NYTimes: Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling
Published by Haseeb March 26th, 2008 in Current News, Education, IslamSource:NYTimes
Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
LODI, Calif. — Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home.
Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives, and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes.
“Some men don’t like it when you wear American clothes — they don’t think it is a good thing for girls,” said Miss Bibi, 17, now studying at the 12th-grade level in this agricultural center some 70 miles east of San Francisco. “You have to be respectable.”
Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases, as in Ms. Bibi’s, the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life.
About 40 percent of the Pakistani and other Southeast Asian girls of high school age who are enrolled in the district here are home-schooled, though broader statistics on the number of Muslim children being home-schooled, and how well they do academically, are elusive. Even estimates on the number of all American children being taught at home swing broadly, from one million to two million.
No matter what the faith, parents who make the choice are often inspired by a belief that public schools are havens for social ills like drugs and that they can do better with their children at home.
“I don’t want the behavior,” said Aya Ismael, a Muslim mother home-schooling four children near San Jose. “Little girls are walking around dressing like hoochies, cursing and swearing and showing disrespect toward their elders. In Islam we believe in respect and dignity and honor.”
Still, the subject of home schooling is a contentious one in various Muslim communities, with opponents arguing that Muslim children are better off staying in the system and, if need be, fighting for their rights.
Robina Asghar, a Muslim who does social work in Stockton, Calif., says the fact that her son was repeatedly branded a “terrorist” in school hallways sharpened his interest in civil rights and inspired a dream to become a lawyer. He now attends a Catholic high school.
“My son had a hard time in school, but every time something happened it was a learning moment for him,” Mrs. Asghar said. “He learned how to cope. A lot of people were discriminated against in this country, but the only thing that brings change is education.”
Many parents, however, would rather their children learn in a less difficult environment, and opt to keep them home.
Hina Khan-Mukhtar decided to tutor her three sons at home and to send them to a small Muslim school cooperative established by some 15 Bay Area families for subjects like Arabic, science and carpentry. She made up her mind after visiting her oldest son’s prospective public school kindergarten, where each pupil had assembled a scrapbook titled “Why I Like Pigs.” Mrs. Khan-Mukhtar read with dismay what the children had written about the delicious taste of pork, barred by Islam. “I remembered at that age how important it was to fit in,” she said.
Many Muslim parents contacted for this article were reluctant to talk, saying Muslim home-schoolers were often portrayed as religious extremists. That view is partly fueled by the fact that Adam Gadahn, an American-born spokesman for Al Qaeda, was home-schooled in rural California.
“There is a tendency to make home-schoolers look like antisocial fanatics who don’t want their kids in the system,” said Nabila Hanson, who argues that most home-schoolers, like herself, make an extra effort to find their children opportunities for sports, music or field trips with other people.
Lodi’s Muslims also attracted unwanted national attention when one local man, Hamid Hayat, was sentenced last year to 24 years in prison on a terrorism conviction that his relatives say was largely due to a fabricated confession. (Had he been more Americanized, they say, he would have known to ask for a lawyer as soon as the F.B.I. appeared.)
Parents who home-school tend to be converts, Mrs. Khan-Mukhtar said. Immigrant parents she has encountered generally oppose the idea, seeing educational opportunities in America as a main reason for coming.
If so, then Fawzia Mai Tung is an exception, a Chinese Muslim immigrant who home-schools three daughters in Phoenix. She spent many sleepless nights worried that her children would not excel on standardized tests, until she discovered how low the scores at the local schools were. Her oldest son, also home-schooled, is now applying to medical school.
In some cases, home-schooling is used primarily as a way to isolate girls like Miss Bibi, the Pakistani-American here in Lodi.
Some 80 percent of the city’s 2,500 Muslims are Pakistani, and many are interrelated villagers who try to recreate the conservative social atmosphere back home. A decade ago many girls were simply shipped back to their villages once they reached adolescence.
“Their families want them to retain their culture and not become Americanized,” said Roberta Wall, the principal of the district-run Independent School, which supervises home schooling in Lodi and where home-schooled students attend weekly hourlong tutorials.
Of more than 90 Pakistani or other Southeast Asian girls of high school age who are enrolled in the Lodi district, 38 are being home-schooled. By contrast, just 7 of the 107 boys are being home-schooled, and usually the reason is that they were falling behind academically.
