Tonight during his lecture, Ta-Nehisi Coates gave the most cogent defense I can think of about why a parent should send their child to Islamic school. Well, he was talking about HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges & Universities), but it is analogous - if the level of academics is up to snuff. Essentially, his argument is that HBCUs offer a safe, if semi-private, space for students to confront their own history. HBCUs create a safe space in which an African American student can interrogate herself without fear of needing to assert her self-esteem, self-worth and intrinsic human dignity, in the face of a sometimes hostile majority. Most Islamic schools in the US have a long way to go academically and can be uneven in terms of the caliber of students they graduate. Socially, they can be difficult for students to navigate. And sometimes teachers are not equipped with the right skill set to deal with post 9/11 philosophical questions. But theres something to be said for being in a safe space during your adolescence, where you can unpack and process parts of your cultural and religious identities among peers and teachers who are not out to convince you that your faith tradition is the motherlode of bad ideas.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:06:17 +0000