Most of the Muslim children living in the U.S. and Canada attend public schools. And when they do, Islamic education will take a back seat. However, we must do everything we can to benefit from but also minimize the harm of the public schools and to maximize the opportunities for Islamic education.
Some Reasons Why Parents Send Children to Public Schools
Many Muslims — because of lack of money, lack of available Islamic schools, lack of time, or lack of teaching effectiveness — find it necessary to send our children to the American public schools. This may not be our first choice for our children’s education, but we may feel that we have no alternatives.
There, at least, our children are taught English, mathematics, social studies, history, science, sports, and other important subjects. Many of these subjects pose no problem. As far as our religion is concerned, they are relatively neutral. A few, such as history and social studies, however, may be quite challenging with factual misinformation and/or glaring omissions of important details.
Whichever the case, public school classes cannot teach our children to be better Muslims. Therefore, if we send our children to the public school, it is essential that we provide additional Islamic education.
Weekend Schools May Not Be Enough
Some Muslim communities try to do this by establishing Islamic Sunday schools, Islamic weekend schools, or part-time Islamic schools, and these are all good ways to supplement our children’s education. However, in many cases, they are not enough. What can we expect if we send our kids to the secular public schools from 30-to-40 hours per week and only give them an Islamic education in a 2-hour Sunday program? We really need more time for our children to learn about Islam and to be under the influence of Muslims.
Proactive Steps to Take
Here are a few suggestions for making the most of our children’s public school education and also attending to their Islamic upbringing.
1. Be aware of what they are learning at school.
Parents need to stay abreast and interested in what children are learning. And when the school gets something wrong, we must take assertive steps to correct misinformation and re-educate them. In some instances, you may also want to provide the teacher with additional information.
2. Provide them with additional Islamic education.
Provide the children with extra Islamic education either at home, in the mosque, at a part-time Islamic school, or with a Muslim tutor where they can learn the Quran, Hadith, the history of the Prophets and the Companions, the system of Islam, current events in the Muslim world, and Arabic.
There are a number of Islamic education classes for children which are thriving online now, including offerings from Sound Vision. Its Adam’s World Club (for ages 4-7) and Colors of Islam Club (for ages 8-12) classes debuted in Spring 2020, largely in response to the COVID pandemic. Since that time, nearly 400 classes have aired online, including both live and recorded courses. Children have loved the creative methods we use to learn about Islam and parents are thrilled to have great role models in front of them. You can visit Academy.AdamsWorld.Org for more details and the latest offerings.
3. Take them to the masjid often.
It is important to immerse your children in Islamic life and for them to be connected to the Muslim community. We are reminded about the benefits of minPraying in congregation is for this very reason. This, too, is education. In the masjid, they will see the example of Muslims and hear people quoting the Quran and the hadith and discussing Islamic issues.
4. Monitor their friends.
Some parents may not be as concerned as we are about what their children say and do. If our children are in the public school, they will probably have non-Muslim friends. This is not necessarily a problem, but if our children start coming home using curse words or acting like Snoop Dog, we will probably need to try to supplement or replace their friendships as well. We should encourage them to make Muslim friends as much as possible, and going to the masjid regularly is an excellent way to provide this opportunity. In an article I read recently in The Message, Sadia Afzal, a young Muslim girl, told how she had begun to lose her Islamic identity by being involved in the wrong peer group and how she returned to an Islamic way of life after being exposed to dedicated Muslims. “Muslim parents must provide their kids maximum opportunities to interact with other Muslims, if they want us to grow as Muslims,” she warned.
The Bottom Line
All of this will be difficult, and we must be careful not to overwhelm our children with too much. We cannot expect them to spend 30-to-40 hours a week in public school and 30-to-40 hours a week getting additional Islamic education. However, we should do whatever is necessary to insure their proper upbringing. We cannot just drop them off at school in the morning, pick them up in the afternoon, and expect them to become the kind of children and Muslims we want them to be.
Note that this article originally was first published by Sound Vision in the late 1990s. We have updated a few details but the concerns and strategies remain current today.
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