Remembering Dr. King

Today is April 4, 2018. 50 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was only 39 years old.

Of course, many of our students have learned about Dr. King in school and have read or heard his famous, "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered at the March on Washington in 1963. The words he spoke that day, the dream that America's black children and white children would live together in harmony, have become the symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. But they aren't the only meaningful words imparted by Dr. King, who thoughtfully discussed many of the most important issues of his day - and of this day, because some things just haven't changed that much.

This quote, "Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically," actually sums up in two sentences much of the theory that lies at the heart of ATYP. 

Our job here is not just to teach you algebra or sentence structure. It is not just to let you go faster through the curriculum because your highly functioning brain makes that possible. We actually want you to think deeper about the material: Is this correct? Is it true? Why does this happen? Does what I'm learning matter? How does what I'm learning relate to the past? To the present? To the world around me? 

These questions assume that you can think critically - but what does that mean? What are critical thinking skills? Have you learned to:

Observe                                         Analyze

Interpret                                         Reflect

Evaluate                                        Infer

Explain                                          Problem solve

Make decisions                             Apply standards

Seek information                           Reason logically

Predict                                           Make connections

If you don't learn these skills, how do you function as an adult? How do you participate in our democracy? As part of an informed electorate? Very little of what anyone can teach you is more important than developing these abilities and putting them to work in the real world.

A good education teaches you facts. A great education teaches you to question. Thinking intensively and critically will make you a better student and a better person, and by being better people we will honor Dr. King and his vision.