Spartanburg students learn about Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, share their own – Spartanburg Herald Journal

Spartanburg County students say they have learnedabout standing up for what is right and how your history helps to define who you are while studying about the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

The national holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader is today. King would have turned 92 on Jan. 15.

On Thursday at Pine Street Elementary School, many classes were working on projects to help students connectKing's words to their own lives.

Fifth-graders inMary Ann Stoddard's class selected some of King's quotes to study and show how it relates to their own lives or current events. They shared their understanding of the quotations by acting them out for their classmates.

Across the hall, Julie Sprinkles' fifth-grade class took a virtual tour of several historical landmarks. By using virtual reality headsets, the students got to see such sites as Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached and his funeral was held after his assassination on April 4, 1968.

Students were proud to show how much they had learned by sharing that King's birth name was Michael and not Martin.

"By the time they get to fifth grade, they think they know everything there is to know, and we learned something new through this yesterday. It was great.They enjoy it and it keeps them engaged,"Sprinkles said.

The students also completed a writing project using a King quote of their choice.

Millie Bagwell, 11, chose "The time is always right to do what is right."

"That means you don't have to wait to do something good or right. It matters because if you do something right then you will set an example and then hopefully some other people will do the same and then that will make the world better," Bagwell said.

"My quote is 'We are not makers of history; we are made by history.' To me, that means that our past does matter because it makes us who we are today,"said Rayonna Hibbard, 11.

Stoddard said drawing from current events for examplesduring classroomtalks about King and his method of nonviolent resistancehas been a natural choice.

"We've talked about Black Lives Matter and the positive ways in which people have fought for better rights for African Americans and we also talked about commotion and how that's not the way to do it. We definitely brought it up last week," said Stoddard. "I let them talk. We have a writing workshop in here so they write a lot and they're very comfortable sharing their thoughts, so once I set (the discussion) up, I let them just share."

She said students were able to see the difference between the peaceful protests King promoted and the actions insurrectionists took at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"It was disturbing to them, but they know that Congress still had a sessionand still went through with their job andfinished the job. And they acknowledge that freedomof speech is an important part of our country and our process, but that rioting is not acceptable,"Stoddard said. "I ended it that day on the importance of voting."

Lynsey Bullington, a fourth-grade teacher, said her students were asking more questions during their MLK Day lessons than students in years past. Her class was working on an art project, painting pictures of King surrounded by words that reflected key parts of his messages, like "equality" and "justice."

"One of the things that I think has been a little bit different this year is they're making so many connections to what is going on in the nation currently, whereas in the past, we really haven't had that. Everybody knows he's such an inspirational person and we love learning about him, but I think his message is really hitting home with them right now,"Bullington said.

Sprinkles anticipates thatstudents will have more questions about the Black Lives Matter protests that took place last summer and the protests King took part in during their Civil Rightslessons in February during Black History Month.

"They do know about it and they do bring it up (now). Some children are more knowledgeable about it than others, some don't even know that it's going on because their parents have sheltered them a little bit from that,"Sprinkles said. "We have to be kind ofcareful about how we handle situations like that; it's very important that they learn about it and hear about it, but not know the political views of their teacher. We try to keep it as neutral as we can."

The Herald-Journal sharedone more quote with the students for Martin Luther King Jr. Day "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

The Herald-Journal asked students to share what it means to them and their own dream for the future.Here's what they had to say:

"He wants all the people of the world, especiallyof color, to be treated equally. And if they're good people, they should be treated well. (In the future) I definitely want COVIDto go away, and I want more peace," said Kennedy DeMark, 10, fifth grade.

"People want to be treated equally, like paid equally, everything equal," saidJulian Gillam, 11, fifth grade. For his future, Gillam also wanted the pandemic to end.

"And I want flying cars.Theysoundfun," he said.

"I think it means that back then when segregation was a thing, they wanted it to be stopped and for Black people to be treated exactly like white people, and Martin had that dream and it came true," saidLuke Hodge, 9, fourth grade.

His dream for the future, "That I become famous and that Black lives will matter more."

"I think it means if you have a different skin color than someone, it doesn't mean you have to be rude to them. You don't have to hate them for that, you should be nice to them. I hope that people still don't judge people for their skin color or anything, that's what I want," said Marianna Hallenbeck, 10, fourth grade.

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Spartanburg students learn about Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream, share their own - Spartanburg Herald Journal