education

Schenectady is doing OK as a mini-Muslim, but his duties aren't too complex, mostly consisting of not biting too often and not having a hissy fit while I pray. But he's not always going to be seven months old, which means some sort of Islamic upbringing will come into play. But which sort?
In terms of what I'd want for the Islamic aspect of his upbringing, it's been a forest of nots- not being taught to look down on women and non-Muslims, not coming to view Islam as simply a brand of politics, not using religion to be a douchebag, etc. But what should a progressive Islamic education actually contain?
It's not as if there's a progressive Muslim Sunday school or summer camp to put a kid in and let the staff do all the work; this will be quite the slog. Some things, like memorizing Qur'an, can often be assigned to tutors, but teaching a child about creation and God's role in daily life can't be delegated to a teacher- it's got to happen entirely at home. Where does one start?

Reforming the traditional and now-useless system of madrasah education is an important part of developing the lower income classes in South Asia; many poor people can't attend even the nominally free mainstream government schools as they can't afford books or transport to the nearest school. So their only option is often a madrasah. The late, great Fazlur Rahman wrote an excellent book on this subject years ago called Islam and Modernity. Since a new and supposedly pro-secularist government came to power in Bangladesh's last election, I recently wrote two newspaper articles on the subject; anyone interested can read them here and here.

You know, it's a good time to talk about education in Pakistan--especially with the op-ed in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristoff a couple of days ago that's been so much the talk of the Pakistani chatterosphere (online and off) since. But this morning, the talk of the town is a piece of news that the Chief Justice (not Iftikhar Chaudhry, the person currently occupying that office) used his influence to get his daughter's grades/marks in High School "improved", to give her a better shot at various things one wants to do after High School and which are based, in Pakistan, often even more on that performance than it is in other places. [I pretty much started my journalistic career with a piece about that process; back in ... oh, another lifetime.]

Salaams,
I post this here because I know that, culturally speaking, many muslims in this country are intensely focused on educational acheivement. The wealthy among us may be trying to up their children's chances of entering the best schools by attending private academies.

Link to story, click here

In the March/April 2007 issue of Islamic Horizons, there’s an in interesting series of articles on the topic of accreditation of Islamic schools. Among them is an article by Necva Ozgur, talking about the need for a Muslim accreditation agency.

“Although accreditation can be considered a measure of success and excellence, excellence can only be achieved if every component of the school is included. However, no accreditation entity is geared specifically towards Islamic schools. This, they must seek accreditation from a local accrediting agency, which may be a good option of starters but lacks the Islamic component. Another option would be to seek accreditation from a Muslim accrediting agency that could initiate dual accreditation with a local independent school accrediting agency. This option has the benefit of providing two accreditations and recognition. A third option might be offered when a Muslim accrediting agency can provide accreditation and recognition to the Islamic school on its own.”

Recently, friends of mine were considering an Islamic school for their child, and my first question was, “Is the school accredited?” Fortunately, it is, and I heaved a sigh of relief on hearing this, but there’s still something that nags me constantly.