TJ Elementary turns MLK Day into monthlong learning activity

When the Newton Community School District Board of Education voted to have school on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Superintendent Bob Callaghan had a vision of what students should be doing that day.

Callaghan wanted each building to have some sort of tribute to Dr. King, and he wanted students to learn more about the man himself.  Each building had unique activities and lesson plans to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy and accomplishments.

Students and staff at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School decided to take it  one step further and dedicated the whole month toward learning more about MLK.

“In honor of MLK, we’ve tried our best to teach as much as we can about his life, while he was alive, to our students,” Principal Lisa Sharp said. “On the announcements every morning, we have a fact about him. Each classroom has done some activities that are appropriate for its grade level.”

“Our third graders have watched the ‘I have a dream’ speech,” Sharp continued. “It was quite interesting hearing their comments afterwards. They would go, ‘Wow, that’s not fair. Why do people think like that?’ And they were pretty disgusted by the things that they learned through that video too.”

Another activity the third-grade students did was writing their own “I have a dream” speeches.

“I have a dream that it won’t matter if you are a girl or a boy, or are a black person or even white like me.  It would (matter) what your character is,” Patricia Baker, a student in 3F, wrote in her essay. “Come on. people. The children are watching the violence. Think of the children.”

The third-grade essays are hung up in the hallways of TJ, and Sharp was also very impressed by what her students wrote and discussed with regard to how differently people were treated during the Civil Rights era.

“It’s impressive to see our young kids thinking along the lines of being disgusted with that kind of thinking,” Sharp said. “They are color blind, and not only color blind, but they are also so accepting of each other.”

“We’ve done such a good job of trying to teach kids empathy and show them that we all have things that we are good at and things that we are not good at and need help with,” she continued. “And that it’s OK (to get help). It doesn’t mean we’re less worthy, and we all need each other to make this a better place.”

TJ students and staff also made cutouts of their hands and colored them uniquely to celebrate the diversity present within the school. The hands were then hung around the gym so that “they could give a hug.”

Although there was a school-wide MLK Day assembly on Monday, TJ won’t officially wrap up its MLK celebrations until that next Monday. From today until Jan. 27, TJ will be collecting canned and box foods as a part of its MLK Day service project. The goal is to collect 200 items.

“Join together and give back,” Sharp told her students. “His dream is alive … and we have a goal of working together to help others.”

Staff writer Ty Rushing may be contacted at (641) 792-3121, ext. 426, or at trushing@newtondailynews.com.