I am blessed to teach 4th grade every day. This week, we have been discussing and exploring the life of Martin Luther King Jr. It has been an amazing time of discussion and learning. We even listened to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech today. It was fantastic to witness how captivated the students were by it. I myself never tire of listening to it. I love the passion and conviction in his voice. I love that his dreams are so personal yet so vast. I think many of us stop truly dreaming as adults. We no longer believe that we can affect change in the world. King’s speech reminds me that the seemingly impossible is very possible.
In preparation for this week, I passed out a sheet to my students asking them some questions to pre-assess where they were at in terms of their knowledge and viewpoints on topics such as prejudice, freedom, and heroes. I also had an open ended entry for them to finish that began with “I have a dream that….” I gave no lessons or prompting before passing it out to complete.
After they turned them in, I sat down to read them. I cried. Yes, I am pretty mushy, but I have to say how blessed I was by what they wrote. They have such amazing hearts and beautiful dreams. Here are some of them – pure and unedited.
I have a dream that…
…everyone will get along.
…no one will be pushed around because of their size or capabilities
…everyone will one day love the one and only God
…we would have world peace and all orphans would be helped
…people would not fight
…all people would live equally
…all people in need of food would get it
…everyone could make their dreams come true
…I can go to the Philippines after raising money and give it to all of the poor people
…there can be more schools
…people will be nice to each other
…no one would be without a job or place to live
…there would be no more cruelty to animals
…everyone would have a house and plenty of food to eat
…everyone would believe in Jesus
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