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I'll start with a story that left me with a lasting memory...It was almost three years ago now when I was in my last year teaching English conversation in Japan. I decided to do a session on Black History Month. I thought that for the most basic of lessons I should begin with the Civil Rights Movement and have it revolve around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So, I thought about it: If I were a Japanese kid in junior high school and didn't know anything about American History, let alone Black History Month, what would I want to know about? Long story short, I bought a video documentary on Dr. King and chose a few clips that might fill in those quick points of interest on the Civil Rights Movement. My Japanese Teacher of English was quite helpful and took the time to translate my synopsis of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King's work and then gave out his I Have A Dream speech in translation. The 50-minute package of information was complete: Talk a bit about Black History Month, the climate of the U.S. during a very tense era in race relations in the 60s, throw out a few English language vocab words and then show a few snippets of the video of some of his work, the I Have A Dream speech and then his assassination....
Since I taught a max of 20 students in each class (I taught a total of 520), it took me a two week rotation to see all of the students. By the end of the first week, I saw nearly half of my students and still had a week to go. In any case, I had one class where I had some very good girls who always paid attention in my class and picked up the lessons I taught them. I did the discussion, gave points for the vocab and when I got around to the assassination portion of the video, one of my students (whom I noticed too late was silently crying) burst out in tears and ran to the bathroom. For most Americans, we have been used to seeing the images of Dr. King laying on the balcony in a pool of his own blood and several men pointing in one direction toward the building across from them. For this one Japanese student, the images were simply too overwhelming for her. I was moved that SHE was moved and I told the students that if they wanted to leave earlier (since the class was over) to avoid seeing that scene they could. None of them moved. They were ALL entranced by the video. They wanted to know if anyone had been punished for it. They were inquisitive and wanted to know more.
All this to say, I come full circle since that time in my life where I am seeing the images of Dr. King all over the television today and his name being said by presidential candidates that hope to stir up the spirit of Dr. King himself, and I ask myself: Am I living the dream?
I am now 28 years old and I am still finding my way through my career. I'm still striving to make a difference in my own life and then my family's and then I tell myself I'll go out and help people. Yes, that's the best way for me to make a difference: to help myself. To see my reflection and know that I am living the best life that I can live and taking advantage of EVERY opportunity that Dr. King and the Freedom Fighters fought and died for. By the time Dr. King was 34, he had gone as far as he could in his education and had marched on Washington and spoke to several thousand people. Those people were there with him and they were emboldened to take action. Can we blame them? Can we now blame most of us for having a slight sparkle in our eyes and get that strange chill down our spine when we hear Barack Obama speak? I don't think so. It's an amazing thing to see an African American reach for the White House. It's good to see a woman do that too, but we'll always look back on these days and see Obama and think to ourselves: There is Dr. King's Dream speaking to millions of blacks and whites and begging them to do the very same thing: to Dream, to demand change and to live the dream.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King
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