The Muslim faith is one that I knew very little about prior to transferring from a third grade teacher to a Teacher of Multilingual Learners. I took the position in August of 2016 and my first parent/teacher conferences were right around election time. One of the nights of conferences was the day before the election. I spoke to parents that were from all over the world and it was an experience that I will always remember. The second night of conferences will always be remembered as a night that changed my career. The second night of conferences was the day after Donald Trump was elected president. I spoke of no academics or students that night. I was faced with seven hours of conferences with parents who continued to ask me, “What will happen to me and my family?” “What will he do to us?” and “What does this mean for my family?” I had been teaching for about twenty years and was never so speechless as I was that night. I realized very quickly that while Trump’s politics may not have an immediate impact on my life, my families and their kids were terrified.
At that time, the majority of my twenty-five students were Muslim. The only thing that I knew to do was to start to do my research. I knew little about the community and even less about the faith. Reading informational books, articles, reports, children’s books, young adult books and also listening more attentively to my students was where I began my journey to having a better understanding of the Muslim faith and community. It’s been almost eight years since that day and I have come so far in educating myself more about the community and faith that many of my students practice. As we are nearing the halfway point of Ramadan, I spend my lunch breaks this month with students who are fasting. I open my classroom up each year for all lunch periods so that those students who need a place to go instead of the cafeteria have one available. Some colleagues have told me that “there’s no way that I’d give up a month of my lunchtime for my students”. To others it seems like a huge sacrifice but when I think about the sacrifice that my third and fourth grade students are making in the name of Allah each day by fasting, my lunch break is not all that important to me in the grand scheme.
I have a fourth grader who has started to pray more during the day during Ramadan. She came to ask if it was ok with me to pray in school and if I had a place for her to go. She was afraid to ask her teacher, saying that she “didn’t think she’d understand why it was important because prayers are not supposed to be in school.” I was made space in the classroom adjacent to me that is only used periodically throughout the day for her to be able to pray without peers or staff questioning her.
The Muslim community is one that I have worked hard to immerse myself in since having a large number of Muslim students each year. Whether that is eating at restaurants that specialize in Middle Eastern food or shopping for halal meat at particular grocery stores in cities like Portland, my students’ families, beliefs and religions are important to me year round, not just during the month of Ramadan.
The community has been very open in accepting me into their culture by helping me learn some phrases, bringing in foods for colleagues and I to taste while I am continually seeking knowledge of things that impact my students. Right now, with the celebration of Ramadan, a simple greeting of “Ramadan Mubarak” brings a smile to my students face and until they get to know me, they ask, “How do you know about Ramadan?” I explain that in my classroom, we are all learners, no matter what age we are.
Shkran