As soon as they finish their schooling, the girls are married off, often to cousins brought in from their families’ old villages.
The parents “want their girls safe at home and away from evil things like boys, drinking and drugs,” said Kristine Leach, a veteran teacher with the Independent School.
The girls follow the regular high school curriculum, squeezing in study time among housework, cooking, praying and reading the Koran. The teachers at the weekly tutorials occasionally crack jokes of the “what, are your brothers’ arms broken?” variety, but in general they tread lightly, sensing that their students obey family and tradition because they have no alternative.
“I do miss my friends,” Miss Bibi said of fellow students with whom she once attended public school. “We would hang out and do fun things, help each other with our homework.”
But being schooled apart does have its benefit, she added. “We don’t want anyone to point a finger at us,” she said, “to say that we are bad.”
Mrs. Asghar, the Stockton woman who argues against home schooling, takes exception to the idea of removing girls from school to preserve family honor, calling it a barrier to assimilation.
“People who think like this are stuck in a time capsule,” she said. “When kids know more than their parents, the parents lose control. I think that is a fear in all of us.”
Aishah Bashir, now an 18-year-old Independent School student, was sent back to Pakistan when she was 12 and stayed till she was 16. She had no education there.
Asked about home schooling, she said it was the best choice. But she admitted that the choice was not hers and, asked if she would home-school her own daughter, stared mutely at the floor. Finally she said quietly: “When I have a daughter, I want her to learn more than me. I want her to be more educated.”
wow this article made me so sad… especially the last para
first of all, i should say that i was public schooled in the US. and I was taught well and learnt a lot, Alhamdulillah. my mum was always involved in my education, and that was a huge protection for me and my brothers.
i remember the home schooled kids and they were… usually very unsocial… and a bit clueless. no offense.
on the other hand, my youngest brother is facing a generation that i could not even dream of. the stresses in schools these days are really insane. Where’s the food for the soul in our schools? The system, as now i’ve studied it, is really messed up. And I happened to be lucky… my generation wasn’t bad and I had access to some excellent schools and teachers. Alhamdulillah.
i recall Shaykh Hamza Yusuf speaking about home schooling, saying he had home schooled his eldest son until he was 15. After that, he had developed not only what was required of the curriculum, but also a moral education. Then he entered the public system when he had become an adult. Personally, i think it’s very important for kids to face the cruelties of the world– but when they’re ready.
So what’s being spoken of in the article should be turned around. Home school when the kids are young, and once they’re grown, it’s time for them to be released into the world. They should not be taken out right on the verge of their adulthood! That makes no sense, shows a lack of trust, and a lack of understanding that the most fundamental years are the younger years. Furthermore, it encourages an agenda for some parents to control their children.
Bottom line, both males and females should get a proper education. If you cannot properly home school your kids, then give it up! You’ve got to be educated yourself before you go around teaching anyone, of course. DUH And if you’re going to home school, you have to legitimately outdo the normal public school– go beyond the curriculum to moral education, to increased extracurriculars, and increased real-life exposure (field trips, etc.). With that, the importance of providing a proper education for a mother is emphasized. Islamically, no woman should be kept from education. That’s absolutely unacceptable.
On this issue of creating barriers to assimilation, I agree. Though I would use the term “integration” of course. Women should not be marrying F.O.B.s. They should marry people from their own cultural background– a background that obviously includes the West. It’s a way of deadening society to continually marry boys or girls that are 2nd generation or 3rd generation immigrants to new immigrants! This isn’t just Muslims, this is in any case, as studies have shown. As Muslims we should take these things seriously. I don’t mean to insult new immigrants, i’m just stating the facts. marry strong spouses who are well-suited to the environment in which you live in or at the same level of adjusting to such an environment. and if you don’t want your kids to marry someone brought up in the West, then you should never have come here. it’s really that simple.
perhaps i’m being too blunt. and sorry for the long response. i just wanted to put in my two cents and of course would not want to offend anyone. jezakz for reading
wAllahu Aalim.
wassalaam
I think there is good in homeschooling but it must be balanced with social contact beyond the Muslim community. They should see things like museums and zoos. Also, another benefit is that the school system is being forced to accommodate a society that is being dumbed down, mostly by television. One friend my younger sister met once was 12 and getting the education of a high-school sophomore. In addition to the regular ciriculum, Islamic law, theology, etc. can be taught. So can calligraphy and ebru marbling.
