Brian Lehrer: We'll finish up on Martin Luther King day edition now with a call in for our teachers on this Martin Luther King Jr day after a year of so much pain and hurt. How are you teaching your students about the namesake of this holiday Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? (646) 435-7280.

If you're a teacher who does lessons leading up to King day, (646) 435-7280. Do you go beyond just, I have a dream and turn the other cheek. How has this past year in which we've experienced a pandemic with extreme disparities along with race and class lines of who lives and who dies and who gets richer and who loses their jobs, plus civil and racial unrest in 2020 and an insurrection at the US capital on top of it all now?

How did the events of the past year factor into the way that you've been teaching the legacy of Dr. King this year? (646) 435-7280. Given all the symbols of hate on display at the siege of the US Capitol almost two weeks ago, how are you teaching the insurrection in the context of America's racial history?

For this segment, we're inviting teachers (646) 435-7280. Are you teaching that King was considered at the time a radical? In a great video for Business Insider, you know the professor, Michael Eric Dyson, he comes on the show sometimes, he reminds us that toward the end of King's life, he began to quote, "Challenge the notion that America was a racially blind, racially neutral country."

He began to argue that many Americans would not come to grips with their own racist beliefs, ideas, and practice. As your calls are coming in, here's an example I think, of King's frustration with the pace of change after the main civil rights laws were passed in 1964 and 1965. This is a minute and a half of the final Sunday sermon that Dr. King delivered before he was assassinated in the spring of 1968.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: The hour has come for everybody, and for all institutions, for the public sector, and the private sector to work to get rid of racism. Now if we are to do it, we must honestly admit certain things and get rid of certain myths that have constantly been disseminated all over our nation.

One is the myth of time. It is a notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice and there are those who often sincerely say to the Negro and his allies and the white community, "Why don't you slow up. Stop pushing things so fast. Only time can solve the problem, and if you will just be nice and patient and continue to pray in 100 or 200 years, the problem will work itself out."

That is an answer to that myth, and it is a time, it's neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. I'm sorry to say this morning that I'm absolutely convinced that the forces of ill will in our nation, the extreme writers of our nation, the people on the wrong side have used time, much more effectively, and the forces of goodwill.

Brian: Dr. King from 1968 on the forces of Goodwill, not using time, as well as the forces of wrong. With that in mind, and our Reverend Barbara conversation in mind and everything that's going on in the world in mind, teachers you're invited. How are you teaching King this year? (646) 435-7280. We'll get to your calls right after this.

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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now the calls from teachers for the last 10 minutes or so of the show on how you're teaching Dr. King this year, considering everything and appropriately, we'll start in Atlanta with Alex in Atlanta. You're on WNYC. Hello from New York, Alex. Thanks so much for calling in.

Alex: Hey, Brian, I adore the show. I still am listening after 10 years of moving to Atlanta. When I talk about MLK, I really try to emphasize this concept of the long civil rights movement and looking at the activism in the 1930s and '40s that was done by people like Thurgood Marshall and Rosa Parks, that led up to this.

Brian: Alex. Thank you very much. Good start. Carson in Brooklyn, you're in WNYC. Hi Carson.

Carson: Hi, good morning. I was thinking about actually how today should just be a day to talk about the state's relationship to Martin Luther King, Jr because the black lives matter in the school movement has such a comprehensive and rigorous curriculum that we should be doing all year long.

This conversation about racial justice and economic justice is something that happens from September to June. Today, what we're thinking about, at least in middle school is the relationship of the state to Martin Luther King, Jr because it is a federal holiday, and what does that mean? What is the significance of that relationship? Whereas the message of economic and racial justice is something that should be incorporated in all classes, throughout the year.

Brian: Do you have an example in mind of what you mean by the States as opposed to the federal relationship?

Carson: I'm sorry. I'm saying the state is like the [unintelligible 00:06:12] the government's relationship to a revolutionary and the government's relationship to activism. Yes, the state in that capital S. The government's relationship to movements and movement building, which dramatically ties with what our students are witnessing all around them.

The relationship of the police swing of the state into Black Lives Matter movement and the protests over the summer, the relationship of the government to all of our justice movements that we have witnessed, either policing or controlling, and what are the forms of resistance that we see.

A lot of our students, at least at our middle school are doing a lot of work off of Adrian Marie Brown and contemporary activists to vision adjust future and vision a way of seeing themselves thriving and liberated.

