Introducing Al-Noor Academy

I was hesitant, but I didn’t hesitate long. How would an "American" fit in, teaching at an Islamic academy? But like many "Americans" the past couple of years, my family needed food—and I needed the job. They asked me to teach English, and I certainly could do that. I took a breath and jumped.

The breath turned fresh air, and I’ve been there ever since, coming to love the place in all its strangeness that isn’t so strange. Not a bit.

Al-Noor Academy resides on Church Street in Mansfield, on the one-way part where motorists and pedestrians alike gawk openly at the uniformed young people, grades six through 12. Our boys wear what during my day we called “school clothes”: dress pants and collared shirts; girls the traditional Muslim hijab and abaya, the head covering and long, flowing garment falling to the ankles and designed to protect female modesty.

Because make no mistake, Muslim females are modest. It’s probably the first and foremost thing one notices in the Islamic world. Outside school, wearing hijab (which is the Arabic word for the whole concept, not just the head scarf) is a matter of individual choice. Not at Al-Noor, for Muslims. We just don’t happen to have any non-Muslims. Other Islamic schools do.

Boys and girls don’t mingle socially. My classes are segregated by gender, and usually mixed with two grades in one: grade six boys and girls in the same room, but seven-eight and nine-ten are in the same room together, boys with boys and girls with girls. Teachers will realize this can present some lesson challenges, but in a way it’s a new take on the old one-room schoolhouse of the Great Plains. Everyone hears some lessons twice.

It must work: I have a lot of A’s in my classes, and not because I’m easy. I demand much, especially inferential thinking. For youngsters used to rote memory (many learn huge swaths of the Holy Quran by middle school), this is jarring. But they catch on.

In science and mathematics, classes are sometimes gender-mixed. Everything depends on need. Beside the class structure, Al-Noor Academy (the name means “The Light” in Arabic) has other unique aspects. We’ll get to those in later blogs, I’m hopeful. But for the moment, two points.

Al-Noor teaches religion, as you’d expect at a religious school. It also teaches ethics, leadership, Quran, and Arabic as a major subject. Seems to me this opens up economic opportunities for graduates in an increasingly global world.

And finally, cutting to the chase: what are these young people like? I mean, really like? Get ready for a jolt. They’re normal. They develop just as any other young people (teachers: Piaget would feel right at home). Their English is unaccented and articulate, in a teen-speak way. Good thing, otherwise Al-Noor wouldn’t need me!

Expect to hear more about Al-Noor Academy in this space in future, especially activities and achievements. That is, as they say at school, Insha’Allah.