As a parent of a child who attend, what issues do you have?
Do you have any ideas/suggestions to improve the Weekly Islamic School system?
As a teacher:
will sometimes have issue with attendance and commitment. Intially the children and parents are eager to come, but after a couple of months their attendance dwindles down. This coudl be due to a variety of factors:
a. Nicer weather means more outings and no time for Islamic School
b. Harsh weather conditions that make it difficult to drop kids to Islamic School
c. Parents/Kids dont’ like the teaching style - pace may be too slow or too fast for their liking
d. Cannot afford the tuition any longer
Parents don't spend time wih children at home to go over sabaq. Homework sheets come back unsigned.
Parents don't care if kids are dressed shabbily or are dirty.
Parents treat this as a daycare for a couple of hours where they can dump their kids and go off.
parents don't care about the progress of their children and don't respond to parent-teacher conference requests.
I feel that most parents in my school want their kids to go just because they have to, not because Islamic education is important to them.
As a parent:
I wish we had more teachers to my kids could get more one on one time. I have 20 kids now in my class, just me and one helper student. Sometimes it's chaotic.
I totally agree with everything u stated - been there.
I actually had stopped teaching due to all the housework chores i do during this time. I do with I had more time to teach.
But I also think we should get experienced teachers. Not just teachers that know how to read the qur'an and know all the other islamic stuff. But ones that teach, and not just preach. To be able to control the class, understand their behaviours and discipline them when needed (and not talking about just yelling). I mean if public school teachers have to go to teacher's ed, islamic school ones should do a course like that too. I would love to be a part of that class.
the masjid i go has family events and its encouraged that the kids from the islamic school attend them with their parents (and there is usually a reward/prize for kids that do attend the events)..but sadly, the majority of the kids that come to islaimc school just come for the class and thats it. if they come as a family to the masjid for other reasons, i think the parents might be more involved.
At my masjid, we have 3 fulltime teachers including myself. The 2 that teach senior levels are teachers by profession and have taught professionally for 10 and 13 years respectively. I used to be a teaching assistant in my univ days and have volunteered in my kids schools several times. I'm the only one without the formal teaching degree. While discipline isn't too much of an issue, I think I have not been able to develop a good balance between firmness and having a relaxed atmosphere given that they are little kids with limited attention span...and a huge agenda! I feel I'm getting better but sometimes my expectations are unrealistic.
well thats great that u have qualified teachers. I myself, sadly, know nothing about teaching and Im a mean discipliner (ask my neices and little cousins ha ha) so this was one of the reasons why i used to stress each week. We do have 2 qualified teachers, who are very organized and knowledgeable....but out of the 4-5 classes we have, the rest are just former students that are now old enough to be teachers or the masjid ladies.
Parents don't spend time wih children at home to go over sabaq. Homework sheets come back unsigned.
Parents don't care if kids are dressed shabbily or are dirty.
Parents treat this as a daycare for a couple of hours where they can dump their kids and go off.
parents don't care about the progress of their children and don't respond to parent-teacher conference requests.
.
sounds like straight out from my heart!!!
Since I am also the administration of school, I was asked at the general body meeting of the masjid that teachers should email the homeworks to kids parents instead of expecting a sign on the homework sheet and I said, "do you get emails from schools for homework" and that shut them up!!!
I have no idea why do they expect the Sunday school volunteer teachers to raise good Muslims for them.. that should be happening at home as well!!! we can only do so much in 3 hours!!!
^^ parents are looking for the easy way out. They like other people to do the job they are supposed to do.
I hate to be judgemental and someone can very well say "to each their own" but being in the position I am, I can safely say that many parents these days are not concerned about their kids gaining a strong Islamic foundation. What good is learning about salat in school if they never see parents praying at home, what good is it teaching kids about prophets when parents hardly ever sit down with their children and talk about Islamic history...the few hours at the masjid is time-pass because there is no practical implementation of the knowledge...what gets absorbed is what stays...everything else is just wasted.
You'll be surprised as to how many parents ask us why we are teaching hadeeth and tareekh and aqaiid and fiqh etc...why don't we just focus on reading the Quran... "aur sab toh seekh hi laingey...kya faida?" On the other hand, the little kids love and enjoy their lessons on varied subjects.
