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An intriguing and innovative endeavour, Abd El-Kader Educatıon Project seeks to remember the great achievements of Emir Abdul-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, one of the greatest figures in Islamic history’s modern era. The project provides learning tools and curriculum materials to help teachers and educators incorporate his story and example into their teaching environment. Some very interesting information has been uncovered by the researchers working with this site. For instance, the Emir was admired by a very wide range of people, from President Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria to Pope Pius IX and Sir Richard Burton; even French prisoners respected and admired him greatly. The link below provides a review of AbdelKadir Project’s activities for the year 2011:

http://abdelkaderproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/AEP-NEWS-BULLETIN-01.18.12-Final+.pdf

A project well worth exploring and supporting! We wish the organizers continued success in their efforts.

A very interesting piece was posted about Harvard University’s 1869 entrance exam. It seems that at the time, Harvard was headhunting for students, and actually made their entrance exam easier to attract potential students to their university.

A New York Times blogger has an interesting article commenting on the days when college was a “buyer’s bazaar”, and notes wryly how institutions such as Harvard and other elite schools would practically brag about how easy it was to gain admissions:

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/remembering-when-college-was-a-buyers-bazaar/

One cannot but be bemused after one look at the exam. Take a look for yourself:

http://spectrum.columbiaspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/harvardexam.pdf

Students were expected to know Latin and Greek, Greek history, ancient geography, the whole of Virgil, Felton’s Greek reader or its equivalent, Caesar’s commentaries, arithmetic including quadratic equations and more. One wonders how many of America’s high school students could even think of passing such an exam today.

But perhaps there is something more worrying than the mere fact that we, as a country, have become so ignorant as to be completely illiterate in our classical traditions: not only do we seem to have adopted the stand that such a knowledge base is worse than useless, but for many of us, the loss of such a tradition is hardly even registered, its disappearance from our consciousness barely a matter of discussion.

Yet to understand the roots of the founding of modern America, one must know something of Greek and Roman civilization. As Fredrick Copleston, the author of the celebrated series “A History of Philosophy” has noted in the introduction to the first volume, “Greece and Rome”, of his monumental nine-volume series:

“We would scarecely call anyone ‘educated’ who had no knowledge of history whatsoever; we all recognize that a man should know something of the history of his own country, its political, social and economic development, its literary and artistic achievements – preferably indeed in the wider setting of European, and to a certain extent, even World history.”

Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit, was primarily writing his series for seminary students. On a similar vein, if it seems surprising that Americans were so literate only 150 years ago, and equally obvious that today, most Americans would fail dismally if given such an exam, how much greater is the surprise that so many Muslims in America seem to have lost an entire sense of civilization themselves, beginning with its traditions of education?

To this day, one can visit the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez, and meet the students who, in order to gain acceptance, are expected to have memorized the entire Qur’an. Not so long ago, they were also required to have memorized texts such as the Ibn Ashir, a treatise on theology, jurisprudence, and the principles of spiritual practice; the Alfiyyah, 1000 lines of poetry on the rules of classical Arabic grammar; the Lamiyyah, over 150 lines of poetry summarizing morphology; the Jawhar al-Maknun, an extended poem on rhetoric; the Risalah, an extended treatise on jurisprudence, and more. During their studies, they were required to cover extensive commentaries on all of these subjects, as well as many texts in fields such as the Qur’anic sciences, the Hadith sciences, history, psychology, medicine, arithmetic, cosmology, poetry and poetics, and much more. In the Islamic West, many of these were, and still are, considered necessary to gaining a rounded and balanced education. More importantly, immersion into a tradition of learning, a tradition that was based on cross-referential scholarship, expansion upon foundational principles (rather than deconstruction or a vague, vapid nihilism), and culture and comportment, was considered essential for any educated man or woman.

This should give us pause for reflection. Just what are we, or our children, learning, and why? Are we still imbibing that tired, limp rhetoric of education equalling good job opportunities or a higher standard of living? Are we so numb to life around us to think that such an education is somehow meaningful? Why do we seem to be so deadened to our rupture with our own vast tradition of Islamic learning?

