Collaborative Portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By Ms. Lee’s First Grade Class

As a way to Celebrate the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 6PC lead a prayer service focused on 2 of the ideas that permeate Dr.King’s work. 1-The Golden Rule- Treat others the way that you would want to be treated (received from his own Christian tradition), and 2- Be an upstander rather than a bystander.  After an opening prayer, which was written by Dr. King, students in 6PC read versions of the golden rule from a variety of different cultural and religious traditions such as Unitarianism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Judaism. Next, we transitioned to some reading about some famous upstanders who we feel continued or inspired the work of Dr. King. This included people like Gandhi, Elie Wiesel, and Ruby Bridges. Though this portion of the prayer service was video recorded, each class was shared a slideshow with a speech by Dr. King, and several songs as well as more information about the upstanders mentioned in the prayer service. We hope that reflecting on the ideas, words, and works of Dr. King and others can inspire us to answer the question posed by Dr. King in this quote: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Mark Pendergrass

Middle School Science Teacher