But some of the things in this article did disturb me. This idea of home schooling for the sake of isolationism is wrong. If people want to isolate themselves from the non-Muslim society, they should go back to where they came from.
Home schooling is increasingly becoming the option for many parents of whatever faith and its not because “girls are needed to cook and clean for their male relatives” but because of the poor academic standards of school and the kind of things children are exposed to at such a young and vulnerable age.
However, I agree that you can’t and shouldn’t isolate children from the rest of society. they’re going to live and work and have to face situations in that society and they have to be aware of what goes on. I think having a good relationship with your kid and being involved in their educaiton and their schools from the beginning (like being a parent governor for example) can help to address some concerns parents may have.
Home schooling has its benefits no doubt, especially for parents who want to their kids to have a sound moral and religious upbringing but there needs to be a balance; parents have to make sure their children aren’t left out (and don’t feel left out) of certain activities and have the same oppurtunities as any other child.
You then also have Islamic schools (which is another discussion in itself again with pros and cons)..
Why does everyone assume that homeschooled children spend all of their time holed up at the kitchen table with no contact with the outside world?
Maryam mentioned homeschooled children being “unsocial” and “clueless”–well I went to public schools and there were certainly many kids who went with me who also fit those descriptions. Interestingly enough, those kids tended to be ostracized mercilessly by their peers–what a wonderful social experience for them. Who do we blame for that?
I have been homeschooling my children from the beginning, one is now a teenager. They receive plenty of opportunity to meet other people–of all ages, not just kids their own age. (Speaking of unrealistic social settings–where else in the “real world” are people going to experience being exclusively exposed to people their own age?) Homeschooled children typically are involved in a wide variety of outside activities–people like those mentioned in the article are in my experience absolutely not the norm, either amongst Muslim homeschoolers or people from other religious backgrounds. You are always going to have a few kooks, but frankly you also have parents who deprive their children and also send them to school. I know, because I went to school with kids like that.
There’s a lot of people, talking about something that they don’t understand or know anything about–doing a lot of damage. This article is not well written, or representative of most families–there seems to have been no attempt to interview a wider swath of people with varying views and practices. The idea seems to have been to stir up hysteria about the 5th column of mysterious homeschooling families–and so much the better that the “Nuts” in question are obviously fanatical Moozlems too.
As salaam alaikum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu,
Wow, im glad this article started such a lively discussion.
Home-schooling is a highly debated issue. However the reasons for why Muslims homeschool their children at such high rates is also very diverse - and these must be distinguished. There are:
(1) Those parents who believe schools do “dumb down” their children, leaving them with much untapped potential that can better be unlocked if home-schooled. I believe this is what Maryam was referring to in regards to what Shaykh Hamza recalled, as well as along the lines of Ibraheem and Usma’s comments. Children have the capacity to learn so much more at an early age - and very often schools dont even come close to untapping their potential with their large class sizes, and teachers with varying responsibilities (especially worse now with Bush’s so called “no child left behind act” which basically forces teachers to waste time teaching to the test, rather than focusing on a well rounded curriculum ) I completely agree with this argument. There is no reason why a child cannot learn multiple languages, become a hafiz of the quran, and be up to par with the regular reading/math/verbal skills of other children of their age group - at very young ages. However, like Mrs. Nabila Hanson (Shaykh Hamza’s wife) has said in the article - it is also essential to make sure home schooled children dont become antisocial - this is where sports, trips, etc. come into play.
(2) Parents who dont like the impact other classmates have on their children socially. They are afraid their children will be morally corrupted by their friends.
Now this second issue - is what I believe really triggers so many Muslim parents to homeschool their kids. And the fact is that this is a real issue. We all know many Muslims who have gone morally corrupt - in terms of their lack of deen, having boyfriends/girlfriends, their dress, language, etc. And the primary reason for these issues - is social compliance due to peer pressure. The easy solution - take them out of school! We all know Muslim people in our communities that were taken out of schools once they found out they had a boyfriend, for example.
However, I am more in agreement with what Maryam was talking about earlier. It is so much more important to raise children from a young age - and teach them proper values, and instill firm iman so they themselves have the proper wisdom and adab to make the right ‘moral decisions’.
