Teachers in South Brunswick go above and beyond the curriculum requirements to help make sure the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream comes true.
By:Melissa Hayes
During the 1960s, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that, one day, people would not be judged by the color of their skin.
Today, teachers in the South Brunswick school district go above and beyond the curriculum requirements to help make sure his dream comes true.
Laura Tom, a first grade teacher at Constable School, teaches her students about Dr. King through her lessons on culture.
"We do a multi-cultural unit where we kind of travel around the world through literature. I kind of try to bring that in," she said.
She typically reads her students a book such as "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr." which chronicles his life growing up and how he got involved in the civil rights movement.
"We talk about what kind of impact he made," Ms. Tom said.
Ms. Tom said she tries to teach students about discrimination through books and asking them questions.
She read a book about a brown polar bear that was afraid the white polar bear family wouldn’t accept him. She also reads her students a book on Ruby Bridges, the first black child to enter an all-white school in the south.
"It’s just a lot of awareness and I figure if I can catch them when they’re young, this is the time to do it," Ms. Tom said.
Ms. Tom said she tries to put things in a context that her students can understand and is repetitive in her teaching.
"We talk about ‘is it OK to have friends that have purple skin and green skin,’ " she said. "It’s really important for the kids to understand."
She has a station set up where students can make "free to be me" necklaces and read books about Dr. King.
"All of the books really do kind of give you the same message. For the little kids, the repetition just lets them hit home a little bit more," Ms. Tom said.
On Friday, students will participate in a birthday party for Dr. King and a card will be sent home to their parents explaining who he was and what the students learned about him.
Indian Fields teacher Debbie Rosenblum will read Dr. King’s "I have a dream" speech to her students and interpret it line by line. This is only one of many activities her class will be participating in over the next week.
"We’re immersed in learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement," she said.
On Tuesday, Ms. Rosenblum’s students will create posters to carry during a civil rights march from the main building to the Dayton building on Georges Road Wednesday afternoon. After the march her students will watch a video of Dr. King giving the "I have a dream" speech in Washington, D.C.
Fourth-graders also will participate in a discussion about the civil rights movement.
"We talk about the ideas of equality and justice for all and the need for a civil rights movement. We talk about how far we’ve come and what has yet to be done because we’re only 40 years out. (The civil rights movement) is really young if you think about it," she said.
Ms. Rosenblum also incorporates a lot of personal history into her lessons.
"I make sure I bring personal history into it because I’m from Philadelphia and I was in second grade when they started desegregation of the schools so I have a lot to share about that," she said.
Ms. Rosenblum said her aunt was a teacher in North Philadelphia at that time and she shares a lot of her stories with her class.
Ms. Rosenblum said teaching students about Dr. King is something she is passionate about and her students become passionate about it as well.
Once students get to the high school, they learn about Dr. King and the civil rights movement in U.S. history II as sophomores.
High school social studies teacher Roxann Clarke-Holmes said she incorporates Dr. King into two units of the class.
Around this time each year she teaches her students about persuasive speech and persuasive writing.
"We listen to his speeches and we do a lot with that," Ms. Clarke-Holmes said.
In April, during the civil rights unit, Dr. King will be one of many civil rights leaders she teaches her students about.
"We discuss the background on what might have made him get involved and experiences that led him to become a leader," she said.
Ms. Clarke-Holmes said she also teaches students about Dr. King’s religious background and how that impacted Dr. King’s life and the movement. Her students learn about the impact he had on the civil rights movement and his legacy.
She said she will be touching his legacy a little bit next week during her lesson on persuasive writing when her students read "I have a dream."
"Teaching about him now is good because the students get some background for (the lessons in) April," she said.