At the end of class, I pick one student to come do a dua for the class...he's what they say, "O Allah thank you for bringing us to the masjid to learn the Quran and learn how to be good muslims. O Allah please make sure I keep coming. Rabbi zidna ilma."
^exactly!! our sunday school is from 10 to 1 which ends with zuhr prayer and so many times parents just stay in the car and expect their children in the parking lot after praying zuhr!!! then I sent out a note to all parents that kids will not come to the parking lot, they need to come in, pray zuhr with them and then take them home!! Did it work? yes for couple of weeks and then the same old routine... now I dun ask them to come for the prayer but they need to come in to get the kids.. I just cant afford to lose a kid in the parking lot!!
I mean if they will not come in and pray at the masjid at the pick up time, how can we expect kids to pray at home? and then they complain that my kid isn't learning much... or we are going too slow or too fast and must accomodate their kids needs!!!
I like the idea for dua.. will try to incorporate in our school inshaAllah!!!
I'll play devil's advocate (many things I agree with and hear other parents saying)
Islamic school is not fun. It's archaic in it's teaching style. It's not apt to provide children the learning/answers they are seeking.
Teachers/Voulnteers are not competent and not organized. Why not pay the teachers?
Many things are a put off kids to learn religion. In my masjid even after zuhr prayers, they have 30-45 miunutes of tasbeeh and additional lectures for all kids. It's okay if you are ages 8-12. The kids ages 3-6 are just annoyed.
^^ parents are looking for the easy way out. They like other people to do the job they are supposed to do.
I hate to be judgemental and someone can very well say "to each their own" but being in the position I am, I can safely say that many parents these days are not concerned about their kids gaining a strong Islamic foundation. What good is learning about salat in school if they never see parents praying at home, what good is it teaching kids about prophets when parents hardly ever sit down with their children and talk about Islamic history...the few hours at the masjid is time-pass because there is no practical implementation of the knowledge...what gets absorbed is what stays...everything else is just wasted. .
And this is the reason why i want kids.
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You'll be surprised as to how many parents ask us why we are teaching hadeeth and tareekh and aqaiid and fiqh etc...why don't we just focus on reading the Quran... "aur sab toh seekh hi laingey...kya faida?" On the other hand, the little kids love and enjoy their lessons on varied subjects.
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yep, been there too. the first half of Islamic school is learning to read quran and to memorize surahs from Juz Amma. the other half is about Islamic teachings. A lot of parents think that they shoudl just finish the entire quran and thats it. but its not. what is reading goign to do if they dont: A. understand what it means B. understand what the qur'an is about and C. learn some surahs which they could use in their salahs. When i was little I read the entire qur'an a couple of times, but honestly took nothing from it, and still would use the two shortest surahs in my salah.
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At the end of class, I pick one student to come do a dua for the class...he's what they say, "O Allah thank you for bringing us to the masjid to learn the Quran and learn how to be good muslims. O Allah please make sure I keep coming. Rabbi zidna ilma."
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that's a good dua. We make the students read Al-Asr, and the last 3 Quls.
We have a very cutting edge teaching style if I can say so myself. Our kids love the school. The issue is with the parents They don’t realize the importance or their role. The tasbeeh is just too much I think.
so glad u people started this thread, i really sometime get clueless as how to teach kids about islam and islamic values. my kids go to an arabic school , they do teach history, Quran, duas, etc. but problem is everything is in arabic.so understanding what they have done at school today is difficult . Inshallah i am planning on taking arabic language course.
it would be great if anyone of u can start a thread about teaching young kids. any helpful information, how to be role model for our kids , what topic to discuss at what age , play ideas. how can i make my kids read Salat on their own. my eldest son is 5 and some time he read salat with me just as a play.
gshaheen… is this a middle eastern country? Here in the US, at my school, all teachers are arabs except myself and there is a majority of arab students excpet may be 2-3 pakistani students but we teach Islamic studies in english… teachers speak english with children except the very young ones who dont understand english but just arabic.
