1. What educational background in the subject areas does your wife have as a teacher? I’m curious to know if she taught all areas or if your daughter learned through online courses.

*Enough of a background to teach elementary education. In any case, Reem was working with K12.com, an internet-based homeschooling system. You can ask Umm Reem more about this at ummreem.wordpress.com

3. Amad, are you planning to send your daughter to college or university one day? I’m just curious about your thoughts on that.

*Inshallah we have similar plans for our daughters and son… the goal is Islamic scholarship, so which form of education and what sort of institution that takes them, wallahualam.

Br. Naeem, you asked:

You mention the Islamic etiquettes and practices in the Islamic school attendees, but is that more a reflection of the home environment or of the school environment? I say its the former.

*I would say both. However, the fact that the child spends MORE of awake time at school than at home… the fact that there is tremendous peer pressure at school… the fact that the child is exposed to haraam consistently and constantly…. I am inclined to believe that the general rule is that the school will have a bigger affect than the home, but the exceptions would be the opposite.

Bubaker:

I realize that there are families who truly cannot afford the cost, and sure, $8K tuitions will never fly. But therein lies the end of our own communal ambitions. This is another way in which I can do justice to the belief that our Rizq is already written – spend on what is [if it is] good. Period. Please forgive me for any mistakes or condescension.

*First of all, there was no condascending remarks whatsoever in your comments. Its awesome to hear from someone in such a similar situation. Secondly, the challenge of financing Islamic institutions is a huge challenge, from the recreation center to the Masjid to the Islamic Schools. Until we have a geniune effort to build a waqf foundations (probably from the bigger organizations such as ICNA/ISNA), we’ll continue to struggle. But then the politics of “who to support” might creep in. So, you almost need like one foundation for each methodology :) Alhamdulilah, despite all the challenges, IT IS INDEED HAPPENING. All over the country. Once a school is established, then usually parents patronize it above other institutions and it can only strengthen. We are seeing this happen with the Iman Academies in Houston, Dar-us-Salam in Maryland and for those down-under, the school in Australia where Yahya Ibrahim is in the Admin.

Let’s make dua’ this Ramadan that Allah provide his Help and Mercy to all the Islamic schools in the West. Ameen.

sorry I came late, i have not have one sec free time since I started going to school (that does not mean I regret going inshAllah)!!

it’s friday night (the nights i don’t like, tomorrow no school YAAAAAY) soo I don’t have to wake up at 6:00 tomorrow (which i do not mind) so i just came on the computer, we came back from Taraweeh right now, …

And about my school: it’s very fun, everyone is my class or very nice, my best friend is Lamees but the others are very good friends too, um, I do not regret going to school and I have been to school for 2 weeks, does anyone wanna know my schedule? here it is: I wake up at 6:00 every morning and get ready by 6:40 (unless i’m fasting then at 5:00, its my choice if I wanna go to sleep after sahoor or not [which i dont want] ) then my dad takes me to this sisters house drops me there and I go with her to school, (somtimes I do my homework in the car or review Quran), then I get there at 8:00 and study somthing then somthing then somthing then we have 15 min snack break then we study somthing, somthing, somthing and then have lunch break (kids who are fasting sit in the confrence room and they have board games for them) then we have the noon prayer then we study somthing somthing somthing, then we finish at 3:15 and another sister picks me and he children from school and by the time we get to her house my dad or somtimes my mom are there then I go home, do my homework then I eat if i’m hungry, study Quran, and if i have more homework do it then go to sleep, but when I have lot of home work I go to sleep at 10:00 it takes me like 2 hours or more to do it, my reg bed time is 8:30

~Reem~

As Salaamu `aleykum Amad,

Masha Allah – fascinating account; I felt like I was reading my journal.

I’m a father of 10- and 8-year olds who are entering full-time “Islamic” school after years of homeschool (with one previous somewhat difficult Muslim schooling experience). My wife did most of the yeoman’s work of educating – we used to live in Maryland, which has a large # of homeschooling families, and had ways of gathering/sharing there.

Now, with a one-year old and anticipating moving overseas, we’ve decided this is the time to enroll them in an institutional school. Homeschooling overseas with a mind to post-2ndary education is not really an option, and an institutional bridge makes applying to good schools overseas much easier.

