Minn. Educators Hoping for More Muslim Books in Public Schools

** That's the title of the article.

Oh .. this should be fun....

Minneapolis Star Tribune

"The books are more about what it's like to live in another country and be a Muslim, or what it's like to be from a war-torn nation, not what it's like to be a teenager in America and be a Muslim," Braun said. "Those books are few and far between."

I can see the need for books in Social Studies about what it's like to live in another country or to be from a war torn nation. I don't know if there are a lot of books out there about what it's like being a teenager in America and being Catholic, or Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist or ______. Fill in the blank. I haven't seen any in the schools here. The kids seem to be getting along fine without it.

"It is extremely important for young people to read stories reflecting their ethnicity and/or religion in order to feel like worthwhile human beings," said Freda Shamma, director of curriculum development for the Foundation for the Advancement and Development of Education and Learning, based in Cincinnati.

Maybe. Dunno about that. My hispanic daughter is doing great and she isn't reading hispanic centered books. She doesn't seek out books with Hispanic characters. Heck .. she's not even all that interested in her Spanish class. (We have to nag at her to do her Spanish homework! ) And she shuns anything with religion at all - no matter if it's Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist ... No interest (except the concept of reincarnation interests her).

Minn Educators Hoping for Muslim Books in Public Schools

Poor grades. Loneliness. Alienation. Feeling worthless. Can’t relate. Those are just some of the reasons why educators in Minnesota are fighting for more Muslim-oriented books in public school libraries.

“There wasn‘t a whole lot in our library that provided a sense of ’this is what’s normal,’” Julie Scullen, a reading intervention specialist at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids, MN, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune regarding literature for young Muslims.

Scullen is leading the charge at her school to make more Muslim centered literature available to students. She even used $800 in federal funds to make that happen, ordering books such as “The American Muslim Teenager’s handbook“ and ”From Somalia With Love

My take .. whatever. If they want to spend their tax money on this stuff, it's up to them. I'm thinking tax money is better spent on Math and Science (which America so desperately lags behind in). Or having a social studies course that has basic religious/social beliefs of the different religions. We have a lot of Quakers in this area and Jewish and Catholic folks .. but we don't have books about American teenage Quakers or Jews or Catholics in the school libraries. We have books about kids in other countries and their lifestyles, etc ... But whatever. They can assess what they think they need most. I don't care.

Anyone who wants to discuss this .... chat away and enjoy.

Just another pet for the libs to push into our educational system. I will refuse to allow my children to read about the muslim world. I personally don't like the muslim religion nor the way of life, and I won't have my children poisoned by that mindset.

I guess there are different ways of looking at this. One being that multicultural openness is what America is all about, and we should try to embrace others. Another being that it would be a wise step to prevent deep disenchantment and disconnection from random Islamic American immigrants. On the surface it looks wild, but look at the conditions of government schools. They are in many ways indoctrination systems that teach myths, and groom wage slaves. The "Islamification" of America I always hear of seems far less important considering the republic has just officially died.

I'd be willing to bet that via the internet, Amazon.Com, and any good libray..there are plenty of books on Islam, Muslim culure, and Muslim lifestyle...etc.

The problem is getting kids to read anything...Muslim or otherwise...there are plenty of good students and smart kids..however, even when I was a student many moons ago...most students absolutely hated to read anything...certainly anything challenging.... there are those...myself included that did read most everything..including books on Islamic culture...albeit by way of the British Colonial Wars...but I read it never the less.

In Social Studies...that is the very point, to STUDY and expose students to other lifestyles and cultures...Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and on it goes.

What I won't tolerate is indoctrination disguised as education... be it Muslim, Christian, or any other religion...and I am a Christian... there is a time and place for those studies...and school isn't one of them.

reply to post by FlyersFan


If tax money can't be used to buy christian books
for public schools,it can't be used for buying muslim
ones either!
Remember...separation of church and state?

From the sound of the article, it seems like they are just looking for books with muslims in them for their libraries. I don't think they are calling for them to be put into the curriculum. (at least at this stage) I don't really see a problem with that; if there is a science fiction section, a mystery section, an LGBT section, etc etc, why not a muslim section? It might be a different issue if it were being put into the curriculum and were therefore compulsory.

Hi,
Education is a different thing and education is differ so why are we correlate to each other..?