Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. If You’re Going to Teach About His Life, You Must Also Teach About His Death.

In a qualitative study that explored teacher candidate’s emotional reactions and resistance to children’s books about issues such as race, gender identity, and sexuality, researcher Dr. Aimee Papola-Ellis discovered that educators’ own emotional responses to literature guided their text selection in the classroom. When presented with the Caldecott award winning text, Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King by Doreen Rappaport, the discussion points of the teaching candidates in the study illuminated how an educator’s well-meaning desire to protect their students can actually get in the way of fostering the very skills that studying literature promotes; meaning-making, understanding identities, and even building empathy.

Although the book is written for primary students, a majority of the educators felt that to use the book in a classroom prior to fourth grade was inappropriate. Then, several teachers felt they would make a concession and use the book with early learners only if they could omit the page where he was shot. The controversial line in the text was as follows, “On his second day there, he was shot. He died.” (Rappaport, 2001) “They wanted their students to know about King, but not to know that he was shot.” The educators expressed “fear of their students’ emotions, with a longing to ‘protect’ their students.” In her findings, Dr. Papola-Ellis noted the following, “At times, the resistance to the texts I shared in class stemmed from the emotion of fear, fear of how to handle what the candidates deemed as controversial topics in the classroom, or fear of pushback from students’ parents… this fear has the potential to result in narrowing the curriculum and censoring content.” (Papola-Ellis, 2016)

They’re too young. Death is scary. I’m scared. 

No matter the age of your students, if you are going to teach about how Dr. King lived, you must teach how he died. Children are prepared for real truths. Although they need guidance from the adults in their lives in naming race, power, and privilege, they are certainly already familiar with the dynamics of white supremacy. Classrooms can be spaces for processing emotion, analysis of information, and building agency. Certainly, care must be taken to reduce harm. There are age appropriate ways to discuss both racism and death. However, omitting that Dr. King was killed for his work is leaving out an integral part of our national tragedy. Just for a moment, think about what is lost if we fail to collectively acknowledge how and why Dr. King died? How does the story shift, and to whose benefit? 

For white children, losing the information that Dr. King was assassinated can reinforce the idea that the experience of Black people in the United States is not that bad. Stories about racial discrimination can measurably decrease white bias (Harvey, 2017) Conversely, when white children are not exposed to stories of racism with authenticity; when they are given watered down versions of history, they have fewer tools to combat an internalization of white superiority.The purposeful avoidance of complexity for the sake of protecting children actually serves as a hindrance to healthy racial identity development. 

For Black children, the message of Dr. King’s legacy in death is powerful. Here is a story that doesn’t end. As Dr. Ibram X. Kendi writes, “King’s love, insight, and courage is still with us--and will never pass away.” Here is a leader whose resilience and power surpassed death. Here is hope. 

The research in this study brings attention to how teacher’s emotions play a role in the classroom. It illustrates how an idea can be so discomfiting, or something that we’re so unused to exploring as educators, that we can disguise our fear as love. When teachers say that they love their students too much to tell them the truth, though, what kind of love is that? Are attempts to protect our students actually attempts to protect ourselves? In a 1957 sermon entitled The Mastery of Fear, Dr. King said the following, “Of primary importance in dealing with fear is making a practice of looking fairly and squarely at the object of our dread.” 

Next Steps

The research suggests that an examination of our emotional responses to texts can explain the choices we make in the classroom. Try these next steps to get an understanding of yourself, the systems you operate within, and the implications for your students.  

LEARN:  Create an identity chart. While this is an exercise that is often recommended (and is very useful!) for students, creating an identity chart for ourselves as educators can help us illuminate where our identities influence the experience of students in the classroom. An identity chart is simple. Write your name or a symbol to represent yourself in the middle of a piece of paper, and draw lines from that center with words or phrases that you use to describe yourself or include labels ascribed to you by others.

Consider things like race, gender, education, language, family, etc.

PRACTICE: Take a look at your identity chart with a peer that you trust. Together, ask the following questions, and others that arise. 

What consequences does this chart have for my teaching?

What might I prioritize, and what might I be tempted to skip in my curriculum?

How do the choices I make based on my identity affect the children in my care?

Have I ever allowed fear or discomfort to shape dialogue in my class?

How are my identities similar or different from those of my students? What power dynamics does that present? 

REFLECT: Take a couple of weeks to explore your identity chart more. Tuck it into your agenda, post it on your bulletin board, or create a digital version.  When more social identities arise, add them. Consider expanding on the chart by asking your students or colleagues how they experience you. Or, delve more deeply by thinking about how your identities have shifted over the years. As patterns become clear, make a commitment to address them. Remember that you’re not alone as you make these changes. Reach out for support at any time. 

References

Kendi, I. (2021, January 16) Yesterday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Boston University alum, would have been 92 years old. He's not with us because of White domestic terror, because what happened at the U.S. Capitol is older than the oldest Americans. But then again, King's love and insight and courage is still with us, will never pass away. [Facebook update] retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/ibramxkendi

Harvey, J. (2017). Raising white kids. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 

Papola-Ellis, A. (2016). It’s just too sad: teacher candidate’s emotional resistance to picture books. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 55(2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol55/iss2/2

Rappaport, D. (2001). Martin’s big words: The life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. New York, NY: Hyperion Books.