Martin Luther King Junior Day

As a rights respecting school, at South Normanton Nursery, we recognise the importance of understanding and standing up for our rights and so Martin Luther King Jnr Day on 21^st January was the ideal time to contextualise some of this learning. Many of our children at nursery watched Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech and had a really interesting discussion about who he was and what he stood for. We talked about how the powerful speech made us feel as we watched in and how we thought he felt as he gave the speech to so many thousands of people.

We used some famous pictures of Martin Luther King Jnr in nursery and learnt about this very famous African American man who is remembered even today, nearly 70 years on, for standing up for the civil rights of black people in the 1950s and 60s. We also talked about how our International Schools friends in America had a special holiday for Martin Luther King Day. As a grown up Martin Luther King Jnr was supporting other adults and children too, to stand up for their rights. AT nursery we know that children and groown ups have rights and that it is the grown ups duty or ‘job’ as duty bearers to help children to exercise their rights.

The children were interested by the very old black and white video of his speech and the staff were moved as well. How wonderful that such important historical events and the people who made such significant changes in the past, continue to be an inspiration to the adults of the future.