Perhaps the advertisers and financial and business elites who have caused us so much grief are correct about us: we are a herd to be manipulated at will, to be atomized as much as possible, instead of being allowed to work in collective, beneficial initiatives, to lead a life of empty and meaningless consumption. Our ignorance and the gaping spiritual void in our hearts can be filled with the rubbish of material life. Perhaps they think that we, like bloated cattle, should be left to graze away into oblivion, until we stumble, wide-eyed and catatonic, into our graves in some unmarked secular cemetery on American soil. They shall have the last laugh.

We pray that Allah grant us the strength of spirit to avoid such an end. May He wake us from our slumber and allow us to reconnect to a truly vital and vast tradition.

What is the state of university education, especially in the Muslim world? In a word: atrocious. There may be some exceptions to this rather broad statement, but if we are to base our ideas of education as something with deep roots in Islamic tradition and the worldview of Islam (its weltenschauung), the assessment must strike very close to the mark.

In line with this appraisal, a recent review by Maryam Jameelah is apt and worth mentioning. She has reviewed a work by Dr. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud entitled “The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Mohammed Naquib al-Attas”, and in the review, she makes it patently clear exactly how seriously misguided modern university education is in Muslim lands. You can read the full review here:

http://attahawi.com/2009/10/20/the-educational-philosophy-and-practice-of-syed-muhammad-naquib-al-attas-book-review-by-maryam-jameelah/

This is, of course, to say nothing of modern universities in the West, who at times, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, provide a more “Islamic” learning environment than do universities in the Muslim world. Yet its drawbacks are also severe. Note, for instance, this post from a few months ago in the New York Times questioning the value of a modern university education:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/opinion/15arum.html

In any case, there is much work to be done, especially for those Muslims in the West – and elsewhere – who are seriously contemplating the establishment of properly functional Islamic institutions of higher learning that are true to the principles of Islamic education and the Islamic tradition. May this process be facilitated for us all.

A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times has a decidedly modern solution to our schooling woes, one that is perfectly appropriate, it would seem, to our fast-paced society, obsessed as it is with efficiency. The solution, the author states, is to ensure that teachers teach more hours in class, instead of being inefficient and having activities outside of the curriculum. You can read the piece at the link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01bausell.html?ref=education

The op-ed piece begins by admitting – as if it were not obvious enough – that test scores are a poor indicator of effectiveness in educational performance. Have no fear, though – it has a very effective solution:

“Fortunately, there’s a far more direct approach: measuring the amount of time a teacher spends delivering relevant instruction — in other words, how much teaching a teacher actually gets done in a school day.”

The idea, it would seem, is that if teachers simply “hewed closely to the curriculum”, maintained strict discipline, and minimized non-essential classroom activities, they would be well on the road to success.

A further amazing suggestion is put forth: administrators could develop better evaluations using a most efficient solution: “They could simply videotape a few minutes of instruction a day, then evaluate the results to see how much time teachers spent on their assigned material and the extent to which they were able to engage students.”

It seems somehow appropriate that in the quest for success – read higher test scores – the “final solution” seems to include videotaping teachers’ performance daily. There is something deeply disturbing about advocating a schooling system model that looks even more conspicuously like a prison system than it already does at present.

This is to say nothing of the underlying assumptions of such a system: the implicit supposition that teachers cannot be trusted and need monitoring; the notion that a human being’s education ought to be judged primarily on the basis of test scores on standardized tests; the absence of any reference to a moral or ethical framework; the obsession with measuring everything to do with education in numbers; and, it goes without saying, the lack of any teaching of a coherent worldview that is holistic and nourishing to the mind, body, and spirit.

The sooner we cast aside such an inane paradigm of schooling, the better. One can only shudder in horror if one were to think of presenting such ideas to some of the greatest teachers of the Islamic tradition. What would Imam Shafi’i say, one wonders, if he were presented with such views? What about the great Andalusian-Moroccan scholar and spiritual master Ibn Abbad of Ronda, what would he say? This is the great Imam of the Qarawiyyin, whose writings and personal example have spread throughout the Muslim, the scholar who, upon his deathbed, told his students to look into a certain treasure chest of his and donate any monies found within to the poor, and who, it was found after his passing (May Allah have Mercy on him), had not spent a single coin of the entire amount he had received as stipend over his 20 years as a professor of the Qarawiyyin – how would he respond to such ideas concerning education?

