Something really cool that I got to do this week was interview someone close to me about Islam—my dad! I figured he would be a good person to talk to because he teaches 7th grade social studies, and in Indiana, that’s the year that social studies covers religions of the world. I wanted to compare how we study Islam in a collegiate setting to how he teaches 12 year olds. We chatted for 30 mins, so here are some paraphrased highlights!
He explained that he teaches Islam through a unit on Western monotheistic religions. He goes kind of chronologically, starting with Judaism, then its connection to Jesus and Christianity, and Islam comes up later as Muhammad lived after Jesus. He tells the origin story of Islam and how Muhammad lived around a lot of polytheism but encountered monotheism probably through travel and trade. After sharing the work of Muhammad and explaining the origins of the religion, they talk about what it looks like to practice the religion today.
After studying Islam at a college level, I was initially surprised how briefly my dad covers the topic. But, then I considered that the 7th grade curriculum is a lot broader and moves more quickly, making connections across many religions and parts of the world.
Another thing that kind of shocked me was that my dad sometimes gets backlash from parents just for teaching Islam. We’ve talked before about how he very consciously teaches from facts and history—so angry parents are usually just upset by the fact that Islam is being taught in the classroom at all. He says it’s not often that he gets backlash, just an email or phone call every once in a while, but it really surprised me that parents would be upset enough to contact him. I wondered, after this conversation, if his students ever directly questioned the teaching of Islam in class, and he said that it was much rarer. They tend to regurgitate what they’re taught at home but are generally more willing to learn and engage with the content.
This reinforced my thoughts about the importance of religious literacy, that I think has come up a bit this semester in class discussions. If we are knowledgable about what is being taught in public schools, I’d hope there is less backlash about students being presented with information and equipped with the tools to analyze and interpret for themselves. It was really cool to talk to my dad about the subject he teaches now that I have a stronger background in it!