Brian: Carson, thank you so much. Sarah and Parsippany, you're on WNYC. Hi Sarah.

Sarah: Hi, Brian. I'm actually a religion teacher in a Catholic school for seventh graders. What I do is spend the next two months actually, I will have them really look at how Martin Luther King was a theologian and a preacher and how everything he did stemmed forth from that, and seeing the injustices, it came from a desire to be Christian.

We really focus in on all different aspects, because it's amazing how they don't know about the poor people's campaign like you mentioned and his stance on Vietnam. We really go into that and then I ask them to pick their own injustice that they see in the world today and how we can apply those same principles that he had.

Brian: As a religion teacher in a Catholic school with your seventh graders, is it too much of a hot potato to talk about how Christianity is sometimes used to support the forces of reaction politically in this country?

Sarah: We're very lucky. We actually do talk about that very much. We look at it from all sides and say that any ideology, any idea can be used for good or for evil. We try to really examine and critically look at all of those aspects. It's wonderful because they're at an age where they really are not afraid to question those things and really look at them critically.

Brian: Sarah. Thank you. Great call. Deborah in Valley stream. You're on WNYC. Hi Deborah.

Deborah: Hi. I teach three-year-olds and four-year-olds about Martin Luther King in very general terms. I talk to them about how people are being unfair and cruel, and he brought them all together and how very special he was, and we're going to remember him.

Brian: Even to three-year-olds and four-year-olds in pre-K.

Deborah: I can do it. Yes.

Brian: Deborah, thank you. Donna in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi Donna.

Donna: Hi, Brian. It's nice to be on. I'm a third-grade teacher. I consider myself an activist and an abolitionist anti-racist teacher. The way that we teach about Dr. King or rather the way I teach about Dr. King to my students is really through contextualizing who Dr. King was during the 1960 civil rights movement.

Contextualizing that Dr. King was not very popular, considered a radical, received a lot of threats for the work that he did. Then really connecting that to what my third graders saw this summer with the Black Lives Matter movement, with the protest happening with seeing the violence that happened at our capital and the insurrection and really just getting kids to be able to understand that Dr. King helped begin this work, but that the work is still very much continuing today and that white supremacy is still something that is a major factor in the United States.

Just getting kids to be able to identify that and really figure out ways that they can also embody the work of Dr. King and continue it themselves.

Brian: How do your white 3rd graders, if you have white 3rd graders, of course I don't know who's in your class but if you do, how do they process that about white supremacy that they may be hearing for the first time?

Donna: Definitely. My class is predominantly students of color, but I do have a handful of white kids in my class. We talk about how racism has been this power structure that really-- I'm very much into this abolitionist teaching where racism is this power structure that was created with people who were enslaved were brought over to the United States to justify slavery but I also talk about white abolitionists.

I talk about how there were white people during Dr. King's time that also marched with Dr. King and stood up against these injustices. What I really would want for those white students is to really see themselves and identify themselves with white abolitionists at the time, rather than the people on the other side of the fence.

Brian: Thank you so much Donna. Really appreciate it. Gabrielle in Queens. You're on WNYC. Hi, Gabrielle.

Gabrielle: Hi, how are you today? Thanks for taking my call. I'm adding on some part of my vernacular, the term hot potato because, even in a public school system, there are certain topics of interests that are a little touchy to talk about. I'm an art teacher.

What I have been doing over the last couple of weeks is really finding out what the feelings are on part of my students, because the students on my roster range across every aspect in learning. The honor section, the [crosstalk] section--

Brian: Let me jump in real quick because-

Gabrielle: Yes, sure.

Brian: -we're going to run out of time, but in 15 seconds, how do you use art to do it?

Gabrielle: We've been entering into a political cartoon series, where there's a use of words and use of imagery and some of the headlines that we see in the newspaper these days that I put up on the screen for the students to see remotely, they grab at certain headlines and then finish the sentence so that they can also broach how they're feeling and get deeper down into what they would want to create visually and do a little more research on.

Brian: Wow. Gabrielle, thank you so much. Well, we are out of time, but that was amazing, right? We had everything from a Pre-K teacher, teaching King to a third grade teacher, a couple of middle schools, high School, a college professor, and even an art teacher. Thank you for those wonderful calls and happy Martin Luther King Day, everybody.

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