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Some Detroit Area Schools Hold Classes on Martin Luther King Day

by Donna Gundle-Krieg January 20, 3009

Note: to comment on this and other stories about education, please go to Examiner.com.

Some Michigan school districts have decided to hold classes this year on Martin Luther King Day, which is a federal holiday.

Many residents in these districts feel that having school on this day presents a terrible image to the rest of the country.

Thomas Lynch, a well known author and funeral director in Milford, wrote a letter to the editor of the Milford Times addressing this issue.

“The decision by Huron Valley Schools to keep school in session for MLK Day 2009 is, I believe, an embarrassing miscalculation,” he said. “It puts us at odds with 26 of 28 Oakland County school districts, all of the Livingston and Washtenaw schools, not to mention school districts, banks, post-offices, county, state and federal offices throughout the nation.”

Lynch continued. “At the very best it makes us look a little backward. At the very worst it makes us look more than a little bigoted.” He noted that the Huron Valley district is predominately white and mostly Republican.

“The failure of the school board or the superintendent to see this coming and correct this course while there was time to do so suggests a troubling lapse of leadership,” he boldly stated.

Each year, residents can march on Main Street in Milford and then join their community for luncheons and workshops honoring King, explained another local resident, Donna Pesci, in her letter to the editor.

“I was very encouraged that our community was making progress by school not being in session on this important federal holiday,” said Pesci. “Now that school is suddenly in session again on this holiday, I feel this is a step backward and reflects poorly on our community and its ideals.”

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Editorials from the Milford Times regarding Martin Luther King Day

Close school for MLK

Dear Editor,

In the past three months I've attended meetings between school administrators, the Huron Valley Education Association and the Huron Valley Martin Luther King Day Committee. While I'm not a member of any of these groups, I have more than a passing interest in this community and the image it projects to the world beyond Milford and Highland and White Lake. And I'm concerned that our image is about to sustain avoidable damage.

The decision by Huron Valley Schools to keep school in session for MLK Day 2009 is, I believe, an embarrassing miscalculation. It puts us at odds with 26 of 28 Oakland County school districts, all of the Livingston and Washtenaw schools, not to mention school districts, banks, post-offices, county, state and federal offices throughout the nation that observe this federal holiday by closing on the third Monday in January, as a sign of the day's importance to our national story.

Remarkably, our school district has managed to turn the motto of the MLK National Day of Service Š "Make It A Day On, Not A Day Off" - against observing the very holiday itself. They use it as a rationale for keeping school in session and going about business as usual. This is an affront to the meaning and purpose of this national day of service. The "day off" only truly becomes a "day on" when people vacate their gainful employment, their required attendance, their usual duties and routines, in order to turn their energies to community service of the kind that has shaped our community for years: voluntary, not mandatory; optional, not obligatory; by choice, not by contractual agreement. To require staff and students to come to school, albeit to be educated on these themes, is an unfortunate misreading of the organizing principles behind this federal holiday. It is the equivalent of requiring field trips to graveyards to instruct on Memorial Day or requiring students to attend classes on Thanksgiving instead of staying home to mark the day among the people they are most thankful for.

After meetings and conversations with school officials, I've no doubt that the decision was arrived at by honest brokers with good intentions. I believe both the HVEA and the administration found themselves in the position of having to make difficult choices about the schedule. The narrative of keeping "10,000 students in classes to discuss MLK and the history of civil rights" was not, in my opinion, what drove the decision. Rather it was fashioned, after the fact, to fit the decision. It sounds nobler than bartering between a three-day weekend in January and a four-day break in February, or any of the other possible trade-offs.

However high-minded or mundane the intentions or narratives, the embarrassment to our community is the same. At the very best it makes us look a little backward. At the very worst it makes us look more than a little bigoted. This community is neither backward nor bigoted; nor are our schools. The people who fill our restaurants and stores, festivals and parks, neighborhoods and schools are drawn to an area that projects middle-American, middle-class values of decency, tolerance, respect and neighborly goodwill. But when, on the eve of the inauguration of the nation's first African American president, a school district in mostly white, mostly Republican, mostly well-to-do Oakland County decides to remain in session on the only national holiday that honors a non-white man, that district and its leaders will have a hard time making their case, however well-intentioned, however well framed in alternative narrative. And our community will not be well served by the range of probable misperceptions.

Apparently both the school administration and the MLK Day Committee are resigned to the damage that will be done Jan. 19 to our community's image in the wider world. The failure of the school board or the superintendent to see this coming and correct this course while there was time to do so suggests a troubling lapse of leadership.

What is still more disturbing is that no one in that leadership with whom I've spoken seems committed to correcting the course for 2010, nor eager to make such a correction known in a public forum. On the contrary, not only are they unwilling to stand up and say such adjustments will be made to the schedule for 2010 and thereafter, but they insist it is "impossible," and probably "illegal" to do so - to commit to observing this federal holiday in concert with the vast majority of public institutions in our county, state and nation. This is preposterous. Further to the contrary, what I see taking shape is the determination to take whatever happens Jan. 19 to shape a rationale around a decision I sense has already been made or at least advanced as the preferred contingency: to keep the schools in session on MLK Day this coming year and in the years that follow, to ease the pressures of scheduling by one more day.

Here is where I'm hoping I am wrong, that my sense of such things is in error, because it does not reflect favorably on our school district or its leadership. Maybe they intend to do the "due diligence" they have spoken about and to get this right. My hope is they'll do it before it is too late.

This is not about how many show up for the MLK Day parade, or how many don't. This is not about student or teacher participation or lack of same. This is about the power of metaphor to inspire and instruct beyond the classroom and the proper institutional observance of a federal holiday that honors the legacy of a national hero. He was killed 40 years ago. It took 15 years to agree on the holiday and 22 more before we observed it here in Huron Valley. With the world torn in so many ways, this is no time to be taking backward steps.

Best regards,

Thomas Lynch, Milford

Join MLK march

Dear Editor,

On Jan, 19, we in Huron Valley who share Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreams are given an opportunity to march on Main St. in celebration of his important messages to all of us: principles of peace, equality and humanity, respect and appreciation for difference and "the interrelatedness of all communities." Since its beginning in Huron Valley four years ago, the March on Main Street has been followed by a complimentary Main Event of speakers and performers, a Multi-Cultural Luncheon, Community Workshops, and a Fair to show people how they can "Make it a Day On" by volunteering in the community.

This year that will not be possible. In negotiating the school calendar, the Huron Valley School District has decided to hold school in session, thus segregating the students from their families and the community.

Most importantly, this year MLK Day is not given the importance it deserves as a day off for families and community members to decide how to best observe it. As a Milford resident for more than 25 years, I was very encouraged that our community was making progress by school not being in session on this important federal holiday. Now that school is suddenly in session again on this holiday, I feel this is a step backward and reflects poorly on our community and its ideals. Dr. King is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. His lessons should be taught in schools throughout the year, and students and teachers should be given the day off to honor MLK Day with their families, the community or however they choose.

Adjustments have been made for this year's community events, and the March on Main Street will still take place on MLK Day to honor this history-changing leader. I hope we can truly be 'One World, One Family, One Community Stepping Forward' and reinstate the holiday to be observed as a day where the entire community can come together as One.

Stepping Forward.

Donna Pesci, Milford

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