Everyone who’s been in Dan Gill’s classroom at Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey, knows about the empty chair. It’s a deliberate choice, and it has always been there. The chair is always empty, and for Dan Gill, it teaches a life lesson that every student who walks through his doors needs to understand. “Each year, I teach lessons around Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday about the Civil Rights movement,” Gill told TODAY. “I wanted to connect the students in a personal way to what that meant.” The chair represents a seat that wasn’t offered to his African American friend when they were children, recalled Gill. He was just 9 when the incident happened.