The Substitute Teacher Named Mr. King!

(An original manuscript for a fully illustrated children's book.)

Today, Mr. King was our substitute teacher.

He was really tall.
He had green eyes.
He played happy music for us.
He was funny.
He was very loud.
He impersonated the voices of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Yogi Bear, Apu from the Simpsons, and he even laughed like Scooby Doo!
He came to our school because our teacher wasn't feeling good.

He gave us the POWER!

Today, he taught us about ten important words...
He taught us about FREEDOM and how to get more of it.
He taught us about JUSTICE and about fairness.
He taught us about TRUTH and about the consequences of lying.
He taught us that we could CREATE and make things real.
He taught us how to TEACH and that we already do.
He taught us about LOVE and that it is better than hate.
He taught us about UNITY and that we as people are all from one big family.
He taught us about PEACE and that we can make it.
He taught us to use our INTELLIGENCE and to think the choices we make.
He taught us about COOPERATION and how to work together.

We used the dictionary to look up the definition of each word.
We talked until we knew what the words meant and many different ways in which they were related.

He showed us these ten words on his fingers.
He showed us these ten words on our fingers.

He showed us that the POWER was now in our hands!

Mr. King asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up.
He then drew a mountain on the chalkboard with people climbing it.

"A scientist," said Jula.
"A social worker," said Trish.
"A singer," said Shannon.
"A baseball player," said Chris.
"A doctor," said Dana.
"An artist," said Matt.
"A conscious rapper," said Derrick.
"A teacher," said Rory.
"An astronaut," said Dedra.
"A firefighter," said Ana Maria.

Mr. King said that the people climbing up the mountain represented us.

He said that the top of the mountain represented what we wanted to be when we grew up. "That is your goal," he said!

He taught us that knowing the ten words and having the POWER would help us to make it to the top of the mountain and achieve our goals.

Mr. King said that if we understood and used these ten words that we would become powerful people!

He said that if we used our INTELLIGENCE we would gain more FREEDOM.

He said that if we told the TRUTH and worked to CREATE more JUSTICE and fairness that we would create more PEACE and LOVE in the world.

He told us that we were all relatives, and he explained that when we understood UNITY we would realize that we were all members of the one human race and all actually from one giant family.

He said, however, that if we did not have JUSTICE then we would not have PEACE.

He also told us that if we did not use our INTELLIGENCE, nor tell the TRUTH, nor play fair, nor learn how to make PEACE that we would lose our FREEDOM, lose our POWER, and lose the ability to live happily and achieve our goals.

We may find ourselves locked up, perhaps even literally. He showed us this by folding his fingers into fists, turning them over, and crossing them behind his back at the wrists.

We listened to Mr. King because we didn't want to go to jail!

Then we each got to draw pictures about our favorite word that he taught us.

Later, Mr. King slam-dunked the basketball at recess!

Mr. King, he was cool.

He gave us the POWER.