From My Son…at four…we learn what a child sees

“Martin Luther King, Junior” by my son at 4, in Answer to “What Can Kids Understand”

When my son was very young he fell in love with watching two videos, The Snowman and Our Friend Martin. Both were daily repertoire pieces for him. I thought the Martin Luther King Jr. video was wayyyyyy over his head.

Luca, my son, spoke very, very late. At four. So I called him over one day and asked him to “talk” to me about Martin, his friend writing it down as I heard it. This is one of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. poems in the world.
So subtle.

For years, years in our family the phrase “love it by all” means something very special. When said, we just laugh and feel closer. I’m sorry, I know it is my son, but the poem, is our classic. The video is one where with young kids you need to explain flashbacks and be ready to explain and talk as you go. A bit much for 1st, but with that adult support, it is good. In fact a nice work in elementary to help understand hard concepts. First the video,

Our Friend Martin (1998)

Now the poem by Luca Puglisi….(at 4)

Martin Memories
by Luca Vernon Puglisi

When he was young we called him RAINBOW.

He lived in the world a junior.

Don’t let, no bottles, no wood
No everything that’s bad for love.

I saw him on TV talking to these mans.

He was at a boycott meeting where grandma went last week.

His family, his daughter, his man

This man got in jail. Not.

The kids, the dad, and the mother was playing piano.

I don’t want to be in jail.
I miss my mom and cry
Then everybody calls me a crybaby.

The boys had dark, the ladies have dark.
I have light.
He said love it by all.

I’m gonna hate her back, he said.
Me too, I’m gonna hate her black.
The man said her skin is darker than ours,
I don’t know what. Not right.

It was bad to have punching and hitting.

I’m not going to be in jail for that.

Martin Luther King is not a fighting guy.
________________________________

(written circa 1998 at age 4)

Thoughts on Dr. King from children’s lips to your ears

My class made a second movie set to music we listened to working…then they wrote.Recall they are in 1st grade, and Sheltered Immersion in a CA school trying to figure out why they get Monday home. ( I fixed some small things)

Here is what we have so far… Some 1st grade thoughts….

“Dr. King was important to me because….he helped us to think about love for one another.”

“Dr. King helped people of all ages. He taught friendship. If we love we will live.”

“Dr. King helped the world. He was a great person. He had children, they had to go on after he lost his life.”

“Dr King helps people to be nice. Black people were now able to ride a bus or be freerer trying to live a life.”

“Dr. King changed the way it was.”

“Dr. King told us not to fight and just be friends. I think we should follow Dr. King because he taught us to listen to something worth learning to do.”

“Dr. King helped black Americans not lose their self. And to let us black and white be in the same school.”

“Dr. King was a helpful man and he seemed kind and he made America better.”

“Dr. King was important to me he made us to think of love and not to fight.”

“If Dr. King did not stand up for himself we would not have a model today.”

“Dr. King made us equal and he made us think about loving each other not fighting and try not to lie to each other.”

” Dr. King was a great man cause he helped all the people cause when he doesn’t know he goes and learns it in school and books.”

“Dr. King he helped the world. He was a real person. Real. He happened. He had his own kids too. He was shot for his new and important ideas.”

“Dr. King changed and used laws for blacks and whites. He said don’t get mad and use your fists or kill the enemy. Try to see them as yourself.”

“Dr. King helped us to be in school with very different people.”

“Dr. King told us it doesn’t matter what is the skin color but we are all family no matter what.”
( the last Elvis wrote….but I forget the pen names here at home and I typed for them this time we only have one working computer, so this is just their text…..)

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today we tried to make portraits of Dr. King and to put his pictures to a clip from Dr. King’s famous I Have A Dream Speech.

It was fun working for 35 minutes to draw a very important leader.

Tomorrow each child will write a sentence or two about this American leader.

We are preparing for our day off holiday in memory of his Civil Rights work. It is important to try to relate his story in a child friendly way. Art certainly helps! Tuesday we are all requested to watch Mr. Obama become President Obama.It’s quite a day in our “history” as 1st grade learns about more about how history is made. From my days at 6 to their days covers almost 50 years, and quite an amazing time of change. One thing is clear we are always changing. And we can dream of better tomorrows and work to see them happen.

To do our portraits we had to face the fact that Dr. King was really pretty hard to draw. His face is particularly tough to get just right, so we interpreted a bit. Faith Ringold wrote a book we read. It is a very important book to share with chldren and among the best out there. The name is “My Dream of Martin Luther King Jr.”

The cover looks like this:

In the book she tells about a dream that happens as she falls to sleeping watching a program on MLK on TV. From there we are transported into highlights of his life and into her vision of a world where people trade bags of hate for bags of peace, kindness and love. The burden of hate is highlighted and the lightening of giiving it up is echoed.

Taking the time to share this book is really important.

We read another too.

This book was a very nice introduction to the story of Dr. King with lovely crayon resist illustrations. You can, if you get india ink, do a picture like this too!

A very good way to begin talking about an important leader.

Tomorrow we are writing the text to go with our art.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Portraits