MLK

Most weeks at preschool Fiona's class focuses on a specific letter. They're up to "M" now, and with the school year probably running about 35 weeks or so (I haven't actually calculated it), you can do the math and figure that most weeks will be given over to the alphabet with a few breaks for seasonal lessons (the week on fall seemed to mainly be about convincing the kids to let their parents put them in sweaters and gloves as the weather gets colder).

Anyway, while we're always happy to devote our dinnertime conversation to figuring out which words start with the letter M (and lord knows we do), we're even more intrigued by the days or weeks where the lesson is a little more unusual. Today, Fiona learned about... "who was the person we learned about?"

Remembering the picture I'd seen up on the wall when I dropped her off that morning (not to mention having at least a rudimentary awareness of the calendar), I asked if they'd learned about Martin Luther King. Fiona nodded.

"He had the dream come true," she said.

Here are the major salient facts that Fiona took home from her lesson on Martin Luther King:

• Everybody should be friends
• You shouldn't hate (this might have been "hit", but hate works better)
• You shouldn't fight
• Don't be mean
• Don't throw things on the floor

That last one really gets me; who among us can ever forget Dr. King's great oratory on the subject of litter?

In all seriousness, when I hear about lessons like this from Fiona I always get a little emotional. She's in preschool, and she's learning about all these wonderful, hopeful ideas and she and her friends are fortunate enough not to have any notion of just how hateful the ideas were that King fought. And I know sooner or later she's going to learn about all the awful things that have happened in the world, and it's both touching and heartbreaking to realize that she doesn't know about any of that yet. For a four-year old, the lesson can be as basic as "don't be mean" and part of me wishes that was all she'd ever need on the topic.