Lower School Culminates Month-Long Celebration of MLK, Jr. and Civil Rights Leaders with Re-envisioned Meeting for Worship
Lower School students and faculty worked together in January to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement. The celebration was highlighted with a special program in the West Gym titled Using Our Voices and Letting Our Lives Speak: The Honoring MLK, Jr. Meeting for Worship.
The pandemic provided an opportunity to help the Lower School community update how students celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The pandemic necessitated a change to the format of our annual MLK, Jr. program,” said Melissa McCourt. “However, Lower School students and faculty used that as an opportunity to re-envision the program. This new program provided an opportunity for students to use their voices and let their lives speak.”
Lower School Director Jenel Giles opened the program with a message for students: “Throughout the month of January, we have reflected on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr by focusing on his legacy, values, and hopes for the future. We thought about what people in a society need to feel safe, happy, and that they belong. We have learned about a variety of Civil Rights leaders and dug into the grassroots efforts that built the Civil Rights Movement.”
Each class created their own messages to share related to Dr. King and several other Civil Rights leaders during Meeting for Worship. Classes worked together to create messages that expressed what they learned about justice, civil rights, equity, and nonviolence. This also provided teachers with the flexibility to link the work to their existing curriculum. Work ranged from presentations by students (link is a pre-event rehearsal by 4Q) to poetry to artwork and signs created by students.
In addition to this special program, teachers provided queries to fuel discussions about Dr. King and many other Civil Rights movement leaders. Head Librarian Ruth Malwitz provided teachers with age-appropriate books that helped students connect the past to the present which also taught about injustice and inequity.