However - even this can only go so far. I will take myself as an example. I also, like most of my friends, was public schooled in the US - and I did in fact receive a solid education. Alhamdulillah I was blessed to go to good public schools, and attended the best classes with great teachers. However, I must say that I was always blessed with great friends - throughout my years of schooling. Even though there were pressures to do… haraam things - i always had a close of friends around me that refrained from such. Peer pressue can have a substantial impact on ones persona and I find it hard to believe that someone in their early teens for example can stay ‘morally clean’ -without other ‘morally clean’ friends.
And like Maryam mentioned, its also important to note - that times have changed. Morality has certainly declined greatly and this is evident everywhere around us. From the television shows on TV (we grew up watching Full House and Family Matters - solid shows with good moral values - i cant even find any shows like that on TV anymore), to the statistics regarding sex among teenagers (1 in 4 teenage girls has an STD), the newer generations have it far worse than what we grew up with. And this is a sad reality that needs to be faced as well - and for many home-schooling is the easy solution.
However at the same time it is such a shame that so many young Muslims are being taken out of school - and then given a lackluster education. So many of our parents immigrated to this country so that we could have a better education. The last paragraph of the article also really bothered me.
As salaam alaikum.
A good and thoughtful article.
The thought that one must balance education with socialization is an interesting one. My belief is that we overestimate the value of western social time.
“The devil will find work for idle hands to do.”
Allah
, family and the search for wisdom and goodness should be the blocks that our ummah build our society on. Not shopping malls, theme parks and idle amusements.
Ma’as salaama,
nuh ibn
the discourse surrounding muslims in public schools desperately needs to be recentered — schooling and education in the West (and by extension, in the East) suffers from market-geared pedagogy with a very questionable hidden curriculum. the works of gatto, chomsky, foucault and countless others on this subject should give pause to muslims interested in education (their own, their children’s, in general, etc). homeschooling is a viable solution for many families and yet to many others the idea of homeschooling their children seems incredibly impractical. whatever the case may be, muslims need to adopt an ‘islamised’ form critical pedagogy in assessing they type/variation/medium of education being offered.
if one is going to go to public school — do not confine your critical thinking to remain within the boundaries defined by the institution…reflect upon the medium of education, the power-dynamics of the teacher-student relationship, the deliberately formed structure of school, etc.
and if one is going to homeschool — do not simply recreate a ‘micro-school’ in your home with the same pedagogical pitfalls found in the elementary/middle/high school down the street.
Wasalam,
Farooq
assalamualaykum,
its been a while since this article was posted on this site but i just came across it and figured its still best to share my two cents inshaAllah…
One of the interviewers for this article Hina Khan Mukhtar is a friend of mine from our local Muslim homeschooling community out here in the bay area and I just wanted to share her unfortunate experience with the journalist for this article. Following is an email that she had posted on our local Muslim moms yahoo group :
Walaikum Assalaam, Abbake,
Thanks for being a voice of reason at a time when I (in particular) am feeling really disheartened and disillusioned. I’ve already emailed the reporter and he’s not responding (surprise, surprise).
It’s unnerving how easily the media can “take” what they want even if one sticks to one’s “talking points”. I tried really hard to stay away from religion and talked more about my experience as a public school teacher (where I wished I could have more one on one time with struggling students), my own children’s learning challenges (one son didn’t learn to read till after age 8 and, thanks to hs’ing, his self-esteem is still intact), the hs’ers ability to choose superior educational materials (reading classics vs. basal readers in school), the lack of exposure to Islamic history curriculum in the public schools. “If one doesn’t know his history, how can he be proud of it? I grew up thinking the only thing Muslims contributed to civilization was algebra,” I said.
When the reporter asked me if we were worried about our kids growing up thinking everyone is bad and only they are good, I told him, “No, I don’t worry about that, because we don’t teach our children that only Muslims are the best. We teach them that Muslim values are the best. And Muslim values can be found in anyone anywhere. That’s why we teach our kids about Abraham Lincoln, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin Franklin, etc. That’s also why we teach our kids about Salauddin Ayubbi and Shah Jahan and Ibn Battuta. We don’t want our children thinking that Osama Bin Laden is the only one who represents their religion.” I mentioned how our kids have read “Number the Stars” this year (a book about the persecution of Jews in Denmark during WWII and a young Christian girl’s sacrifice for her best friend) and “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson” (a book about a Chinese girl’s assimilation into American culture while retaining respect for her family’s back-home ways). We’re teaching our kids that we’re part of humanity and everyone faces the same type of challenges and problems that we as Muslims do.
