This activity was used with children in key stage 2, year 6.

Context

The locally agreed syllabus for RE includes:

• respecting different religions and ways of life and being aware of the distress caused by lack of such respect;
• understanding how religious faith helps many people to deal with negative feelings and experiences.

Children are introduced to the lives and experiences of Anne Frank and Martin Luther King to meet aims in the syllabus.

Aims

• To understand something of what it feels like to experience discrimination because of minority ethnic culture, race or religious beliefs.
• To understand the role of religious belief in supporting people in their struggle against racial and religious discrimination and related issues of injustice.

Activity objectives

• To engage with the concepts of equality and justice by learning about the responses of famous individuals to racial, religious and social discrimination against them.
• To explore how the religious faith held by selected famous people inspired them to challenge injustices and bring about change in their lives and for their communities.
• To consider how religious faith can inspire people and give them courage and support in times of difficulty.

Activity description

The teacher drew on and developed the children's skills of:

• interpretation: by drawing meaning from Anne Frank's life story and diary, and from the experiences of Martin Luther King that led him to express his vision in his famous 'I have a dream' speech;
• empathy: by considering the thoughts, feelings, experiences, attitudes and beliefs of others;
• expression: by articulating children's understanding and concerns in discussion, in a letter and in an inspirational speech.

Anne Frank

The children had previously been introduced to the background and story of Anne's years of hiding with the aid of a video Dear Kitty (see Resources, below).

The teacher explained that Anne was a victim of anti-Semitism: she had been persecuted by the Nazis because she was Jewish. For two years she hid in a concealed annexe with her family, to escape being sent to a concentration camp.

The class read extracts from Anne's diary showing the horror of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, the fear and frustrations of Anne's life in hiding, and her hope for the future. The children were asked to respond in small groups to the following questions:

What were the miseries and frustrations of Anne's situation?
How might we have felt or coped in similar circumstances?
What lessons can we learn about coping with religious persecution from Anne's diary?
How do we respond to Anne's willingness to forgive the Nazis? Would we have been able to do the same in her position?

Following a whole-class discussion of the responses from the groups, the children were asked to write a letter to Anne completing the following sentences and including them in the letter:

I am sorry that you ...
In a similar situation, I would have felt (or done) …
Thank you for helping me to learn about …

Martin Luther King

Following research into King's life, his Christian faith and the work of the civil rights movement, the class read extracts from King's famous 'I have a dream' speech, made in Washington DC, in 1963.

The children worked in groups to discuss the speech, concentrating on issues such as:

• the differences between the ideal world of his dream and the situation he was dealing with;
• whether his dream has yet been achieved;
• how his Christian faith might have supported and inspired him to continue his struggle against injustice; what problems might concern him about today's world.

The children made short presentations to the class on their responses to these questions and others. They were then asked to write their own speech with three sections, each one beginning with the words: 'I have a dream ...'.

Commentary

Anne Frank

The aims and objectives of the activities were achieved. The children responded positively to the story of Anne Frank and demonstrated its contribution to their understanding of what it might have felt like to be discriminated against because of culture, race or religious beliefs. The fact that Anne Frank was young and expressed her experiences so vividly in her diary enabled the children to identify readily with her feelings. They also drew on earlier class work on equality and justice in their discussions. The children expressed indignation at the actions of the Nazis and admiration for Anne. They were also able to relate Anne's story to examples of religious prejudice and the dangers of allowing it to go unchecked. The children also confronted some of their own prejudices about people who belong to religious groups that are different from their own.

The children's letters to Anne showed that they explored some challenging questions, such as the way in which religious and racial prejudice does not recognise our shared humanity. For example, one letter said:

Thank you very much for making everybody understand that everybody is the same, even if they have different religions or different-coloured skin.

They also explored complex ideas, such as the difficulty of forgiving. Another letter said:

I want to ask you why did you forgive Hitler and the Nazis? If I were you I would never have forgiven them. I would want to teach Hitler a lesson.

Martin Luther King

This activity was successful in helping the children to understand what it might be like to experience racial discrimination. It contributed to their understanding of the part played by King's Christian beliefs in supporting him in his struggle against racial discrimination and injustice. Here are some extracts from the children's speeches:

I have a dream that in the future there will be peace on earth, that all wars will end and there will be peace between all people no matter what colour their skin is and what religion they are.

I have a dream that people one day will follow their religion and do what has been said and written in their faith: God would want peace on earth.

I have a dream that every poor child will be educated with the help of every rich person and that when giving money those giving it will give it happily.

This activity helped the children to reflect deeply on issues of justice. They were able to articulate ideals that could be revisited later (to support efforts to maintain harmony between different groups within the school or resolve conflicts and tensions that arise). The structure of the activity gave the children a strong sense of three time frames: the past (eg looking back to the inspiration of Anne Frank and Martin Luther King), the present (eg looking at the problems in the world today), and the future (eg looking towards an ideal world). The children were given a sense of empowerment: they help to change present-world problems by articulating their vision of a better world and then acting on it.

Resources

Dear Kitty, Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, 1987 (VHS videotape, 25 mins). Information available online from Anne Frank Educational Trust UK: www.afet.org.uk

Background information about the life of Anne Frank is available from Bookrags.com at: www.bookrags.com/notes/daf/BIO.htm

Luther King, Martin, 'I have a dream' (political speech made at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on 28 August 1963 after a protest march). Text of speech available from MLK Online: www.mlkonline.net

The religious education schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net

Religious education introduction

All subjects and activities

Respect for all introduction