Celebrate Martin Luther King’s Holiday by 
Promoting Peaceful Solutions
Many schools and families celebrate the Martin Luther King Holiday by participating in community service activities to promote peaceful solutions. Our blogging team created a reflective writing activity for students at a local school. After reading an article about Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on nonviolent social change for freedom, students completed the following questions:
List 5 dreams you have for a more equitable and peaceful life in your classroom or at home. Draw a picture of 1 dream.
- _________________________________________________________________________________________
- _________________________________________________________________________________________
- _________________________________________________________________________________________
- _________________________________________________________________________________________
- _________________________________________________________________________________________
When reflecting on this activity, students shared that they felt excited about resolving conflicts at school by learning how to set boundaries for acceptable and not acceptable behaviors. For example, they could talk with the yard duty supervisor when a student violated their defined boundaries. A major challenge for most students is learning how to speak up when another child says mean or ugly statements. When students are insulted, they can learn how to tell another child to stop the behavior and then play with those who are caring and kind.
Parents can reinforce this activity by completing it at home. You and your children can brainstorm how you will care for each other when one of your children is rude or disrespectful. Some children are encouraged to take a time-out to reflect on their feelings and then talk with the offending sibling. You can also help your children learn how to talk with each other about their frustrations when experiencing mean and ugly behaviors from each other.
May you and your children have much success in honoring each other with nonviolent negotiated boundaries for personal growth.
Warm regards,
Mary Ann
Copyright © 2020 by GenParenting
Mary Ann Burke, Ed.D., Digital Education Expert, is a substitute distance learning teacher for Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California and the author of STUDENT-ENGAGED ASSESSMENT: Strategies to Empower All Learners (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Dr. Burke creates digital language arts and substitute teaching K – 12 activities for teachers and parents. She is the Cofounder of the Genparenting.com blog. Burke is the former Director II of Categorical & Special Projects for the Santa Clara County Office of Education that supports 31 school districts serving 272,321 students in Santa Clara County. She is also a previous Director – State & Federal Compliance for Oakland Unified School District, the former Director – Grantwriter for the Compton Unified School District, and was the initial VISTA Director for the Community Partnership Coalition in southern California. Much of her work focuses on creating innovative digital trainings and partnership programs for teachers and families to support students’ learning. These programs were featured as a best practice at a National Title I Conference, California’s Title I Conferences, AERA Conferences, an ASCD Conference, the NASSP Conference, and statewide educator conferences.