Wednesday 19 January 2011

It's MLK Day - Why is our Day School Open?

OK Canadians, you can skip this one

For the Yanks in the readership - why are our Hebrew Day Schools open on MLK Day? [That's Martin Luther King Day]

Actually this is a "strawman" -- we can have our cake and eat it too - meaning we CAN have our schools open and still instill our students to revere both the Day and the Man who inspired it.

I myself had been similarly inspired by my Day School Teachers to grow up with HEBREW stories and plays concerning the biographies of, for example, G. Washington and A. Lincoln. We actually spent class time learning something constructive educationally and inspirationally as well
Win Win

My friend R Avi Herzog says the following re: the Nearby Moriah School in Englewood, NJ

I'd like to tell you what transpired (and transpires every year) in Moriah School in Englewood, NJ on Martin Luther King Day.

1) The principal encourages ALL faculty to devote some time in some way to this day and the man for whom it is named.

2) All secular studies grades have some sort of program in their classrooms.

3) Some (and I personally wish it were all) limudei kodesh teachers as well devote some time to the significance of the day. I personally pride myself (I teach 4th grade limudei kodesh) on the fact that I make an unequivocal statement that MLK was a great man who was willing to stand up, even risk his life and lose his life, for what he felt was right. I then ask all of my talmidim to keep in mind that we are devoting all of our learning on this day lichvod and l'zecher MLK. We then close this short piece of our day with a moment of silence, after which we proceed to learn. I think it's important for our kids to see that we can/should not only tolerate leaders of a different color, but that we (in my case rebbeim) actually respect and recognize them and their contributions.


The exciting part is

A. We can keep school open

B. The Kids can grow intellectually

C. Without dishonoring the day or Dr. King's Memory

D. And the students can even be inspired - by Dr. King's persistence to his ideals - to apply them to Torah Ideals.

This is how we can actualize Torah uMadda ideals.

Shalom
RRW

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't Jewish educators also be willing to discuss King's moral imperfections, such as engaging in adultery and working closely with communists? He did great things but was no tzaddik.

Anonymous said...

By the way, these facts are now generally acknowledged---King's public supporters make various excuses or consider these failings to be unimportant.

Nishma said...

MLK's personal life is a deflection of what the day is really about

It's not about his "saintliness" it's about his ideals for which he gave his life- literally.

EG Columbus was no saint either, as we now know