LESSONS FOCUS ON CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER; YOUNG ABSORB KING'S MESSAGE EDUCATORS SAY THEY ARE INTENT UPON TEACHING STUDENTS ABOUT RACE, EQUALITY AND NONVIOLENCE.(A SECTION)

Byline: Greg Retsinas STAFF WRITER

It's easy for Duan Anthony to teach her students about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Easy, but not painless.

She can share her own experiences with her fourth-graders at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, even though those memories are four decades old and have been joined by years of new, happier recollections.

The sight of segregation at work at a St. Louis lunch counter, when she was a young girl, is a scarring memory, But Anthony says she doesn't shy away from telling her youthful charges all about it - and especially about the day when the restaurant finally agreed to serve blacks at the counter.

"I took the bus downtown and went in - but they had removed the stools and seats," Anthony said. "Oh, I remember."

Today is a long time removed from King's birthday - 70 years. (Jan. 15 is the actual anniversary of King's birth, but the third Monday of the month is celebrated as a federal holiday.)

To many children, today may be little more than a day off from school. And with some districts using Tuesday as an in-service day for teachers, the youngsters can enjoy a four-day weekend.

But teachers like Anthony try to make it much more meaningful. They draw lessons from King's life. The holiday gives them a chance to teach children about the Atlanta civil rights leader's deeds, and to talk about some of the ideals that he espoused. …