Civil Rights Day aka Martin Luther King Jr Day....

I was very much looking forward to my day off. Its wonderful being a teacher. Today's celebration... Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday... oh wait excuse me... Civil Rights Day!

So after sleeping in, which was wonderful, I was greeted by my roommates. They too are teachers and had the day off!

Before I get into the story you can see above the two roommates that are involved. Joy is in the middle and Shareka is on the right. It will help with the visual of the scene that I am about to describe.

After exchanging a few texts about how we are dreading the snow, the three of us convene in my room for a little chat. Shareka made a comment to me about wanting me to make her breakfast. I passed the message through my door to Joy who was blogging down the hall way in her room. Joy responded by yelling, "Make your own dang breakfast..." as Shareka walked up the stairs to our floor from her basement abyss. Then I was thinking about making french toast, but i didn't have any syrup. Shareka was in for the French toast and offered up Joy's syrup. Just wait... the best part is coming I promise. So Joy, the Caucasian, gave me, the yellow one, permission to make breakfast for everyone. "It's Civil Rights Day, we should celebrate. Jen you make us breakfast," said Joy. "What? its your other roommate you should be telling to make breakfast," I replied. Everyone laughs. Shareka reply, "At least my people are free. Your people were slaves too. You built railroad and other half are still picking crops!" After a long pause, I finally got it, "What? I am not Mexican! And I will die saying that too!" No Breakfast was made.

So as you can see my morning started out on the immature side. We had the majority bossing around the minorities in our house. We just illustrated everything that we spent last week teaching our children about how the world used to be, not how the world is now. We love each other. We love that we are all different. Please don't think that we are narrow minded or racist. We were just in one of those moods.

On a more serious note, I do have a deep appreciation for the Civil Rights Movement. On Friday I did a lesson with my 1st graders about Martin Luther King Jr. I wanted them to understand that there is a reason why we have school off. This just isn't a holiday or a free school day. We take a day off from school and work to honor and recognize people like Martin Luther King and the impact and influence they have had throughout history.

To illustrate this point we did a little reenactment in our room. I didn't tell my kids what was going on, but during the day I started to segregate our room into boys and girls. I treated the girls better than I treated the boys. I gave the girls a candy bar (mini one), extra play time, supplies for lessons, and they were isolated from the boys by some physical barrier (i.e. desk, spaces on the rug, etc.). They boys had to remain in their desks and perform tasks that the girls did not. They had to pick up trash, clean up after the girls, do math, sit quietly, sit at the back of the rug, etc.

We went to lunch with this feeling in our class. It was awful to be in the situation that I was in. I was merely playing the role of what society thought to be right during this time in history. Some boys were sad, some were mad. Others were just plain confused. The girls ate lunch with me in our room and the boys had to go to the lunch room alone. It was intense.

After lunch came in I had them sit at their desk (the boys) and the girls at the rug and write about how they were feeling right now. Their writings were profound for their age. You have to understand that a 6 year old doesn't possess the same ability to take on a different perspective or to empathize. Naturally, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I was blown away by their observations and the way they expressed their feelings. Most of the boys commented that it was the worst day in their life. They didn't like the way that they felt. Some little boy thought that I hated him. The girls had different things to say. They said that it was nice that they got to do all these nice things, but they missed the boys. They said that they had fun and that the game was cool, but they wished the boys could be with them.

In the middle of their writing we stopped and had a mini discussion about what just happened in our room. I asked them if they would like to come to school if everyday was like this. I asked them to think about what life would be like if boys and girls could never talk to each other. I also asked them how they would feel if someone treated them different just because of the way that they looked. They were amazing. I had tears in my eyes as they shared their thoughts about what life would be like for them if everyday was like this.

One little girl wrote, "I'm not sure what is going on. Miss Lee has gone crazy! The girls are playing on the rug and the boy have to sit with their heads down at their desk." That wasn't exactly the spelling she gave, but i wanted you to be able to

So I sent them back to finish writing about their hour of segregation. After we sat in two small circles and read what we wrote. They each took a turn sharing their feelings. After I they gave each other hugs and talked about how a lot of them felt the same way and share similar opinions about the subject at hand. Now I just want to say that these weren't things like I felt sad because I didn't get a treat. They were deeper. I was shocked by their insight.

We read a book called Martin's Big Words. I can't remember who wrote it off the top of my head. Anywho, we read about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the "big" words that he learned to use instead of violence. We learned to love instead of hate. To use words instead of violence. "I have a dream..."

I then explained to them, in simple terms, what life was like during that period of time between African Americans and White people. At first they didn't believe me. But as we read more and more and talked more about life during that time they began making connections. The light bulbs all went on. Then our class flew into a discussion about how life has changed. That we can all go to school together. That we can all feel safe and feel like we belong at school. They had the darnest things to say.

We capped off the experience writing about what we had learned. They all commented on how they looked up to people like Martin and how they were grateful that he gave his life for such a cause. Not in those words of course, but the same idea. I'll have to get some quotes from my kids and add them here. They thanked him for saving our country. They said that he was a good person who stood up to other people. I really can't do them justice. I should look for some quotes.

Overall, they left school that day happy for the world that we live in. They had a small taste of what life might be like then. I think they have a solid sense of gratitude for their environment and not because of ignorance. I think they will have a better understanding as life goes on because they experienced it. Even if the experience was only for a short time and in a controlled setting.

Oh course I sent home a disclaimer for any concerned parents. You know how kids sometimes leave out the most pertinent information. The last thing I need was someone to go home and tell their mom that their teacher went nuts and then walk away because some show came on and distracted them! ha.

So that's some of my Civil Rights Day adventures. Not too exciting, don't know if it makes any sense... but humor me!