This is a simple activity you can do with your family, students or youth group. Most people have seen clips from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” but most haven’t actually seen/heard/read the full 17-minute speech.
Activity
- Inform participants that we will be watching the full “I Have a Dream” speech and that each person is to follow along with their handout of the speech and simply circle/underline any thoughts, concepts, ideas, principles or concepts that resonate with them that they find meaningful/interesting.
- Watch the speech.
- Process:
- Go around and have each person share 1-3 quotes/thoughts that were most meaningful to them.
- Encourage other members to share their thoughts on what others shared and add in your own ideas, too, but don’t take over the discussion or turn it into a lecture. Let the group carry the discussion.
Materials
- Copies of PDF Download of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” for each participant.
- The full 17 minute “I Have a Dream” speech cued up and ready to watch (you can use the one embedded below and expand it to full screen.
- Pens/pencils for each participant.
MLK Related Items on MarriageEnvy.com
- PDF Download of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” which I use as a handout for people to circle the ideas, thoughts, concepts and principles that relate to them the most, and then discuss and share after they watch:
- The above video.
- Blog Posts on Nonviolence and Peace referencing MLK
- “Be the Answer: Solutions to Bullying” school assembly and intervention program which incorporates MLK’s teachings.
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A friend on FB asked, “Just how young are your kids that this is appealing for FHE. haha When I suggested this to my 4 boys and one daughter under twelve and my teenagers It didn’t evoke strong positive reaction.”
My reply: “Ha! Well, as you can imagine I got the exact same response. :-) The only difference was I didn’t “suggest” it, but just told them that was what we were doing for FHE. Their feedback afterwards as we processed it wasn’t overly enthusiastic, but they each circled things and each shared one or two quotes that they thought were interesting. Kara and I expounded a bit further and shared some examples and experiences. I mostly felt it was just important that they were exposed to the full thing and that they knew it was important and that such things mattered to their father. That part they’ll at least remember.
Oh, and my kids ages are 10, 12, 15, 17. Boy, girl, girl, boy.
He replied further: “I think my spouse will be happy we are just trying something….I like the part about letting them know such things matter to their father.”
My reply: “Cool. Glad you like that part. You know, I remember sitting through some really lame and boring filmstrip presentations (beep!) my step-dad showed us for FHE as a kid. I remember that even though we grumbled, rolled our eyes, complained and sighed that it mattered to him. I also knew we mattered to him. Those things as we get older seem to meld together in a way that I know for me at least helped shape my identity and the things I now care about that I didn’t then.
“Also, just recently my 15 yo daughty shared something with me she had learned at school “because I know you care about things like this.” Well, I didn’t know she knew I cared about those things. I thought she wasn’t listening. Lesson learned. Kids pay closer attention than we give them credit for.”
Well we did the activity sans PDF. The link didn’t work for me. Kids all survived and some even learned a bit. Here our community is 80% black so their frame of reference is from the perspective of the minority. Thanks for a great activity!
Glad to hear you did it. Sorry about the link. I’ll get that fixed. Glad the kids made it! :-) Thanks for letting me know how it went!
Link fixed. Thanks.
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