"Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
I don't believe those words. As any middle school student will tell you, words do hurt. Words are powerful. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. School will be in session, but we will spend the day learning about the positively powerful words of Rev. Martin Luther King jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, participating in a silent march downtown and creating a school-wide monument. Each member of our school will receive a stone.
They will write or paint the word "HOPE" on one side and a short message with their hope on the other: "To be Understood" "To Fit In" "No Bullying" "End US Debt" "Acceptance" "To Get Along" "World Peace" "Love" These are the messages my art club students used when they made their "Stones of Hope" last week. I was so proud of them!
The recently unveiled MLK Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC bears the inscription, "From a Mountain of Despair, hew a Stone of Hope." These powerful words come from his famous "I Have A Dream" speech following the 1963 march on Washington. I hope this activity will be meaningful for students and staff as we consider the changes in our lives, the opportunities and possibilities in the years since the Civil Rights Movement.
Certainly at my middle school I look around and see a positive legacy of Dr. King's work and words. Students of all backgrounds work and play together. But they also behave like middle schoolers together. Which is to say, they sometimes exclude others as they themselves try to fit in. Name calling is one form this takes. Middle school students are adept at identifying differences and vulnerabilities.
So, the work of following through with Dr. King's hopes isn't finished and perhaps never will be, as long as kids are kids. They do throw sticks and stones. Our job is to move them to an adulthood where they do not feel it necessary. And that's all about creating inclusiveness and collaboration.
Many students leave elementary school hoping never to take another art class. After 5 or 6 years comparing themselves to the one or two 'gifted' artists in the class, they decide art isn't for them.
When I do partner or small group projects such as the Stick Sculptures pictured here, I get 100% enthusiastic engagement. A formal drawing lesson, each kid with their own blank white paper? Not so much. I hope when these middle school students grow up and grow out of their intense need to fit in, that building a stick animal with a classmate will have helped them work and play well with everyone. And that in some small way this art practice of collaboration and inclusiveness contributes to King's legacy.