May we be granted the insight and courage to move beyond this kind of thinking, with all due respect and sympathies to those who seem to be mired in it. Let us move on, roll up our sleeves, and move forward with our alternative forms of education, always remembering to ask for Divine guidance and assistance. As the great scholar Ibn Ajiba mentions in his commentary on the verse in Surat al-Fatihah “Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek”, it is not enough to do works alone, nor is it enough to ask for Divine aid by itself – one must do both. And Allah Knows Best.

One of foremost thinkers of the Muslim world, Dr. Syed Naquib Al-Attas, has made invaluable contributions to Islamic civilization in the present age. One of the most foundational ideas he has explored is the concept of education in Islam.

Dr. Attas begins by mentioning that the purpose of education in Islam is not merely to produce a good citizen or a worker, but a good human being. Whereas a good citizen or good worker may not be a good human being, the reverse is true: a good human being will necessarily be a good worker and citizen, according to the ethical imperatives of the Islamic religion (and not necessarily those of the modern nation-state).

For a person to be considered educated in Islam, according to Dr. Attas, he or she must be embued with adab. Someone who possesses adab is “the one who is sincerely conscious of his responsibilities towards the true God; who understands and fulfills his obligations to himself and others in his society with justice, and who constantly strives to improve every aspect of himself towards perfection as a man of adab [insan adabi].

Education, therefore, is ta’dib, “the instilling and inculcation of adab in man.” Furthermore, in the hadith of the Holy Prophet, upon whom be peace, where he mentions adab, Dr. Attas renders the following translation: “My Lord has instilled adab in me (addabani) and so made my education (ta‘dibi) most excellent.” The subject matter or content of ta’dib is akhlaq, ethics and morality.

How far the goals of education are in Islam from those of the modern education system! Here is John Taylor Gatto, in his book “The Underground History of American Education” from his second chapter, ‘An Angry Look at Modern Schooling’:

“From the beginning, there was purpose behind forced schooling, purpose which had nothing to do with what parents, kids, or communities wanted. Instead, this grand purpose was forged out of what a highly centralized corporate economy and system of finance bent on internationalizing itself was thought to need; that, and what a strong, centralized political state needed, too. School was looked upon from the first decade of the twentieth century as a branch of industry and a tool of governance.”

Dr. Gatto goes on to quote President Woodrow Wilson himself, addressing businessmen just before the advent of World War I, where he stated explicitly:

“We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.”

You can read more from the chapter at the following site:

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/2a.htm

The question to ask ourselves, especially if we take our faith seriously, or put more explicitly, if we take our very lives seriously, is: to what extent do we wish to be driven by this agenda of the modern schooling system? To what extent have we really lost our bearings, in terms of how and why we educate our children, and how we ourselves approach the concept of education?

At some profound level, in fact, this is where real change must begin: in order to participate in the creation of a better society, we desparately need to upend and dump the collected debris of imperatives for schooling that have been shoved into our heads and down our throats by the modern school system and their advocates, and re-learn, anew, what education is for, and how to go about obtaining it. Perhaps these thoughts by Dr. Attas may serve as the impulse to embark on that journey. And Allah Knows Best.

For further, fascinating reading, you can take a look at Dr. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud’s article “Al-Attas’ Concept of Ta’dib as True and Comprehensive Education in Islam”:

http://www.crvp.org/book/Series04/IVA-30/chapter-19.htm

You can view a related article where Dr. Attas discusses the definition of education at some length, in his article “Understanding the Concept of Education in Islam”:

http://en.harakah.net.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1633:understanding-the-concept-of-education-in-islam&catid=47:edu-spective&Itemid=90

Dr. Attas is a phenomenal thinker and scholar whose works deserve greater exposure and consideration. We hope that visitors to the blog benefit greatly from these brief excerpts.

