This week, many students will surely have participated in discussions and activities centered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
I wonder if they will be just as excited as I was when I first learned who he was. His accomplishments and the legacy he left behind really made an impression on me, and I was pretty upset to learn he had been killed after spreading messages of hope, love and equal rights.
But I didn't allow my emotions to deter me from following in Dr. King's footsteps. I knew better than to hate someone just because they didn't look like me, and I learned this first-hand at home.
Unfortunately, is seems to me that not many kids have embraced the concept behind Dr. King's famous 'I Have a Dream' speech the way that I did. After we learned about his untimely death, it seemed many of my classmates were uncomfortable around each other. I found that a lot of the black kids were angry at the white kids for his murder, and a lot of the white kids were angry at the black kids for reasons unknown to me.
Certainly, the ensuing separation between the two groups was not my teacher's intentions, but it happened anyway. As a matter of fact, there were some very upset parents saying that the school had no right to teach their children about Dr. King in the first place. Whoever said ignorance is bliss must have been ignorant himself.
It was a huge mess but, at the same time, eye-opening to me. I just couldn't fathom why it was a problem to learn about Dr. King as we also studied the lives of such heroines as Anne Frank and monsters like Adolph Hitler. After all, isn't that what history class entails, learning about past events that helped to shape our present?
There's no reason for your child to hate his or her classmate because of the color of that child's skin, ethnic background or religious practices. That will only cause tension that could create violence the world can definitely do without.
Before you object to the teachings of equal rights, think about the other countries that are not fortunate enough to have the same opportunities we do.
students suffer in cold Classrooms
Hundreds of thousands Broward County students will head back to school this morning, Monday, Jan. 11, to schools and classrooms that feel more like deep freezers. Union leaders encourage parents to dress students appropriately for unusually cold temperatures during the ride to school this morning, but they also suggest throwing an extra sweater in their backpacks to ward off the chill in many of the county's classrooms.
BTU President Pat Santeramo reports receiving complaints from teachers located throughout the county that many schools either do not have workable heaters or appear to have no heaters at all. To make matters worse, many teachers indicate that their schools' air conditioning units are continuing to run causing temperatures in some classrooms to dip below 60 degrees.
Other teachers report that blowers are circulating the frigid outside air in their classrooms making learning conditions challenging at best.The National Weather Service issued a Wind Chill Warning until 10 a.m. Monday morning. Consequently, most employees and students arriveD at school with temperatures in the low 40 degrees.
The BTU began investigating problems with the district's air conditioning system as part of its efforts to eliminate millions of tax dollar waste in the school system. Many teachers have repeatedly reported that their classrooms air conditioners cannot be adjusted or shut off despite the rooms being so cold employees and students must wear winter coats, hats and gloves even in normal regional temperatures. Union leaders alerted district officials to the problem in an official report last spring, again this summer and once again before the winter holiday break.
The union conducted an online survey asking employees to report conditions at their schools after receiving telephone calls from employees and received the reports below via e-mail last week.
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