Students honored the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by exploring the power of his words and taking inspiration from his influential “I Have a Dream Speech,” delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
Early childhood and lower school students drew and wrote about their own dreams for their lives and the world. In fifth grade, where students are practicing using “power words” to make their writing more vivid and expressive, students watched his speech with interest. Using Dr. King’s own power words from the speech, the class wrote poems that employed those words, then presented them to the class. Students explored themes of equity, freedom, injustice, and heroes.
Excerpts from their work:
“With faith we can transform
The despair of our nation
Knowing we can be free one day
Let freedom ring
The content of our character exalted ”
“We will join hands and sing
Mighty mountains sing
All flesh holding hands in a prodigious joy
But not in our nation’s struggles
One day all black and white children will be singing with new meaning”