In keeping with their biography unit, the third graders talked about what they learned from the biographies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman. The fourth graders presented their study on the Underground Railroad focusing on the attributes of Harriet Tubman. The music department taught all lower school students two important civil rights songs, We Shall Overcome and The Welcome Table, that were sung to open and close the community meeting.
We had the honor of hosting Dr. Melba Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine, at an Upper School morning assembly. This assembly was open to parents and community members. In order to prepare for her arrival, Upper School students read articles on Little Rock, excerpts from Melba’s book “Warriors Don’t Cry” and watched a segment of the PBS Civil Rights Documentary Eyes on the Prize that dealt with the events surrounding Little Rock. The students came to understand the extreme courage that these high school students needed to face to pave the path for generations to follow. |
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At the assembly, Ms. Beals spoke not only of her experience at Central High School, but the power each of us carry to contribute to change in our society. Eighth grader Molly Seligman reflected on the powerful message Ms. Beals brought to our School:
Today, Melba Beals came to speak to us at our morning assembly. She started by describing her life as a child in a segregated community, being prevented from doing all the things that kids like to do, such as visit Santa at Christmas time, go shopping downtown, ride the merry-go-round, or see Elvis Presley perform at the local concert hall. Although she did not speak much initially about her experiences at Central High School, she soon opened the discussion to our questions, many of which were about that defining experience. Her sense of humor and relaxed affect created a bright atmosphere that made all of us feel welcome. This calm, accepting ambiance was almost strange considering the extreme discrimination Melba faced. Rather than the awed admiration that often serves to inspire at first, but then only to belittle, Melba brought us loving hope and determination to do even the simplest things to improve our world.
Many times, she urged us not to judge or make fun of others for any reason, joking that we could be unknowingly insulting the future discoverer of a cure for cancer. When asked what she challenged the next generation to do, she replied simply, “Be conscious. Observe and experience everything around you. Be sure you know why you are making the decisions you are making.” Ms. Beals’ determination and strength of character remind us what humans are capable of and encourage us to fight for what we believe is right, no matter what obstacles we encounter.
After the assembly, the entire afternoon was dedicated to an 8th Grade community teach-in on the Civil Rights Era as part of their study of American History. Topics included Black Codes, Greensboro Sit-Ins, The Cotton Club and Jackie Robinson. Fifth through seventh graders attended four workshops throughout the course of the afternoon, where they had the opportunity to learn from their fellow Day School students.
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