Not surprisingly, it seems that the study of history has been declining in public education, both here in North America and in the UK. The following “Thought for the Day” was posted by British Muslim scholar Timothy Winter (Abdul-Hakim Murad). Here is the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20110119.shtml

After noting some of the dismal assumptions of history that many in the UK seem to harbour about their own history, he makes an interesting note about the decline in standards of teaching history. “Perhaps the real reason is that having a national story requires us to think about large issues of meaning, truth, ethics, and collective destiny, all uncomfortable ideas in our postmodern age.”

There are some echoes of these concerns in Neil Postman’s “The End of Education” – exactly which narrative can we use to discuss the United States, its history, and its place in the world today? However, we must first recognize the need to tell such stories, for without them, we run the risk of forgetting, of “ghaflah” in religious terminology, heedlessness, whose consequences are most often nothing short of appalling. Of course, both in the Bible and the Qur’an, as Dr. Winter notes, we are confronted with timeless principles, something which we all need to recall in today’s age of forgetfulness.

It seems that the results from new standardized tests measuring students’ abilities in Shanghai are raising some eyebrows in the United States. Predictably, questions are being raised about public schooling here in America.

One intriguing point about this story is that students from Shanghai scored better than those from all Western nations, with particularly outstanding marks in Maths and Sciences. The report also mentions in passing that when students from Massachusetts, considered the United States’ showcase, took the test in 2007, they scored “behind Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.”

Clearly, such results ought to be taken with a grain of salt: raising a holistic child does not necessarily mean getting the highest scores on standardized tests. Yet this seems to be another indicator that nationwide, American students seem to be falling behind, and of course, it is no secret that those who take on homeschooling seriously generally raise children who go on to become outstanding students. Just another indicator, if we needed one, that public schools are quite broken, probably beyond repair.

Here’s the link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Help Stop Bullying, U.S. Tells Educators

The New York Times recently published an article on the highly disturbing state of affairs in our public schools with regards to bullying.

It seems that there is so much apathy on the part of parents, school teachers and school officials that we now actually wait for government officials to write letters to us to remind us that bullying is a serious problem, and that something must be done about it. Consider the contents of the letter sent by the assistant secretary of civil rights to thousands of school districts and colleges across the country. Here is an astonishing quote:

“I am writing to remind you that some student misconduct that falls under a school’s anti-bullying policy also may trigger responsibilities under one or more of the federal anti-discrimination laws…”

So if you don’t care much about your children in the first place, perhaps if the government warns you strongly enough that your school might be breaking the law, you will wake up and do something about it?

A sad reflection, if there was ever one, on how deadened parents, teachers, and officials are to the plight of their children in public schools.

Another disturbing statistic: the article notes that “one-third of all students ages 12 to 18 felt that they were being bullied or harassed at school,” and that bullying and harrasment is now “a rite of passage” and has reached crisis proportions.

It is distressing to see such terrible circumstances in our public schools. It is even more distressing that so many parents do not seem to feel that it constitutes a real, serious problem, certainly not enough to do something concrete about it. Perhaps such parents will have to wait for a castrophe to take place – like the high-profile cases of suicide outlined in the article – before they are moved to think differently. Yet it is a mark of wisdom to learn one’s lessons from the mistakes of the past. May we all take note and change our approach to education for the better.

Here is the link to the article:
“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/education/26bully.html?_r=1&ref=education”

This feature article highlights a trend that mirrors others in the search for serious, sane alternatives to the depressingly dismal public school system. Certainly, a very interesting read!

The article was published on Friday, September the 10th, 2010 in “The Globe and Mail,” the full text of which can be found at the following link:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/back-to-school/more-families-are-deciding-that-schools-out-forever/article1703185/

A timely text of a graduation speech criticizing the schooling system, given by no less than the valedictorian herself, these musings about schooling are certainly worth reading and reflecting upon.

The speech can be found at the following website:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pr/valedictorian-against-schooling.html

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech

by Erica Goldson

The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010

Here I stand

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years.” The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast – How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”

This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contend that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not “to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States.”

To illustrate this idea, doesn’t it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking?” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn’t for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren’t we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don’t have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can’t run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be – but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, “You have to learn this for the test” is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.

For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn’t have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a “see you later” when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let’s go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we’re smart enough to do so!

Reprinted from Signs of the Times.

July 31, 2010

Copyright © 2010 Erica Goldson