Also, we decided some time ago, that a Muslim community school (“Islamic” would really mean mad-rassah) is the only way to approximate the “village raising a child”. It would be great to find similar ways in America to carry this idea of community over into young adulthood, middle age, and the golden years.

That being said, one issue I struggle with is this: most Muslim schools are heavily subsidized as sadaqah projects, when in fact most of the schooling families are primarily immigrant and middle-class who are not used to paying full price for anything, much less the $8-10K/year it takes to pay for pre-collegiate education.

In other words, how to support Muslim community education (which by and large is secular in mission but Islamic in sensibility) and at the same time engender virtues of sacrifice, independence, and non-entitlement.

Many times, Muslim schools are started from the get go as “charity projects” with no capital or intention of paying the actual costs. Awqaf (Islamic foundations) are supposed to start with a seed of capital that funds whatever charitable project the founders envision. Nevertheless, I continue to give and support – I’m anxious, but not rebellious. It’s just that we need a different institutional vision.

I realize that there are families who truly cannot afford the cost, and sure, $8K tuitions will never fly. But therein lies the end of our own communal ambitions. This is another way in which I can do justice to the belief that our Rizq is already written – spend on what is [if it is] good. Period.

Please forgive me for any mistakes or condescension. May Allah(SWT) Bless us all this and every Ramadhan. Ameen.

A word of warning, when I “released” my first homeschooled child into the wilderness of institutionalized education, I was never satisfied. That was simply because a homeschooler can have very high standards and highly customized expectations. And she knows everything her child is doing at home, so not knowing what ‘s been happening in school can be kind of hard in the beginning.

But home cannot replicate school nor vice versa and each has its drawbacks and advantages for a child’s education.

My kids had home based learning until grade 2 and then grade 5, right now my 4 year old is enjoying her homeschooling.

I’m sorry I wasn’t more clear on my usage of ROI. I wasn’t referring to the quality of education.

My ROI reference was for the entire community. Is the community getting its proper return on investment with the Islamic schools? So much of our scant resources are going into running these schools – what do we have to show for it?

These schools are addressing such a small percentage of our youth (I’d guess around 10-15% in the Baltimore community) while neglecting the other 90%. Are these schools really worth all that effort?

You mention the Islamic etiquettes and practices in the Islamic school attendees, but is that more a reflection of the home environment or of the school environment? I say its the former.

“I also think that being an American, growing up here and knowing my culture, I am not as scared of what is to come as my kids enter middle and highschool. I see great opportunities for them to be dawah carriers Insh’Allah in their schools.”

This is an excellent point. One of my ‘theories’ is that Islamic schools were originally established by immigrants who were truly unaware of the dangers lurking in the public school landscape. So their solution was isolation and insulation.

That worked for them (ie. my parents), but I feel that many of us second-gen parents are intimately aware of what is out there, thus we are better prepared to address and confront these dangers.

My two oldest attended our local Islamic school, one for 3 years, the other for a year. Then I couldn’t afford it anymore and they would not make accomodations to me so I tried to homeschool at first, then I found about our local magnet schools and enrolled them there. The school informed me that my oldest was at a kindergarten reading level and was in the 2nd grade. Mash’Allah he worked hard that year and with the schools help he was able to rise up to the appropriate level. But no one at the Islamic school had ever mentioned to me that they had an inkling he was not at grade level for reading or suggested I do anything to help him, etc.

Now this is my bad experience, I happen to know there are some Excellent Islamic schools. It just happens that after some soul searching I have found that the Islamic school in our area will not be an option I will consider very soon again.

I also think that being an American, growing up here and knowing my culture, I am not as scared of what is to come as my kids enter middle and highschool. I see great opportunities for them to be dawah carriers Insh’Allah in their schools.

That’s my long two cents…
Salam

Now I have 3 questions:

1. What educational background in the subject areas does your wife have as a teacher? I’m curious to know if she taught all areas or if your daughter learned through online courses.

2. This is more directed towards one of the comments… Anonymous, your brother sounds quite young, if you don’t mine me asking, what is wrong with a little boy sitting next to a little girl? Surely you don’t think anything will happen between them? Isn’t it when we start to sexualize children and seperate them that we begin to have problems?

3. Amad, are you planning to send your daughter to college or university one day? I’m just curious about your thoughts on that.