Looking to Dr King: Is the path to equity and empathy through education?

Last month, as we remembered the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we reflected on his advocacy for civil rights, social justice and peace. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “I Have a Dream” is often quoted. The message was not only intended to be a reflection of yesterday’s broken society, but also as a hope for the future. While “I Have a Dream” continues to be referenced, have we allowed its impact to change the world?

With all that is going on in the world, students are looking for ways to express themselves. Preparing students to be agents of change for a sustainable future includes: providing them with more than exposure but access to multiple opportunities for mutual respect, and acceptance of each-others’ differences, without judgement or prejudice. This can be accomplished through fostering a culture of equity, diversity and inclusivity.

Teachers want to promote meaningful dialogue in the classroom, but are unsure of just how to begin. The only way to inform our youth to be open and accepting to diversity and humanity — “human unity" — is through being properly educated ourselves. And then there is the community, is the community looking to education for answers? Not only does more have to be done, but it has to be done better.

Reflection: On Sept. 15, 1963, four young black girls were killed by a dynamite blast. They were in Sunday school at Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. On Sept. 22, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the four girls’ eulogy saying, “These children, who were unoffending, innocent and beautiful, were the victims of one of the most vicious, heinous crimes ever perpetrated against humanity … yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. So, they have something to say to us in their death. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, and the philosophy which produced the murderer.”

On the evening of April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

That was 1963 and 1968 … and today, we face the same issues. How does that happen in our sophisticated and progressive society of 2024? Is this quote from King, the same cry, and ignored yet again? Are the systems and the philosophies that produced the way of life— which took away his life, ever present in 2024?

Measures, which are long overdue, need to be radical but peaceful, educational and empathetic. More importantly, the measures to heal our land, need to approach the issues and the people, with a listening ear to understand the stories that need to be told — and not always requiring a response. When we are open to learn, to understand, and to communicate, a path to a unified purpose and vision, will begin to emerge.

We have not dwelt in such a culture for centuries. "The way things have always been done" has not resulted in harmony. Perhaps, hopefully, this generation will provide solutions to the access, opportunities and outcomes, which have been marginalized through severe disconnection. And it is then that we might journey together.

Dr. Maria Paradiso-Testa is Doctor of Educational Leadership from Monmouth University.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Martin Luther King Jr. can inspire national healing through education