He asked me about “socialization” (the most common question) and I mentioned Little League, Boy/Girl Scouts, working with the Contra Costa Food Bank during Ramadan, sending cookies and baskets to our neighbors on Xmas and Hannukah, planning a litter clean-up campaign in the neighborhood, future plans for working in a homeless shelter, etc.
When he asked me about why we chose homeschooling, I compared raising Muslim children to an eastern martial arts tradition (i.e. Karate, Tae Kwan Do, etc., something people in the West understand and respect). The homeschooling setting is a place where the kids have a teacher whom they look up to and where the teacher should embody the values he/she is trying to impart to the students. I said that there were three parts to raising a Muslim child — teaching about (1) Islamic jurisprudence (the do’s and don’ts of the religion ), (2) Muslim etiquette (how to behave in society), and (3) Muslim culture (poetry, singing, history, appreciating things of beauty in the world around us and reflecting on God’s blessings in everything we see, etc.). Some (not all) of the madrassas we hear about in the news tend to focus on the Islamic jurisprudence and none of the beauty and that’s why we see individuals who have skewed views of the world (this was in response to his question about how we were hoping to avoid creating the types of egotistical Muslims we’ve seen doing damage in the world).
When asked about civic engagement, I told him that we were trying to raise Muslims who would be a source of pride not only to their fellow Muslims but also their fellow Americans. We’re trying to raise the future leaders of America, not leaders of Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. The Muslim way of prosletyzing isn’t to go knocking on doors trying to teach others about their faith but to live a life that is so full of dignity and grace that others are attracted to them on their own. My own opinion is that these values are hard to teach properly when they’re only limited to Sunday School mornings or after 4 pm when the kids return from “real school”. Every moment of the day is a teaching opportunity and hs’ers seize those moments to teach grammar and math along with reflections on what it means to be a proper Muslim and how to behave with peers and adults and those younger than us. I mentioned that we love America, that this is our home and we’re not going anywhere, and we want to produce productive citizens who can represent Americans and Muslims in the best manner possible. I told him about how we all value the ideal that the public school system represents — that every citizen is entitled to a free education. How we support that ideal, yet we are grateful that this wonderful country also gives us the option to educate our children in the manner we choose as best. I told him that there just aren’t enough hours in the day and there’s so much to teach; that’s one of the reasons hs’ing suits our lifestyle, we can pick and choose what we focus on. (on re-reading this paragraph, I realize it’s all over the place, but I don’t have time to edit, so please just indulge me…)
I mentioned to him my own experiences of growing up in the States, going to school here, and how there were many things I wasn’t allowed to do. I told him that I wanted my own children to hear more “yeses” than “no’s” in their educational experience so that they wouldn’t grow up viewing their religion as a reason for being kept from doing “fun things” all the time. I told him that I wanted my kids to recognize that they have a dual identity — an American identity and a Muslim one — and that those two identities can be in harmony with one another and not in conflict. He asked me for an example where I thought there could be a potential for my kids to feel “left out” and I gave him the short “Why I Like Pigs” example from Shaan’s kindergarten class. I had been debating about homeschooling at the time and when I saw those booklets on each of the student’s desks, all the memories of always being the one who was “different” came flooding back to me, and I took it as a sign that I should be providing an environment (at least in the early years) where my kids felt comfortable and strong in their religion before making them have to explain why they couldn’t do this or that all the time. I shared my hesitation about telling that story, I even emailed him later telling him that I was concerned that that incident would be misrepresented. And, lo and behold, I was right. Out of everything I told him, that’s the one part he used, and the impression for readers is that I came to a decision as important as homeschooling only because I was afraid, “Oh no! If my kids go to public school, they might like pigs!” How insulting.
I told him over and over about my concerns about how Muslims and homeschoolers are portrayed in the media, how the only reason I was speaking to him was to get some “truth” out there and to clear up some misconceptions.
