My Kids Should Be In School Today

Today is a day set aside for honoring the legacy and the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a day that the government and civil rights leaders have carved out as a day of remembrance, but I believe that it is falling short.

My kids are off today in what I will loosely refer today, as a way of honoring that legacy. I find it antithetical to the purpose, and I argue that my children should be at school. They are not in school, yet they are at home watching Nick, and Disney all day.

I will argue that they should be in school and the day or part of the day should be dedicated to the message and the legacy of the civil rights movement, or in some way include a teaching moment. Yet, they are at home. I venture to say that they don't even know why.

Ok, you might argue that it is up to me to talk about it with my children, but I believe that there is some part of that responsibility that lies with the very institution that is to be educating my children in the most well-rounded education possible.

The second reason I believe that children should be in school is more of a justice issue than anything else. Today, many people who have to work in jobs that are not in the banking and government sectors must now find childcare. I imagine that the great majority of those who will have to do this are from the segments of our communities who should be benefiting from MLK's message the most. There are people who now have to pay for childcare today, because their kids are not in the public schools learning while they are out trying to make ends meet.

So I'm sticking to my theory. My kids should be in school. But because they are not, I am going to go home and see to it that they know why they are not.