Before and following the holiday weekend, students at MWS learned about, remembered, and discussed the life and work of Martin Luther King in meaningful age-appropriate ways, from preschool to 8th grade. As our faculty dives more deeply into the important work of creating an anti-racist and inclusive curriculum, we are exploring deeper and richer ways to discuss history, activism, and social justice.

In first grade, students learned about Marin Luther King’s life and legacy with the award-winning illustrated book Martin’s Big Words.

First grade teacher Mr. Baril shares, “It prompted some wonderful discussion among the children about the beauty of different skin colors. We then went to our desks and I gave them new sets of special crayons that have about six different skin tones of various peoples of our world. They were then able to take home with them on Friday their drawings of people holding hands under a rainbow.”

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Before Martin Luther King Day, 4th graders had been working on a long-term project of mapping the world around them—mapping their bedrooms, their homes, their neighborhoods. Here are the maps of their neighborhoods in their main lesson books.

As Marin Luther King Jr Day approached, class teacher Ms. Stroud shared a map of the route she bikes to the Marin Luther King memorial in San Francisco from her house.

Drawing on the image of the memorial’s flowing waterfalls, fourth graders illustrated the words from Dr. King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963.

Ms. Deason’s 8th grade students had been studying the speeches of Martin Luther King for many years. For a different take on his work, the class dove into the lengthy piece “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which Dr. King addressed to his fellow clergymen. The 8th graders explored King’s arguments and ideas, and discussed the ways they relate to activism today. As part of that study, they watched Anderson Cooper’s recent interview with youth poet laureate and inauguration speaker Amanda Gorman.

They also drew portraits of King, each choosing a different palette. The effect is striking.