Just to warn you all, he did send me a list of my quotes that he was planning to use (some that I was actually satisfied with) with the mention that some may be edited due to limited space. When the article came out, all the quotes I was hoping would make it were cut and the one that I didn’t want (the pigs story) stayed in. Gee, wonder why? I am grateful, however, that he accommodated me in one matter. In the original list, he mentioned that I am part of a co-op that teaches Quran and Arabic. I wrote him back and asked him to mention one of the many secular subjects we teach as well — cooking, sewing, carpentry, tae kwan do, art, science, history, etc. He did work with me on that. (In retrospect, I remember him chuckling and asking, “So the girls learn cooking and sewing?” and I responded heartily, “Oh no, boys too! Learning how to stitch has been great for my son’s fine motor skills!”…I had no idea what angle he was coming from, now I do, after reading about his take on the Lodi community.)
Anyway, I mentioned here some of the things I said not to “defend” myself but to offer some “talking points” to others who are thinking of continuing the dialogue. I’m out (at least for now).
Wassalaam
Hina
————————————
Hina’s letter to the editor:
Dear Editor, I agreed to speak with Mr. MacFarquhar in hopes of getting some “truth” out there about why many Muslims are opting to homeschool. Imagine my dismay to find that, out of our lengthy discussion, he cherry-picked the one quote that was the least indicative of why my family chose to homeschool. To suggest that a decision as important as homeschooling was arrived at only out of a fear that “our kids might like pigs if they go to public school” was an insult not only to me but also to the readers of the NY Times. Mr. MacFarquhar admits that it was difficult to find willing interviewees, and he boldly suggests that the Muslims’ reticence might be out of a fear of being associated with homeschooled Al-Qaeda spokesmen. No, Mr. MacFarquhar, look in the mirror and you’ll see why many Muslims don’t believe the media comes to them in good faith. ~ Hena Khan-Mukhtar
————————
Here is what Nabila Hanson(who is actually shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s sister, not his wife :)….) had emailed to the editor of the article :
Dear Editor, As an interviewee for Neil MacFarquhar’s article on Muslim homeschoolers, I was deeply disappointed by what appeared to be a duplicitous misrepresentation of the facts. And, your journalist seems to have confused religion with individual cultural practices. Mr. MacFarquhar interviewed many Bay Area Muslim mothers who hold professional degrees and choose to homeschool their children for academic excellence and NOT to cook for their brothers and fathers. What a cheap shot! Articles of this nature only contribute to the dangerously ignorant and negative portrayal of American Muslims. When will the media give Muslims a break? Nabila HansonAmerican, Muslim, Professional & Homeschooling Mother of Two
————————-
A christian homeschooling mom’s rebuttal to the article :
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Go to Previous message | Go to Next message | Back to Search ResultsMark as Unread | Print ReplyReply All Move…InboxcandidaSupportcrafting_muslimahsIlm TreeWAPF-SFWeston Price - South…zaytunasisters Flag this message[bammoms] a christian blogger’s response to the ny times articleSunday, April 6, 2008 11:34 PMFrom: “Hina Mukhtar” Add sender to Contacts To: bammoms@Yahoogroups.com, nadikhan@aol.com, atmk1@aol.com, sammarei@yahoo.com, faraaz.o.khan@gmail.com, athar_khan@engineer.com, nabila@kinzaacademy.com, waseem.hasnain@yahoo.com
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Update on Muslim Homeschooling in the News
Below is a link to a beautiful letter. I hope you’ll click through and read it all.
Previously, I shared the link to a NYT article on Homeschooling Muslims.
I am sure that there are Muslim homeschoolers, just as there are Christian, pagan, and atheist homeschoolers, who are probably not doing their children any great favors by homeschooling them. I am equally sure that there are far more children who are not well-served by their public schools. I am also sure that quite often it’s more interesting for reporters to interview the head-cases in every movement, and when they are not available, maybe they pretend otherwise… .
Here is an update to that story- a counterpoint. If you read nothing else here or in the linked page, please do click on the link and scroll down and read Ms. Khan-Mukhtar’ s thoughtful and eloquent explanation of what she really said as well as some useful context. For instance:
Mr. MacFarquhar admits that it was difficult to find willing interviewees, and he boldly suggests that the Muslims’ reticence might be out of a fear of being associated with homeschooled Al-Qaeda spokesmen. No, Mr. MacFarquhar, look in the mirror and you’ll see why many Muslims don’t believe the media comes to them in good faith.
