Re: islamic or secular schooling?
Secular.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
Exactly my thoughts. Religion should be taught at home because that way your parents teach you morality with it too. Your parents are far better teachers of morality than any religion school teachers can be.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
zhongwen bijiao nan keshi ruguo ni de erzi xue zhongwen yi, liang nian, ta hui shuo zhongwen. Mingbai ma?
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
expatoserver... u must be in china :D
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
No, I live in Canada but have lerned Chinese. What I said was Chinese is relatively difficult language but if your kids study it for a couple of years, they should be able to speak it.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
PRIVATE school...the public secular ones are slowly turning into jokes.
Frankly, the Islamic school in Toronto has a better curriculum than the normal schools now days...
It's about quality, not ideology.
Parents can't abdicate their role in religious education. It begins and ends at home, and the best education is private one-on-one education. Find an engaging Mulana (not the slap-on-head kind) and have him tutor the kids.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
^ i agree "Parents can't abdicate their role in religious education. It begins and ends at home"
since i've decided to be a full-time stay-at-home mom, i'd rather take on the task of religious education myself.
living in a multi-racial society, apart fr his religious and academic knowledge its important to instill the right social skills as well. i'm fiercely against racism (as i'm of mixed ethnicity) and its important to me that he get the right messages in his religious studies.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
for something like religion.. i wouldnt want schools to do my job as a parent. I dont think i can trust anyone else with my child's beliefs and faith.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
after he/she is old enouff to understand right and wrong :)
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
you would be surprised, I guess there are people who pick a profession because of personal interest and not just compensation. otherwise we would all be lawyers and doctors. I guess we dont have our priorities right when we underpay the people who teach our children. teaching is not the only profession with such challenges, social work is another.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
Its a deeply personal decision.
If the Islamic school is of a good quality from an educational standpoint, then definitely its a great option. I am sure there are excellent Islamic schools in some parts, unfortunately I have not seen one. Most often what I have seen is that the Islamic school is basically a hair-brained idea which is cashing in on the word "Islamic". The teachers are either volunteers or just a step above volunteers. Very few teachers are credentialed. Few still have the experience or the aptitude to effectively interact and impart education on very young children. The syllabus leaves a lot to be desired. Facilities of the school are inadequate. Muslim parents still patronize these schools and send their kids there because they feel peace of mind that the kid is going to an Islamic school. Far too often, these parents also relinquish whatever they are supposed to do to educate their own kids about their faith and values.
Add on to it that in some instances I have seen teachers at the Islamic school inculcate their own narrow opinions on higly debatable issues on the kids. Six-year old daughter of a friend of mine was attending an Islamic school here. We were there to pick her up from school. The kids were walking in a line from their class rooms to the point where parents pick them up. An arabic female teacher was escorting them. One of the parents standing there was a lady who was wearing a jeans and a top with a scarf on her head. The female teacher actually pointed to that lady's jeans and told her class "look at that lady, she is wearing a haraam dress". All the six-year olds looked at lady and shook their heads. My friend who was standing with me, looked at it aghast. There were many such instances, and long story short, at the end of the school year, he pulled his child from that school. He felt his child was getting totally confused and was having trouble interacting with kids of other faiths (neighbors etc). In addition, the accent she was picking up in the school was rediculous. He changed his home and moved to a good school district and now the child attends the regular public school in second grade.
I am sure some of you will have different priorities on how you want to educate your kids. Public schools offer some positives and some negatives. Positives include credentialled teachers, great facilities, many extra-curricular programs, interaction with kids of all backgrounds and uniform syllabus. Negatives depend on where your kids go and the standard of the school. Plus as they grow up (middle and high school) there may be instances where you feel that the peer group and influences offered by a public school do not jive with your faith and values. Putting them in an Islamic school or a good quality private school may be another option for parents who are concerned about these issues.
There is no one size fits all, here.
If your young kids are going to a regular public school, you can (and probably should) enroll them in a good quality weekend Islamic school. This will allow the kids to have an opportunity to interact with other kids of the same background, form some good friendships and learn about your faith. Most of my western collegues have their kids attend the Sunday Church school (of whatever denomination they belong to), whereas my kids attend the Sunday Islamic school near our home. So this is a fairly common practice in people of all faiths. Plus, the environment you create at your home and the things you teach your kids will definitely be an important influence as they grow up.
Beautiful post, couldn't agree more, I was hooked on it from beginning to end. Now that's the kind of guy who knows how to make decisions.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
I don't know if there is a shia madrassah here in canada;
I agree with the idea that it starts at home; parents should be role models in this department. But a secular education is also very important for success in life; not everyone can get a job at QTV as a maulvi. There has to be a balance between deen and duniya.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
never an Islamic OR Christian school.. sadly there aren't any secular schools .. and no Public schools aren't secular either.. their religion is Government and Mind Control.
I went to Xtian schools and turned out fine. HS was secular mind you.
I am a fan of secular education.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
^^ You should be glad that you’re jammed here in Canada. In Pakistan the public schools (known as govt schools) are horrible, plus it is quite difficult to determine which pvt school has a good standard or not. Heck, there’s even a fraudulent copy of Princeton University in Karachi 
. Pardon me once again, but I never thought that there were ABCD-wannabes on here on GS.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
Really?
is there a link?
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
Secular ofcourse.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
hey peepz, need ur serious opinions on this... :D wud u send ur preschoolers to islamic or secular schools? wat are da issues/concerns u wud take into consideration?
First five or 6 years of schooling in an Islamic school in the Uk(I love Yusuf Islam's school).........then high schooling and college education in Gulf, syria or egypt, then for degrees back in the UK (I love University of Bath), and after that for further Islamic education in Madina University of Saudi.....InshaAllah....InshaAllah InshaAllah. I want my children to be like the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad(SAW). inshaAllah.
But before all that we as a parents are learning for our children .....me and my husband both of us are still studying .....May Allah make things easy for us.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
yes if its real Islamic thing.
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
yes if its real Islamic thing.
What do you mean?
Re: islamic or secular schooling?
^^ She means that the school should not be a fraud (i.e. spoilt kids are allowed to do whatever they want and the school's eating up the parents' money). There are such schools, so you should be careful about the Islamic school you choose.
Really?
is there a link?
Unfortunately no, it is not a recognized university therefore it doesn't have any internet links... however I do know it via personal experience; I could have told you the location of it in Karachi but forgot :(. Anyway if you don't believe me go ask anyone in Karachi about the local Princeton University and they'll tell you.