PORT TOWNSEND – She was born more than three decades after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., but 6-year-old Darci Davis knows why a special day is set aside to celebrate his life.
“He was the opposite of mean,” Darci said.
Darci is a first-grader at Grant Street Elementary School, where students have been learning about the individual whose vision set the country on a different social course.
While many schools honor King at a special assembly, Grant Street students have been reading and writing about King’s legacy as part of their coursework.
“We incorporate it into the curriculum,” Principal Steve Finch said.
For the younger learners like Darci, the focus is not on King as a historical figure, but the ideals he stood for, Finch said.
In Dorothy Stengel’s second grade, students have been learning about King’s life by making and illustrating two booklets. One describes King as a reader and learner, marcher and leader, while the other has excerpts from his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