If you’re like me, one of the things that stuck out in that NYT story, and I do mean stuck out, like a rusty nail sticking out of the floorboards of an old farmhouse, was the story about the mother who wanted to homeschool because in the kindergarten classroom the children were writing about why they liked pigs:
Hina Khan-Mukhtar decided to tutor her three sons at home and to send them to a small Muslim school cooperative established by some 15 Bay Area families for subjects like Arabic, science and carpentry. She made up her mind after visiting her oldest son’s prospective public school kindergarten, where each pupil had assembled a scrapbook titled “Why I Like Pigs.” Mrs. Khan-Mukhtar read with dismay what the children had written about the delicious taste of pork, barred by Islam. “I remembered at that age how important it was to fit in,” she said.
I understand that neither Muslims nor kosher Jews eat pigs, and that’s not what bothered me. There was just something… odd about the way it niggled away in the back of my mind, giving me a sense that something just wasn’t right. I couldn’t have told you what, but it jarred.
Please do read her entire letter to see the context of the pig story. Hind-site, and all that, but I think now, after reading Ms. Khan-Mukhtar’ s very thoughtful and careful letter explaining what she really said and her concerns about the article that what bothered me is the disconnect- a mother who works to have her children participate in a co-op teaching subjects like Arabic (which is not easy), science, and carpentry does not sound like the sort of woman who suddenly decides to homeschool because the local kindergarteners put together a scrapbook on why they like pigs.
Another point in that story that jarred, was this:
Aishah Bashir, now an 18-year-old Independent School student, was sent back to Pakistan when she was 12 and stayed till she was 16. She had no education there.
Asked about home schooling, she said it was the best choice. But she admitted that the choice was not hers and, asked if she would home-school her own daughter, stared mutely at the floor. Finally she said quietly: “When I have a daughter, I want her to learn more than me. I want her to be more educated.”
Now I do not know anything about the Bashir family, of course, except what I read in that article, but even if the reporter did not cherry pick quotes and data to give his story the flavor he wanted, there are some problems here. As this story is written, Miss Bashir was not homeschooled from 12 to 16, because, according to the reporter, she was sent out of the country to a place where she had no education, and she is now studying through a public school Independent Study program. If true, this four year gap in her education is very sad for her, but I fail to see what a story about a child forced into truancy by her parents and sent away from home (to, apparently, live in an attic and feed upon fish-heads since that’s the only way I can imagine spending four years without learning a thing) has to do with home education (again, that is only assuming purely for the sake of argument that the facts are as Neil MacFarquhar has delivered them to us). Miss Bashir has returned to this country and resumed her formal education, which seems strangely at odds with the fragments of the story we’re getting. Did Neil have the journalistic instincts of spam that he did not ask WHY she was sent to another country for four years or what it was she did there instead of an education? Or did he ask and for some reason decided we would not be interested? Does it seem consistent that the reason for this was because her parents were opposed to her being educated given the fact that she is, in fact, continuing her formal education and is currently enrolled in that public school ISP? Or has she left home, since she is 18, and is pursuing her education on her own? Wouldn’t you like to know? I would. And where the reporter portrays her has experiencing sad disappointment in her own education, it might just be an admirable quality of humility. I am not denying the possibility that it’s a sad and tragic story of a girl denied access to books, to the life of the mind, to all learning outside the confines of (cookbook free) kitchen- We don’t know.
There isyet another way to interpret Miss Bashir’s final remark. Every one of my children, at some point in their teens, begins the process of developing their own interests in a variety of subjects to the point that they know more than I do about many things- which does not change the fact that I am The Mother.=) Like young Miss Bashir, I too, want my children to know more than their mother, to be more educated than I am, and they do and will continue their own learning and studying long after they have left school age. Isn’t that what every parent wants?
It was an interesting article, so far as it went, but for me it raised more questions than it answered, and I appreciate Ms. Khan-Mukhtar’ s attempts to clarify
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Another viewpoint : http://www.getreligion.org/?p=3323
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I really appreciate what ‘farooq’ had posted above and am personally trying to implement that with my own homeschooling. For anyone interested in such an effort, please read, ‘concentric circles’ by elma ruth harder or go online to http://www.tarbiyah.org and read their pdf comprehensive article….