David Greenberg
David Greenberg - Monday 22 January
We have an exciting author talk coming up in January! David Greenberg will be touring a number of the Dulwich Colleges as part of the Diversity program and will be in our college on the 22nd January. He will be delivering talks on the day related to poetry and civil rights and the slides below contain more information about the talks he offers. Signed copies of his books can be ordered and order forms can be collected from the library or downloaded (see below). Payment can be made cash or cheque at the school finance office.
In the words of Edgar Zillman, the DCI Events Coordinator he comes to us highly regarded "... David Greenberg and was recommended by Marjan Slaats (teacher librarian from Dulwich College Shanghai). The email Marjan forwarded me contained literally dozens and dozens of positive feedbacks about him and after checking his repertoire and performance I can only agree – this guy rocks. He wrote more than a dozen children’s books including the famous Slugs!, Bugs andSkunks!. Furthermore, his books A Tugging String and The Great School Lunch Rebellion won multiple awards. He is extremely experienced with kids just enough to check his performance video – the students are in a total euphoria.
He can easily create engaging poetry assemblies and writing workshops for students at all grades from DUCKS to college. Besides, he can provide in-service for teachers and presentations to children and parents together. Furthermore, as a part of his repertoire, he can also hold very interesting ‘Civil Rights Assemblies’ as David’s father was the lawyer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "
Our Year 8 have recently read the Mallory Blackman book, Noughts and Crosses, so his civil rights talk will link very well to that.
Mr Clayton's & Mr Massarella's IGCSE Year 11 History students have just moved on to a topic on Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement so this visit is very timely for them as well.
Greenbergs' Civil Rights Assembly: This assembly grips the listener. It inspires us to be our best. It is filled with basic American history. It deals with our challenges as a nation and what has made us great. Based upon his novel, A Tugging String, Greenberg discusses the racial attitudes in the United States at the end of the Civil War, and how deep prejudice against blacks still persisted. He talks about the rights denied to blacks, emphasizing that although blacks technically had the right to vote, they were quite often denied it in practice, and thus denied a voice in our political process. He talks about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery to call attention to this injustice, and the response of the racist governor of Alabama, George Wallace. He discusses how King (helped by Greenberg's father) used the courts to peacefully overcome the forces arrayed against them, bringing about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ultimately, he shows how this has helped to make America a far better place. Greenberg draws the connection between the institutionalized bullying of the racists and the bullying that persists today. He calls upon students to take inspiration from King and his colleagues and challenges students to embrace personal responsibility and stand up for what is just and right.
Greenberg says "In my Civil Rights assemblies, I want children to see that in the face of great challenges, our nation has become more just with more opportunities for more people. I want children to see that, as imperfect as we are, we have broken many of the chains of prejudice that held us back in so many ways. I do this by telling the story of Civil Rights in America through my personal child's eye view of events. My father was Dr. King's lawyer and I saw him leave for the South and worried if he'd come back safe and sound. The Ku Klux Klan sent us their literature filled with hate, often against my father. I remember a young Thurgood Marshall, who later became our first black Supreme Court Justice, at our house along with other Civil Rights leaders. They had the courage to take on the bullies of their day. By extension, I ask children to take inspiration from these leaders, to take personal responsibility, to stand up to injustice and bullying."
Click here to view http://www.authorsillustrators.com/greenberg/greenberg.htm
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As you can tell by the photos above, our students from year 1 to 11 were totally entertained and inspired by the author, David Greenberg, who has been touring a number of the Dulwich Colleges as part of the Diversity program. The younger students belly laughed at hilarious and entertaining renditions of his poems and the older students were inspired by a very moving talk on civil rights. His father was the lawyer for Martin Luther King Junior so it was a real privilege to listen to his story of this part of American history, which he has written about in his book, A Tugging String. Signed copies of his books can still be ordered until Monday 29th January. Order forms can be collected from the libraries or print out a copy from above.