There is still work to be done.

 How often do we hear our students say, "I'll never use this, why are we even learning it!" As teachers, one of our goals should be to help students understand that what they are learning has relevance to their present and to their future.

In 7th grade English, we are currently reading The Hiding Place. On Friday, I wanted to honor Martin Luther King Jr. in a way that was relevant to what we are doing in class, but also to what is going on in our country right now. I showed a video of his I have a Dream Speech and then we spent some time discussing who King was referring to at the beginning of the speech when he mentions "...five score years ago". We discussed how 100 years had passed since Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and yet there Martin Luther King stood. There was still work that needed to be done.

We then discussed his famous quote: "..not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." What did that quote mean then? What did it mean to Jews living in Holland? While the environment has changed, the underlying meaning has not. There is still work to be done. 

Finally, I pulled up the image many of us have seen where an individual (from our town!) stormed the capital last week wearing a "Camp Auschwitz" t-shirt. We discussed how 80 years have passed since Corrie Ten Boom was captured and today, and yet...there is still work to be done. 

I hope that these 7th graders left class with the knowledge that the content of our character is what truly matters, but also with the knowledge that what they read about 20, 40, or 100 years ago is still relevant to today. Finally, I hope a seed was planted in their hearts moving them towards learning what their own part in the work that is still to be done.