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Why Dr. King's Mountain Top Speech Should be Taught in Schools
His last speech laid out the next steps for equality
Most schools don't do a great job teaching the history of other cultures, such as African Americans, but "I Have a Dream" is taught in most high schools and middle schools. It's canon in the school curriculum, and we teachers don't deviate from the script. It's taught primarily in January or February to our classes.
Rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques are pointed out, and how King used them to make his points about the need for America to act on civil rights. It's a speech given at a moment in time that pushed the quest for civil rights forward. However, almost five years later, he gave the last speech of his life, which few school-age children know anything about.
He delivered the Mountain Top speech on April 3rd, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. In it, he laid out the next steps for human rights and the development of economic power in the country.
When I went to Juvenile Detention as a teacher, I didn't know what I would teach in my English curriculum. All I knew was that I needed a change from what I was doing in my old position.
When MLK day arrived my first year there, I did like most other English or Social Studies teachers and taught "I…
