by Norma Tarazi
Part 1 – Omar Ibn El Khattab School
Omar Ibn El Khattab School has been in existence for more
than 8 years. Originally, the Arab
Sisters Halaqah organized Saturday classes in Arabic and Islamic Studies for
their children, and advertised the classes for anyone else who wanted to enroll
their children. Classes were very
loosely organized then. No one came on
time. There were few rules and
procedures. Each volunteer teacher
decided what she would teach and how.
There was no agreed-upon curriculum.
Children were kept busy learning Quran, but there was no sense of
progress, of passing one level and proceeding to the next, as a child went from
one year to the next.
What a difference has come over the school slowly. Br. Mohammed Faour became principal about 6
years ago. He has a long history of
teaching in Lebanon and has also taught in and been principal of the Khaled Ibn
Waleed School, sponsored by the Saudi government here in Columbus. With new organization and the establishment
of curriculum guidelines, the school has come a long way under his guidance.
Attendance grew until it reached about 120 children. Part of the pressure for establishing Sunrise
Academy was the realization that, as the mosque could no longer hold Friday
prayer in its prayer area, so too the area used for classrooms was very
overcrowded. Classes are held mostly in
the woman’s side of the mosque and the house next door. In the house, the rooms can be decorated and
set up for tables and chairs, but the sister’s area, prayer room, extra room,
and meeting room, have to be cleared of classroom furniture after classes, to
be used for other purposes during the rest of the week. The restrooms were overwhelmed. The small playground behind the house is
frequently in need of cleanup and repair and the house is again in sad need of
restoration.
Then Sunrise opened in 1996 and by January 1997 the Quranic
Program was opened to receive children for a weekend program of Islamic Studies
and Arabic. Attendance at Omar Ibn El
Khattab feel off considerably as children were enrolled in the improved
facilities at Sunrise. But the mosque
school continues and fulfills an important community need.
A visit to the school today shows the difference. Classes start on time. The staff of three teachers is there and well
prepared. There are only about 35
students now, in 3 classes, but watching them at break time as they run around
and play and snack in the men’s prayer area, one is aware that the facilities
hold aobut all that they can safely and comfortably. About a quarter of the children are not Arab
speaking and the classes are carried out in both English and Arabic. The Ottowa Islamic School Arabic Textbook
series is followed now in the classes, along with the Saudi Islamic Studies
curriculum. Children have workbooks and
their progress is regularly monitored.
Currently there are about 17 kindergartners, ages 4 to 5,
taught by Dr. Nawal Yacoub. The mother
of 6 children, Sr. Nawal has beeninvolved with the school for years, first as a
parent, and ,for the last 3 years, as a teacher. Br. Faour has been a big help to her, giving
her guidance and suggestons about how to prepare lessons and control the large
class. She thinks 2 days a week of 3
hours each would help the students learn the program better, but she realizes
that would be too much of a burden on parents. School hours are currently from 10 until
2. With a 20 minute break for snacks at
11:20 and a final break at the end of the program to gather all of the children
for Dhur prayer before they leave, she has a time keeping the young children’s
attention for the full program. Four
hours of study is a lot for these small children, who seemed happy and lively
during the reporter’s visit. A teen
volunteer helps with the large class.
There are 19 in a class labeled 1st grade by the
teachers, but which actually has all children at the first grade Arabic level,
although they might be in 4th or 5th grade in
school. Sr. Sahar is teaching this
challenging class for the second year.
Though her major was business, she taught Islamic Studies back home in
Egypt before coming to Columbus a year and a half ago. Full of energy, she doesn’t find her diverse
group any problem at all.
There are 5 children in a class working at the 4th
grade level in Arabic. Sr. Nihal El
Skharkawy has been teaching the class for 2 years and they are making good
progress. She feels the school is
growing some because more children have joined the lower classes since the
start of the year.
Br. Faour is optimistic about the future of the Omar Mosque School. Although he is recovering from heart surgery,
he is enthusiastic about continuing to offer his expertise to the community in
guiding and training teachers. He would
like to utilize the facilities at Sunrise, but he feels the 4 hour program
offered at the mosque, at $50/quarter (Sunrise Quranic Program is $75/quarter
for 7 hours) fills a real need in the community. And there is strong sentiment to keep this
program at the mosque, centrally located and convenient for many children.
Part 2 – Sunrise Quranic Program
Sunrise Quranic Program, a children’s Saturday school for
Islamic and Arabic studies, was started via a grant donated to Sunrise Academy
for this purpose in January 1997. Since
that time many changes have been made as the school has sought to balance
between the needs and desires of parents and students, and the stipulations of
the grantor. Much talk has circulated
about the program, with many misunderstandings in information.
Currently the school operates from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on
Saturdays, with a break for lunch and salah and a sports activity period. Recently the schedule has been adjusted to include
an informal halaqah format in one period, with separate groups for older boys
and girls, to allow more support for young people trying to learn to practice
their faith in a non-Muslim world.
