Fatherhood Friday
I had a conversation with a friend the other day who mentioned that their kids went to school this past Monday, on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. I had known for years, and been bothered by the fact, that many offices and other places of employment remain open on this holiday. But I had assumed that schools everywhere were closed to honor Dr. King's legacy.
My initial feelings veered somewhere in the vicinity of anger and disgust. If this is a Federal holiday why is there any option? Are there public schools somewhere that remain open on Memorial Day or Labor Day? What kind of message is this sending to schoolchildren that Dr. King's birthday isn't a "real" holiday because we don't treat it the same way as Thanksgiving or New Year's day?
But the more I thought about it, keeping schools open makes a lot of sense, with one (big) potential exception. I don't know what you did last Monday (assuming you were off of work while the kids were home from school) but I admit we participated in no community event to honor Dr. King.
While I could have chosen to do something (though many of the organized activities in our community actually took place on Sunday), to my wife and I it was a much-appreciated three day weekend and an opportunity to spend time with the kids.
In that way I guess Dr. King's birthday is a lot like Memorial Day or Labor Day, when I suspect most families are not spending much time discussing our fallen soldiers or the history of labor in this country. That is not to look past the significant portion of the population whose holidays are spent in the spirit of their meaning. Having lived in Washington DC during Veterans and Memorial Day, and in the midwest during Labor Day I've seen it firsthand.
I'll bet (at least I'd like to think) those kids that went to school on the holiday spent a meaningful portion of their day in studies or activities that actually honored the man. Sure, many other students discussed his legacy before or after his birthday, but we have a holiday for a reason, and its not to simply buttress the local curriculum.
I asked my first grader what his class learned about Dr. King and while it was clear they discussed his life and legacy a little bit, I don't think they went as deep as the man or the holiday warrants. And I'm of the camp that even first graders can go pretty deep on topics like this (even if some of their Gen X parents would prefer we live in a color-blind world, much to the detriment of their kids).
(The one big exception to keeping schools open on the holiday as a sensible policy is that, sadly, there may very well be places left in the United States where the preference would be to let the day pass without acknowledging the man's legacy. Keeping the schools open and treating the day just as any other would be an awful byproduct of honoring Dr. King.)
If Dr. King's birthday came and went without my son having grown and gained, it certainly wasn't simply because of a lack of school that day. As parents we dropped the ball. A little bit of conversation at breakfast with him and then off to our fun day off from school and work.
Next year, next holiday, we need to do better. What did you and your family do on Dr. King's birthday? What about other holidays, like Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Labor Day?
(photo credit: picasa.com)
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