Date: Fri 23-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-Martin-Luther-King

Full Text:

Learning About The Life Of Martin Luther King, Jr

(with cut)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

"Whatever you believe in your mind and feel in your heart, you can make happen

in your life," Akil E. Pinckney declaimed in his inspiring portrayal of the

life and passions of Martin Luther King, Jr. Akil visited St Rose School in

Newtown on Monday, the same day a national holiday honored the late Dr King.

Students at St Rose responded warmly to messages of strength, faith and

standing up for what you believe in, even when it might mean personal

sacrifice.

Akil, who prefers to go by his first name alone, is an actor with Mobile Ed

Productions. He visits schools throughout the country, helping children relate

to and understand the lives of historical figures.

Akil urged the children to believe in themselves, even if others tell them

they cannot succeed.

"Look around," he said. "Everything around you - the room, the fan, the chairs

- was once just an idea in someone's head. People believed that they could

make these things real, and they did."

At the beginning of the assembly, Akil told a story of an eagle egg that was

left in a chicken coop. When the eagle egg hatched, the newborn eagle imitated

the chickens in the coop. The eagle could make great chicken sounds, eat

chicken feed, even flutter its wings.

One day, the young eagle saw an adult eagle soaring in the sky overhead, and

he dreamed of being able to fly like an eagle himself. But the chickens

insisted that flight like that would be impossible, for the baby was, after

all, a chicken just like them.

The eagle accepted what the chickens had told him, and never discovered that

he was himself an eagle. He never even made it off the ground.

The children, spellbound by Akil's tale, listened intently to his message.

"Don't allow anybody to tell you that you cannot be as great as you desire to

be!" he said.

Akil went on to describe how Dr King was not born a great man.

He was once a child, who developed into a great man, the actor said. He told

the children that they too can develop greatness in whatever endeavor is

important to them.

The children then watched as Akil acted out Dr King's childhood, delivered

some of his famous speeches and described his strong moral and religious

values.

Akil soon had the children singing and clapping and feeling the same emotional

convictions that shaped Dr King's life.