The man behind the dream

Suzie Harrison

Written on the whiteboard in front of Leslie Maus’ fifth-grade

class at El Morro were the words “I Have a Dream.” Words that no one

will ever forget -- and words of which her students were learning the

true meaning.

With Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday less than a week away, the

students studied his incomparable significance in history.

“His mother told him, ‘You are as good as anyone,’ and that

everyone can be great,” Maus said.

Maus said as she read from the book with the same title that King

believed everyone can be great and that hate can’t drive out hate,

only love can. The students learned about segregation, Rosa Parks and

the 381-day bus boycott that she provoked.

One of the students said he’d be outraged if he wasn’t allowed to

sit where he wanted to. He said that people can’t tell him where he

can or can’t be -- that he isn’t as good as anyone else.

“Everyone remembers him,” Brett Petersen, 10, said. “You shouldn’t

judge people by the color of their skin.”

They learned that he never tired of his cause to end segregation

and what it must have felt like to be black and see signs that read

“White Only.”

“You would feel left out because when you go to a restaurant you

can’t go in because of a different color of skin,” 10-year-old Sadie

Drucker said. “It really makes you feel sad because the people with

another color of skin aren’t letting you do things they do.”

Maus taught her students that “I Have a Dream” is the famous

speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Aug.

28, 1963, during the march on Washington. They also learned about his

Nobel Peace Prize 1964.

The class talked about the meaning of prejudice, discrimination

and how to approach problems without violence, to use words and

perseverance to make things happen.

Maus asked the class if any of them had dreams. Everyone raised

their hand.

“Do you have dreams for what you want this world to be like?” Maus

said. “You all have the opportunity to be as powerful a person and

thinker as Martin Luther King Jr.”

The students were asked to state what their dream was and what

steps would they take to accomplish their dream.

“Anyone can do something if you set your mind for your dreams,”

Brett said. “It’s called endurance. Martin Luther King Jr. was a

great man. He said, ‘Come on, people can’t do this in this world.’”

* SUZIE HARRISON is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321 or suzie.harrison@latimes.com.