It’s great that you want to be involved, i really wish more parents were like that.. for salah, what I have done in the past is give them a paper chart every week with the name of the days in row and names of prayers in the column and drew stars in all rows ..they get to take that chart home, color for every prayer that they have prayed themselves or with parents and then bring it back next Sunday… and then of course we discuss that and talk more about it.. I dunno if I am explaining it right or not but if it doesn;t make any sense, please do ask!
thats right.. I feel like our volunteer teachers are a lot more dedicated and organized just because they do it for the sake of Allah.. two of them are the graduates from Al Azhar university and I absolutely love their teaching style!
and yep 30-45 mins of tasbeeh is a lot.. we dont have that even during ramadan so I can’t imagine kids sitting through that… tasbeeh is not fard, but a personal choice and should be left at individuals!!
so there was a shooting last week right next to the masjid during Islamic School. It was during Dhuhr Salah and while in the 3rd rakah, shots were heard. The Salah kept on going, and then a parent (who was waiting in the car for this kids to come out), rushed inside and yelled for his kids and that there's a shooting. The masjid was put on lock down until everythign was all in the clear. Alhumdulillah the masjid and the kids and parents were alright.
The masjid is in a strip plaze/unit type set up, and next to it is a restaurant/entertainment club (which was completed only a few months ago), and they allegedly were having some sort of charity poker event (although there is rumours that it was an underground poker tournament). Two robbers stormed in to steal teh winners and shot a man who was defending the winner. The robbers escaped and the man died on route on the hospital. :(
I found that its dispicable that all this was happening next to a masjid, during the time of Islamic School, especially when it was end of the day, where kids and families convene in the parking lot.
I hope this is a wakeup call for parents and the congregation at the masjid to help raise funds urgently so the new masjid could be complete so they could move.
We recently had a dude walk into our masjid in an attempt to stab our Imam...some personal animosity. The people were able to protect the Imam and grab this guy and call the police right away so he's been taken to jail....but we've all been a little scared as wel and now we lock the door from the inside once all the kids are in for their class. We don't have enough money to hire a security guard.
Khair, these things can happen anywhere...think of so many cases back home where terrorists have walked into a jamaat and exploded. :(
I teach the kindergarten class at the weekend Islamic school at one of the masjids in my city, my students are 4-5 years old and this is usually their first year of weekend Islamic school. Although I have a specific curriculum to follow of Arabic and Islamic studies..like learning Arabic alphabets, good manners, 5 pillars, articles of faith, small surahs..etc, my main focus is on trying to help the students to develop a strong and healthy relationship with Allah, with their religion and with the mosque. Its more important for me that the students finish their year with a strong understanding and conviction that Allah loves them and that they love Him and that the mosque is a place where they feel happy, comfortable and welcome, and where they come happily and willingly every weekend to learn and play. If they still dont know Surah al Fatiha by the end of the year or cannot remember what comes after alif baa taa, that really is not such a big deal to me and I think that there is plenty of time still for them to learn that in the future. But the emotional and spiritual attachments they will make with Allah SWT, with the mosque and with the religion in general, that is something they will inshallah carry with them for the rest of their life, and that I hope will continue to motivate them to increase their knowledge, understanding and practice of Islam after their parents stop telling them what to.
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Islamic school is not fun. It's archaic in it's teaching style. It's not apt to provide children the learning/answers they are seeking.
Teachers/Voulnteers are not competent and not organized. Why not pay the teachers?
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I agree that teachers and curriculum is a big problem in many weekend [and fulltime too actually] Islamic schools. For teachers, there are so many things to consider...the administration should try to find teachers who not only have a good knowledge and understanding of the religion, but also do their best to practice it as best they can and who can be good role models for the students. But just their knowledge, understanding and practice of Islam isnt enough, they have to also be good and effective teachers, knowing how to teach and reach children in positive, creative and engaging ways. Also, the teachers should be people the students can relate to, so ideally people who have themselves been born and raised in the land, or at least have lived enough years there, to actually know and understand what it means to be a young Muslim in Canada/America/wherever, and can identify more with the challenges, issues and realities the students are facing in their cultural context. Same with the curriculum, its not enough to simply teach how to recite the Quran and have them memorize and parrot certain details, rituals and facts. They must be able to relate to what they are learning and the curriculum must be able to address the challenges they face and the issues they have and be relevant in their daily lives. It must help them to build a healthy and strong Muslim identity while living as a minority in a diverse pluralistic society and must speak to the real issues they face growing up and living here..lessons they can really internalize and will help them live with the light of Islam and be engaged, productive and positive members of both their Muslim community and their larger society as well
They don’t realize the importance or their role. The tasbeeh is just too much I think. 