Well it’s fixed. We have cured racial prejudice. Everyone loves everybody.

Right?

Or was the school improvement video featured on Martin Luther King Jr. day just another band-aid; a beautiful way to showcase Grand Haven’s talent while making it look more accepting.

Perhaps this argument doesn’t hold the same power coming from the middle class suburban white kid (me), but hey, if he’s interested then maybe this day of remembrance does make a difference. However it seems that most people have lost a sense of what the day really means.

This past Monday it seemed I couldn’t make it through a single class without a student ranting about how we should get Martin Luther King Jr. day off simply because their distant removed cousin’s friend did. To all of which I simply rolled my eyes, imagining the ways this student believed they could have “better” spent their day.

Is a day of sleeping in and being lazy really the best way to celebrate the achievements of one man and the progress of a nation? Most likely, no. However,a short clip of students performing songs of non-violence, and elementary kids talking on behalf of issues they only recall from lessons in class probably isn’t much more impactful or enlightening.

Yet this somewhat cynical summary shouldn’t be confused with my disapproval of the schools efforts. I believe this was a great opportunity to further engage students. However like the famed “Whale Talk”, it seems administration continues to confuse optimism with realism.

High schoolers don’t listen to a choir song and suddenly conceptualize all the ways they can make our school and community more accepting. The fact is that people our age rarely seek to address an issue unless they’re facing it directly, or have seen it. These real world experiences are some of which that students (including myself) seem to lack in our close-knit vacation town bubble.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our entire district should join others across the nation by engaging in community service and improvement projects. Martin Luther King’s teachings went far beyond simply promoting racial acceptance. They also include the need to serve others. Doesn’t putting King’s lessons into to action serve as a more powerful remembrance than simply repeating his words year after year?

By doing this we could not only honor the holiday, but also improve our very own community while getting kids active and motivated.

The options are endless. From serving at food pantries to cleaning up the downtown area, we could all see first hand what Martin Luther King Jr. day is really about.

After all, actions speak louder than words; and in the words of Martin Luther King, “To serve you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love”. A lesson which no student can be taught from a textbook.”