Lesson on Teaching from Martin Luther King, Jr.

I remember when my kids were in school and they had to learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.  They actually told me that they did not like King as a result of doing the assignments.  Reason being, they thought the assignments were stupid and of course that transferred to the study topic sadly enough.

Compare that to the year 2000 when I did my first sabbatical.  I did it on Problem-Based Learning (PBL).  To study it further I travelled to Samford University, in Alabama, to see how they were using PBL as they were one of the top schools in the country doing so at the time.  To pass the time on my drive to Alabama I found an autobiography via audio book about King and listened to it on the way to Birmingham.  This was an experience I would never ever forget. As I listened to the tape, read by actor LeVar Burton as King, I learned more of the early years of King before he arrived on the national stage.  As I drove, the road signs for the cities where the civil rights movement began to take shape passed me by as I drove to Birmingham bringing a chilling reality to the audio book.  Once I got to Samford I had to go to downtown Birmingham to see the places I had heard about, like the 16th street Baptist church, that was blown up and killed teenage girls inside.  The caretaker let me in and all of what I had heard washed over me and hit home as I looked from the pews to the aisles to the altar, especially as I walked out of the church and down the stairs imagining what it might have been like when the dogs and hoses were turned on those who met to march in Birmingham. 

To cap off the experience, the Rev Shuttlesworth, a close aid to King, spoke at Samford.  I sat amongst the crowd of mostly white students and teachers and listened to the speech, which was marvelous.  It was hard to imagine that not too many years ago the parents of these same children and teachers would have preferred to see Shuttlesworth hanging from a tree.  Now they are listening to his every word as he talks about the past, present, and future of civil rights in this country.

Why am I telling you all this today?  The reason is that the experience affected my teaching.  Imagine if my kids had the chance to share in the experience I had on my drive and visit to Birmingham.  I doubt they would have ended up "disliking King" because their elementary and hight school teachers made them do some dumb ass blah, blah, blah assignment!  On that trip, I learned that the best learning is one that is experiential and one that not only engages the minds of students but tugs on their hearts and twists their guts!  I have not turned back since that visit to Alabama in 2000 and continue today to formulate assignments that are intended to not turn students off to the topic at hand and try to affect them emotionally. 

In sum, today is a day that reminds me to be a better teacher, perhaps you will find a way for it to inspire you, too.  Before closing, I know most of you have heard or read the I Have a Dream speech.  I will bet most of you have not read the one he wrote in the margins of a newspaper when he was jailed during the civil rights movement, the Letter from Birmingham City Jail.  If interested in reading the speech, which I heard when listening to the audio book, check out the following link on this day on the day we have set aside to honor a truly great American. http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html