The director, Sr. Asma Al Khuraisat, has many more ideas for
program improvement, but getting all the staff and parents educated about rules
and procedures has been the recent priority.
Sunrise Academy has written regulations that guide and protect the
institution. There is a slow regular
process for changing rules to allow for appropriate consultation and reflection. As new programs start, particularly one as
ambitious as the Quranic Program, it takes time to set up and implement all of
the necessary procedures to stabilize the basic program, before curriculum
upgrades can be added. The program is
following a mixture of the Saudi curriculum and the Iqra International
curriculum for Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Students range in age from 4 to 12 and are divided in classes from
kindergarten through 5th. About 75% of the 75 students in the school
speak Arabic at home. The 4h and 5th
grades contain only such students at the present time. Iqra! Interviewed a number of mothers (and a
few daughters) currently involved in the program about their experiences.
All of the mothers and daughters agreed that a major attraction
of the program is its setting in a real school building with appropriate
facilities, compared to the mosque setting at Omar El Khattab. Most of them wished that the school started
at 10 am instead of 9, to allow more sleeping in for the weekend
experience. And many, who had younger
children in the program, spoke of the long day being somewhat tiring, but no
one wanted to cut back to 4 hours, like the Omar Mosque program. Everyone was pleased with the curriculum,
discipline, and the teachers. Most
parents seemed to be very involved in following lessons with their children at
home.
One mother tires to give her children 30 minutes of Arabic
and Islamic studies every day at home to reinforce school lessons. Her children love to be at the school to be
with their friends. They have friends at
Omar Mosque, and, if that school were to move to the Sunrise facility (close to
their home) and use it n Sundays, they would enroll in it as well, for the
pleasure of using their time wisely with their friends. They were at Omar Mosque but moved for the
closer improved facilities. The mother
feels the programs are both good. Though
her youngest complains a bit about the long day away from home, she feels this
is temporary and not very serious.
Most of the mothers had had experience at Omar Khattab
School and several had stronger reasons than improved facilities and longer
hours for switching to Sunrise. They
remembered the serious overcrowding and poor organization at Omar Mosque. They remember older curriculum policies there
that had errors or lack of serious content.
They had past communication difficulties with teachers there and had
concerns about the level of teacher training.
Much of this impression is out of date (see part 1 above), because of
changes allowed by the reduction in student load on facilities there and
changes in curriculum. Only one mother
knew a child at Omar Mosque in a comparable class to her child, who was making
slower progress. Though she understood
his to indicate a superior program at Sunrise, it could also indicate that her
own child was a more interested student or that she took more effort than her
friend in working with her child between classes. Non-Arab mothers seemed to have more past
communication problems and had more ideas to suggest to Sunrise staff for
program innovations and curriculum suggestions, which they said they were sharing
with the administration at parent-school board meetings and parent-teacher
discussions.
One mother was particularly eloquent in expressing her desire
to support the school to become a leader in Arabic and Islamic education as
long as it is flexible and positive in its attitude toward receiving a
diversity of children. She felt that all
should be really grateful for the gift that the school is to the
community. “No one will help us but
ourselves.” Her son resists somewhat
going to class, because sports programs are missed on Saturdays, but he is
making good progress. She has a vision of
growing possibilities and opportunities to realize them by working with the
administration.
Part 3 – Future Part-Time Schooling.
Just by viewing only the number of children who come to Eid
prayers, perhaps 1,000 children of all ages on a week day, we know that only a
handful are being served by the two ISGC programs. There is a large school at the Islamic Center
on Broad Street, with around a hundred students and about ninety children are
educated in a Somali school. Many
children receive Islamic education at home.
And of course there is the full-time Islamic school program at Sunrise
Academy. But the community must realize
that the majority of Muslim children are not being reached by education programs.
Currently the ISGC has a project to remodel the house near
the mosque into upstairs offices and a meeting room on the ground floor. The organizers of the new CAIR chapter have
requested office space there. This will
impact on the facilities use for the Omar Ibn Khattab School.
Weekend programs always have some classes with few children
(the older higher classes) and some which are overwhelmed. It is hard to visualize Omar Mosque School
with more than 60 students at the mosque location, using all of the rooms. Sunrise Academy has 5 classrooms. Theoretically each can hold 20 students and a
few can fit into the library. At
present, therefore, Sunrise is about full on Saturday also. There are plans to add a 2 story classroom
wing to Sunrise, and a multipurpose room (GYM/cafeteria) but financial
resources must be obtained for this project.
Technically, a duplicate program could be run on Sunday at each
facility. Any expansion would require
more teachers, and teacher education is an essential aspect of any future. It would also require more resources and
administration. Flexibility in
scheduling and in program design is necessary to meet the diverse needs of a
very diverse community of students.
May Allah guide our community in the expansion of our
educational system.
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