Was He A King?

Today, as we often do when we come back to school for the week,  we had a discussion about the home days.  This lead us to think about why we had an extra day off.  Paz had some ideas about this to share with the group, one of which being that Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't lie.  Other friends shared what they knew or had seen on TV about this.  You may have more discussion about death and dying because a friend also  brought up that Martin Luther King, Jr shot and was dead.  This brought up the question that many friends at this age are still grappling with which is, can people come back alive after being dead?

We talked about how Martin Luther King, Jr was given a holiday in his honor and what his work was to deserve this. Cecelia asked if he was a king, which makes sense when that's your last name, doesn't it?

As a part of our discussion about this great leader, I shared one of my favourite Martin Luther King, Jr quotes:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

We related this a bit to us in our class and how we deal with others who are mean or doing things we don't like.  Do we respond with more meanness?  How do we stop the negative energy?  As we talked and acted out how adding hate to hate or using love to fend off hate would work, Thyra said that it reminded her of our poem from December's songs and poems.  Here it is:

DUST OF SNOW

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

By Robert Frost

Thyra was thinking about having a change of heart and how this is similar to opening your heart to others to let them have rights that they were denied.  It was a lovely moment for me, to think about how the friends are making connections and scaffolding their knowledge to create a caring sense of the world around them.  The children were very sure about spreading love instead of hate.  This is a nice reminder!
 
I hope you are enjoying your evening!  Love, Jennifer