Country School Honors Martin Luther King, Jr Memory
On Friday, Jan. 13, 2017, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, New Canaan Country School welcomed to campus guest speaker, Yusef Salaam, who as a young teen was wrongly convicted of heinous crimes against a female jogger in Central Park in 1989, and more recently was featured in the Ken Burns documentary: Central Park Five. Mr. Salaam joined the school’s faculty, staff and parents for their third annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast and delivered powerful thoughts about today’s civil rights realties in America through his unique story.
In speaking of his experiences, he conveyed the importance of continuing one’s education—whether formal or otherwise. He also touched upon the effects of incarceration and the disenfranchisement of economically disadvantaged people.
Later in the day, students in the Middle and Upper School (Grades 5-9) gathered together to hear ninth grade student speakers reflect upon their Dec 8-10, 2016 trip to the National Student Diversity Leadership Conference: “Advancing Human Civil Rights – Fulfilling the Dream Together” held in Atlanta, GA.
“I returned to School armed with a deeper understanding of the world around me and the tools to communicate these experiences to others” said Teddy Schoenholtz of New Canaan.
“Now that my journey to the conference is over, there is one more challenge that must be faced” said Sofie Pasztor of Norwalk. “And that is to bring back all that I’ve learned from my trip and share it with the students and faculty at my school. We need to meet people in the middle and listen to different perspectives.” Other students who attended the conference included James Hudson of New Canaan, Sydney Mouzon of Norwalk, Mimi Ndokwu of Stamford and Eloise Morgan of Darien.
The Lower School (Grades 1-4) also celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with an assembly including a group recitation of Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, as well as student musical performances and reflections.
In addition, seventh graders Tavin Staber of Stamford, Byrne Matthews of Rowayton and Mason Pratt of Trumbull presented their plans to share proceeds from their hot chocolate sale to four local non-profit organizations; Blossom Hill Foundation, Americares, Neighbors Link Stamford and Kids Empowered By Your Support (“Keys”). Classmate Alex Almeida of New Canaan has also been involved in this initiative.
Director of Community Development Lynn Sullivan encouraged students to reflect upon these themes. “I ask that King’s legacy of social justice and service continue to live in your hearts and minds here at Country School and ask that we reflect on his legacy by thinking about what we can do – big or small – to contribute to healing our collective humanity, one person and one place at a time.”
New Canaan Country School
New Canaan Country School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin and are afforded all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, or disability in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid policies or any other school-administered programs.
