February 19, 2014

Today was an in-depth lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks and how equality, inclusion, and the Civil Rights Movement were important during their time and how it affects us today. A little experiment was done where the children were "assigned" to play with other children who they normally don't play with.  At the end, they loved it and wanted to do it again. They will write their experiences tomorrow in their journals.

The children addressed their own ideas on freedom, equality, and peace. It all equates to respect and acceptance.

The experiment was shown how Rosa Parks felt when she did something different . She sat in the front of a bus full of people where there was segregation. When the children played outside with their "assigned" friends, they didn't know what to do. I asked them, "How does it feel to be friends with someone new? Someone different?" to which they all replied, "This is so hard!" I went on to share that Rosa Parks thought the very same thing when she sat in front of the bus. I gave them five more minutes to play -- and they did with their respective assigned friends. It took awhile, but they eventually ended up running around and having fun.  At the end, I asked how did it feel, and they all said that they wanted to do it again.

The lesson was to teach respect and acceptance. No matter how different everyone is -- whether they speak a different language, or what country they're or their parents are from, or whether they like pink and not blue -- we accept each other's differences, and learn to respect those differences. Exclusion is not to be tolerated and learning how to include others whether in play or study/work, creates a good feeling about themselves and everyone around them.  The children also learned that because we live in a community where English is spoken, and to prevent misconceptions about how another spoken-language is perceived by another, the children are discouraged to use another language when at play (there has been exclusions as a result of this). However....the children can share their language with friends who wish to learn it.

I hope that today's lesson had an impact on the children's social well-being. It is after all Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream that everyone accepts one another with respect.