Martin Luther King Day

I don't know what everyone else's experiences with Martin Luther King Day is, as I'm sure it varies hugely in how it's celebrated and acknowledged from neighborhood to neighborhood, much less city to city. I'm not even sure if anything like this is celebrated in other countries (I'm going to guess it's not). But I'm going to talk about my experiences, because, well, this is my blog, and I think that my experiences were actually pretty unique.
From Kindergarten to 4th grade, I went to a school named after Martin Luther King Jr., which prompted the emphasis that you would think it would. By the time I was in 4th grade, I knew all about the Civil Rights Movement; Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and Martin Luther King. We'd watched nearly every movie about that time period as well: Selma Lord Selma, Ruby Bridges, The Ernest Green Story, Our Friend Martin (When I reflect back on it, Selma Lord Selma was probably watched in a later grade, because it was a little more violent). Every year we had a Martin Luther King Assembly, where every grade presented something, be it singing or reciting parts of his I Have A Dream Speech. I can still distinctly remember memorizing parts of his speech so that I could get a "solo". We sang songs like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and other spirituals (just found out Swing Low, Sweet Chariot has become the unofficial song of the English rugby team - ??). By the time we had hit 4th grade we were writing essays on various topics related to Martin Luther King Jr., something all the older grades did as well. The winning essays were presented at this same assembly.



Our assembly from 2nd grade

 Even after I left King Lab, there was still focus on the Civil Rights Movement - we spent quite a lot of 5th grade learning about it (I think this was when we watched Selma Lord Selma).
What did everyone else do? Was it just a day off from school, or were there assemblies and speeches? I know my sister says they never did anything like this at any of the three schools she's gone to.
I'm inclined to think that we were fairly unique, but maybe that's just because I want to believe that.
In any case, I think it was a great experience to have, especially growing up.
(As a random aside, I just found out John Cusack went to my elementary school!)
(Also, from what I can tell from the school site, the assembly is a three performance event, which sounds pretty much right - I think I can remember having multiple performances)