Aengus
13-03-07, 04:37 PM
I'm a non-muslim Primary School Teacher working in a Muslim School. the only muslim teachers in the school are the Arabic and Religion Teachers. During my time at the school I have become gradually infuriated by a lack of consideration on the part of the Board of Management, which is administrated by the Mosque. The lack of consideration is towards the staff, that is the main class teachers none of whom are Muslim.
I must point out that we are all united on the issue of preserving the culture that the children belong to and on no account does one deliberately go out of one's way pervert that duty but in many many different ways one finds that one may unintentionally do something that is against Islamic teaching or its code of ethics. Nonetheless, though they have been asked the Management have failed to provide a checklist of the Do-es and Don'ts.
The school I work at is quite a poor school and the majority of the children are refugees, freshly arrived in the country from The Middle-East. The culture shock is huge and first they have to learn English. They are also expected to be able to do the same curriculum as everyone else, which I think is right and fair but their grasp of it is limited by limitations placed on the teacher by the Mangament. But there is no way of finding out about these limitations except by trail and error. One gradually builds up a mental list of what not to do by having done it one day. Its hardly ideal.
Due to the fact that the children come from different families from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds the school policy towards the observance of Islamic dress and religion tends to be fairly strict, presumably to set the right kind of example and to please all the parents instead of just a few. As a result the girls (its is a mixed school) are epxected to wear the scarves from the age of 7 onwards. They go to prayers every day at certain times and they have religion calsses regularly. All in all it seems to me to be quite a good school to send one's child for correct religious instruction.
Due to this strict observance of religious code the non-Muslim teacher is swamped by problems and limitations in teaching one's class. Specifically, as an example, yesterday I held a quiz in a class that was being most disruptive, as children always are. As a prize I offered a packet of sweets. It wasn't until the quiz was over and the winners were munching on their sweets that one of the losers informed me that gelatine was not Halal. I was quite annoyed at myself to discover this fact because I could have bought boiled sweets in the shop if I had known. But I didn't.
Now for a Muslim the fact that I didn't know something as self evident as this may seem a little silly but the fact is, as it seems to me, there are hundreds of items and things done in my everyday life that are deemed unholy in the Islamic world. I don't know about them because I'm not Muslim. I'm not averse to learning what they are but I don't have time enough in my life to study an entire religion. The Board has not furnished me with a checklist so I have to find out for myself. I'm wondering does anyone know of a website where I can find out about the Do-es and Don'ts of Islamic education.
Its not just food by the way. Its almost everything I attempt to teach. History is a huge problem because dates are very hard. I live in what one might call Christian country. Consequently, every History text book for schools uses the BC-AD dating system. But mentioning Christ in the classsroom is forbidden. I have explained the Before Present dating system but the fact remains that their textbooks say, for example, "The Great Pyramid was built c.2000BC." instead of "The Great Pyramid was built 4000 years ago." This can be very confusing for children especially the younger ones.
Literature is also very hard because if one comes to a story that includes mythical elements like dwarves or elves or even Pagan Gods it clashes with the ban on Idolatory. Instead one steers clear of these stories hoping to avoid questions like "What is a Fairy?" I feel this way of teaching the curriculum is educationally damaging.
So as a non-Muslim to a Forum of Muslims, with the unpmost repsect for all religions and cultures, can you please hepl me to do a better job.
Thank you
I must point out that we are all united on the issue of preserving the culture that the children belong to and on no account does one deliberately go out of one's way pervert that duty but in many many different ways one finds that one may unintentionally do something that is against Islamic teaching or its code of ethics. Nonetheless, though they have been asked the Management have failed to provide a checklist of the Do-es and Don'ts.
The school I work at is quite a poor school and the majority of the children are refugees, freshly arrived in the country from The Middle-East. The culture shock is huge and first they have to learn English. They are also expected to be able to do the same curriculum as everyone else, which I think is right and fair but their grasp of it is limited by limitations placed on the teacher by the Mangament. But there is no way of finding out about these limitations except by trail and error. One gradually builds up a mental list of what not to do by having done it one day. Its hardly ideal.
Due to the fact that the children come from different families from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds the school policy towards the observance of Islamic dress and religion tends to be fairly strict, presumably to set the right kind of example and to please all the parents instead of just a few. As a result the girls (its is a mixed school) are epxected to wear the scarves from the age of 7 onwards. They go to prayers every day at certain times and they have religion calsses regularly. All in all it seems to me to be quite a good school to send one's child for correct religious instruction.
Due to this strict observance of religious code the non-Muslim teacher is swamped by problems and limitations in teaching one's class. Specifically, as an example, yesterday I held a quiz in a class that was being most disruptive, as children always are. As a prize I offered a packet of sweets. It wasn't until the quiz was over and the winners were munching on their sweets that one of the losers informed me that gelatine was not Halal. I was quite annoyed at myself to discover this fact because I could have bought boiled sweets in the shop if I had known. But I didn't.
Now for a Muslim the fact that I didn't know something as self evident as this may seem a little silly but the fact is, as it seems to me, there are hundreds of items and things done in my everyday life that are deemed unholy in the Islamic world. I don't know about them because I'm not Muslim. I'm not averse to learning what they are but I don't have time enough in my life to study an entire religion. The Board has not furnished me with a checklist so I have to find out for myself. I'm wondering does anyone know of a website where I can find out about the Do-es and Don'ts of Islamic education.
Its not just food by the way. Its almost everything I attempt to teach. History is a huge problem because dates are very hard. I live in what one might call Christian country. Consequently, every History text book for schools uses the BC-AD dating system. But mentioning Christ in the classsroom is forbidden. I have explained the Before Present dating system but the fact remains that their textbooks say, for example, "The Great Pyramid was built c.2000BC." instead of "The Great Pyramid was built 4000 years ago." This can be very confusing for children especially the younger ones.
Literature is also very hard because if one comes to a story that includes mythical elements like dwarves or elves or even Pagan Gods it clashes with the ban on Idolatory. Instead one steers clear of these stories hoping to avoid questions like "What is a Fairy?" I feel this way of teaching the curriculum is educationally damaging.
So as a non-Muslim to a Forum of Muslims, with the unpmost repsect for all religions and cultures, can you please hepl me to do a better job.
Thank you