It is truly the little things that make the world of difference. Today, it was a hug from one of my 3rd grade Sunday School students. Except, unlike most of the students who hug me after class because possibly today I was slightly easier on the homework, this one was different. It was a hug of thanks and near triumph. Or maybe not--but for me, it made the world of difference.
Let me back track. So, this is the first time I'm officially a Sunday School teacher--we won't count the attempts of signing up and having such a ridiculous schedule that it just never happened. The irony--the classroom I have, is the same one I used to sit in 13 years ago and get a private tutoring session. Memories--except this time, I was the one teaching and it was the thirty 8 year olds in front of me moaning and groaning that they had to be awake and in a classroom at 10am on a Sunday. After the first day of class and watching the struggle of these little ones counting the minutes until break-I made a vow to make this class as enjoyable and beneficial as possible. As I assessed my students, it amazed me to see the various levels each student was at. One student, mashaAllah could read and write arabic fluently, his recitation was near perfect (or as good as a 3rd grader's tajweed could really get) and he consistently asked for extra homework. On the flip-side there were many students struggling with just the arabic alphabet. One young boy caught my attention. Walking in on the first day with a look of helplessness and frustration after a general assessment, he simply proclaimed, "Sr. Yasmin-I've never been to Sunday School before and I don't know any of this!" and then quietly resorted back to staring at his sheet of paper that probably made no sense to him. Feeling a sense of empathy, possibly because one day not too long ago that little kid was me, or just because the personality of this boy seemed so dynamic or really because as a teacher it was my job--I sat with him every Sunday, gave extra work, assigned him study buddies and worked to make sure he never felt left behind in the class. Where am I going with all this? Well today, was the first arabic quiz. After looking at everyone's grade, and almost assuming his would be of the lower end-I looked at his. He hadn't missed a question-everything was correct, and he got one of the best grades in the class. Later he came up and said--"I can almost read arabic now Sr. Yasmin." with a grin from ear to ear. My day has been made, alhamdulilah :)
As promised earlier, I thought I'd expand more on Female Chauvinist Pigs-The Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy. So being in a class that takes a specific look at feminism and rhetoric using sources both primary and secondary to study the various aspects of feminism-what it is, how the argument changes based on who is presenting and basic issues that have been included, I must sincerely say this was of the most interesting classes and reads all semester. Levy, basically questions the stance that the new liberation movement of women "empowering themselves" by means of shows such as Girls Gone Wild, and women who feel that playing around, and wearing more and more provocative clothing by choice are indeed liberated. The book takes an in-depth look at the roles consumerism, commercialism, lesbianism, and how the new empowered and liberated woman manifests herself in these contexts. Levy further goes on to argue that women in their quest to liberate themselves are following the pattern of what is typically associated with masculinity and in turn falling into the typical pattern of keeping masculinity as the prominent gender. The class discussion was really everywhere with this but two main things resonated throughout the class over and over--1. In general no female, nor male for that matter, really saw this as true liberation and 2. We didn't want to see our children or children's children deal/do what this book cited in many high schools and middle schools today. How or what to do to solve this was a completely different matter that didn't seem to get touched. As I walked out of class all I could find myself thinking was-Alhamdulilah for Islam.
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Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.
Henry Ward Beecher
Sunday, November 18, 2007
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4 comments:
Jazakillah khair. :-)
Wa Eyaki! IA I hope it shed some light...if u want I'd be glad to share the book with you (post=finals of course)!
hey yasmin, I clicked on your blog on your gmail status because I'm procrastinating..anyways, I actually went to a talk at UNC last year where ariel talked about her book, so I haven't read it but I got the gist of it when she talked about it..I think it's true that certain "liberation" is not actually liberating. At the same time, saying "thank god for islam" as if that somehow shields us from misunderstanding what liberation means should be done carefully, as many of us don't even truly know what the Islamic concept of feminism is, or what the quraan really says about women outside of what we know culturally. Just as taking off clothes does not necessarily mean liberation, neither does putting on clothes. but this is a much bigger discussion than for a blog comment, so we should talk about it sometime. I was just excited to see that someone else cares. I'm reading amina wadud's quraan and woman right now, you should def read it after finals, it's a short book, the best I've seen so far as understanding women directly from a quraanic perspective.
Good post.
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