Elementary school students and their families filed into the School of Education on Sunday afternoon for a teach-in and birthday celebration. The event was part of IU’s community engagement initiative during Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend.
The event was organized by Stephanie Power Carter, a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Literacy, Culture and Education. Carter said this was her first teach-in geared toward younger children.
Teach-ins are forums planned by educators meant to improve people’s understanding of various topics, normally political.
Carter’s first teach-in was a talk last year about difficult conversations parents may have with their children about race.
“The idea of a teach-in is bringing people together and sharing wisdom and knowledge, and so the idea is to have one for every audience or make sure that we include children in that audience,” Carter said.
Carter said love as a transformative force was a key value behind King’s work.
She said it was important for children to comprehend its transcendental quality.
The elementary-aged children participated in activities like ”Civil Rights Word Scramble” and “American Civil Rights Movement Crossword Puzzle,” which were provided on sheets of paper.
Children were given the choice of more than a dozen books about the civil rights movement and King.
The books were donated by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs.
The children sang “Happy Birthday” to King before digging into cake, which was provided for the celebration.
The School of Informatics and Computing, a sponsor for the event, had a booth where children could make their own binary bracelets with accompanying bead color decoders and featured a 3-D-printed trash collector that tracked how many pieces of garbage were picked up.
Children were encouraged to write their name on a cut-out hand and put it on the wall next to a paper “Peace Pledge.”
The sheet read “I can change the world with my own hands; I can make the world a better place with my own hands; I can make the world a kinder place with my own hands; This is my pledge today.”
At least 35 hands were posted on the wall before Carter called the children into the nearby auditorium for a quick documentary about King’s life and the civil rights movement.
Before the video began she walked around the capacity-filled room with a microphone and asked students to share what they knew about King’s life and teachings.
Carter said the event grew from the Martin Luther King Jr. Activity Day, which faculty member Leana McClain started in 2002 and coordinated for a decade before her retirement.
McClain held back tears as Carter presented her with a book-shaped award from the School of Education and thanked her for her service in furthering King’s message among young people.
When McClain first orchestrated the event there was a limited budget and six volunteers for 30 children attending, she said. Since then the event has grown into a much larger affair.
The last time the activity day happened, in 2012, there were almost 100 school children. These children were joined by groups like Middle Way House and Campus View Apartments who also participated in the event.
“I started it so our students would have something to do to make it a day on, not a day off,” McClain said.
