Intelligence + Character

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was just a teenag­er when he wrote in 1947 that the pur­pose of edu­ca­tion is not only to serve util­i­tar­i­an ends, but also to fos­ter moral growth.

Writing for the stu­dent news­pa­per at Atlanta’s his­tor­i­cal­ly black Morehouse College, where he enrolled at the age of 15, King said: “We must remem­ber that intel­li­gence is not enough. Intelligence plus char­ac­ter — that is the goal of true education.”

Education will be the theme of this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Celebration on Jan. 19, the fed­er­al hol­i­day estab­lished in 1983 to hon­or the civ­il rights leader’s lega­cy. The event will fea­ture a march from the cour­t­house to St. Agatha Academy, where there will be a free break­fast and program.

The main speak­er will be Clark County Public Schools Superintendent Dustin Howard.

Howard, who began his career here as a school psy­chol­o­gist at George Rogers Clark High School in 2003, served as a spe­cial edu­ca­tion facil­i­ta­torm and prin­ci­pal of Phoenix Academy, Robert D. Campbell Junior High School, and Montgomery County High School, before becom­ing super­in­ten­dent of CCPS.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Centre College and master’s degrees from the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University.

Last year he was one of four Experience Excellence Superintendents of the Year award­ed by EKU along with the Central Kentucky Educational Coöperative and Southeast South-Central Educational Coöperative.

“We are so proud to have him as our keynote speak­er this year,” said Kent Coogle, who is direc­tor of the school district’s English Learners Program and Community Education, as well as the migrant edu­ca­tion and fam­i­ly resource cen­ter dis­trict director.

“Dr. King always stressed the impor­tance of edu­ca­tion and that edu­ca­tion shapes our mind and our char­ac­ter,” he said.

That is reflect­ed in the school system’s pil­lars of learn­ing, which are to be an empow­ered leader, a resilient learn­er, an effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tor, a reflec­tive inno­va­tor, an engaged cit­i­zen, and a com­mit­ted collaborator.

Coogle said local stu­dents will be involved in the event in var­i­ous ways. The George Rogers Clark Jazz Band and the Cardinal Singers will per­form, the high school’s Junior ROTC will pro­vide the hon­or guard, and its National Honor Society stu­dents will help serve break­fast. Students from the ele­men­tary schools and the inter­me­di­ate school are col­lab­o­rat­ing on an art project and will have those on dis­play, and mid­dle and high school stu­dents are work­ing on a writ­ing assign­ment that reflects on quo­ta­tions from King that are part of the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C., and those will also be on display.

“We’re excit­ed to be part of it, and it’s some­thing I look for­ward to every year,” said Coogle, who is a mem­ber of the Unity Committee that orga­nizes the event.

“It’s just a great moment for fel­low­ship and one­ness in our com­mu­ni­ty,” he said.

Former Circuit Court Clerk Martha Miller, anoth­er orga­niz­er of the event, said it will begin at 9 a.m. out­side the Clark County Courthouse.

“They’ll do a song and prayer, and then they’ll march to St. Agatha,” she said.

The break­fast will begin around 10 a.m., and Howard and oth­ers will speak.

The school is at 244 S. Main St. adja­cent to St. Joseph Catholic Church.

“The break­fast is free and open to the pub­lic,” Miller said. 

This is the 45^th or 46^th year for the break­fast, which used to be held at City Hall until it out­grew that space, Miller said. She said she hopes that some­day it will need an even big­ger venue.

Miller was pleased with the choice of Howard as this year’s keynoter.

“We always search for some­one that has reflect­ed on some of (King’s) prin­ci­ples that he tried to teach, and we believe that Dustin has done a mar­velous job with the Clark County pub­lic school sys­tem,” she said.

William Baker, son of the Rev. Henry E. Baker Sr., for whom Baker Intermediate School is named, said King was “a ser­vant used by God” to help change society.

“He had a vision that we would live in a soci­ety that would be free of inequal­i­ty and injus­tice and racism,” he said. 

Although there has been some progress toward those goals since King’s time, in recent years the coun­try has gone back­ward, he said.

It is “dark and it’s get­ting dark­er,” Baker said. But he was remind­ed of one of King’s say­ings on the mon­u­ment in D.C.: “Darkness can­not dri­ve out dark­ness, only light can do that. Hate can­not dri­ve out hate, only love can do that.”

“I chal­lenge us to open our hearts to our broth­ers and sis­ters and let that light of love shine so that it will dri­ve out the dark­ness in our soci­ety,” Baker said.