I don’t always remember to tell my children about the origins of each holiday. Since we homeschool, it is up to me, the teacher to explain the significance and history of each holiday. The worldviews held by my children were developed and influenced through exposure to our family, our church, our sports teams, and various foster children. Public schools usually have themes for holidays including stories, projects, and assignments. I guess I need to put a little more effort into that area of homeschooling. Perhaps I could do a monthly bulletin board or something. I realized this as I explained the significance of Martin Luther King Day to my eight-year-old son, Ty. Of course, he was pretty excited about the holiday because I scheduled the day off from school. When you are eight years old a day off from school is what you live for.

I asked him if he knew why he had a day off from school. He knew it was a holiday, but he didn’t know what it was. I explained to him that Martin Luther King was a black man who tried to get equal rights for black people and the holiday was to celebrate his birthday. Ty didn’t have a clue what I meant by equal rights.

I told him some of the stories that my mother had shared with me about growing up in the 1940s and 50s. As I told him about how black people, had to use separate bathroom and separate drinking fountains, his lower jaw fell open. When I told him how they had to sit in the back of the bus, his eyes grew larger. When I told him that a black person could not buy a home in a white neighborhood or go to a white school he yelled, “WHY?” He didn’t want to believe it, but since his mom was telling him, he had to.

I answered his question. I told him honestly, how some white people used to think they were somehow better than black people. Of course, he gave me a stunned, “Are you kidding me, why?”

I was thrilled that he saw no reason for segregation and that he was appalled by it. That he has not seen it or experienced it shows how much progress we as a society have made. On one hand, it would be great to have a generation, who knew nothing of prejudice, and all just treated each other as equals. Unfortunately, prejudice does still exist, so my son needs to know about it. Realistically, our family may someday experience this prejudice because of our youngest daughter. However, we can hope and pray for the eradication of prejudice before she is old enough to experience it.

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Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2006