I was amazed. He suddenly mentioned MLK and began telling me about him with the best tone a three years old can muster. We asked him what he knew about MLK and he proceeded to tell us that MLK was a black man trying to stop white people from being mean to them. MLK started a march and had a lot of people sit on the ground in front of a bus. When we asked him why they did that, he informed me that some black woman refused to sit in the back of the bus and a protest started.

My six year old chimed in that blacks uses to be beat by the police and sprayed with a firehose, then he told me that blacks could not use the same bathrooms and sinks, and restaurants. My six year old and three yr old then went into total agreement that is was horribly wrong for white people to have treated black people that way and it shouldn't happen again.

Then my six year old asked how MLK died.

And I told him a truth that is difficult for him to understand, but it was the truth.

It is a GOOD thing that Martin Luther King is remembered and taught in the classroom. It is a very good thing. I was SHOCKED to see what an impact it made on my kids..... It is a very good thing.

Katherine

Last edited: Sunday, January 16, 2005 at 8:16:48 PM

Three years ago I took my much adored Goddaughter to Arlington Nat'l Cemetary. She was nine. The fact that each of the many thousands of grave markers represents the final resting place of a person who died in service to their country is something that she, "gets", but is difficult to convey beyond the most basic level of awareness; cemetaries are full of dead people. She knew that President Kennedy had been assassinated; she knew what that big word meant. Taking her to his gravesite was an emotional experience for me, in part, that day, because to this beautiful little girl, he is a figure from as long ago as FDR, Lincoln, Jefferson...so long ago. Ancient History. We stayed at the eternal flame for a little while, and then we walked quietly down the hill and around to the side where Bobby Kennedy is buried.

My Goddaughter knows what she learns in school, and she also knows what those of us who love her pass along to her. She knows that when I was six years old I met Robert Kennedy, and that the memory of that introduction has meaning to me as an adult. She didn't know how he died.

I explained to her that these guys, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, are important to millions of people around the world, not because of how they died, but because of how they lived and how many people they inspired.

Answering her question about how Robert Kennedy died is something I was prepared to do. What I wasn't well prepared for was her next question. "Why?".

Thank you for sharing your beautiful story. It gives hope to the notion that kids today will live in a world where people are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Last edited: Monday, January 17, 2005 at 12:17:27 AM

Ya JUST noticed?

Anyway,back on topic.

Yup,that was the beginning of the end of a world where you were judged by your look. Even the laws revolved around that factor,I call that the dark age.

And I think we are returning to that age with bush in office,'cept christians will be the ones that take our seats in the bus.

Oops,didn't mean to turn this into politics again!