I’m saying that if there is to be a bright line test then it has to be used across the board to all religions.
If the test is ‘someone may be offended’ then nothing can be taught in school.
To be clear, I think the assignment to copy the shahada is a bad one, for a lot of reasons. But I don’t think that Christian students would feel that by drawing those squiggles they were making a statement of faith.
And the parents’ reaction is so ridiculously preposterously stupidly over the top as to make them look like complete fools and raving, violent maniacs. A school system should not have to close twelve schools because a teacher picked a poorly chosen homework assignment.
“But assigning students to copy something that looks like graffiti, something they are clearly not being asked to actually profess in a language they understand is simply not the same thing at all.”
So have the students (including Muslims) write out a statement of Christian faith and allegiance to Jesus Christ in calligraphy, and bring it home to their parents. What’s the big deal? It’s just a bunch of squiggles.
Have the students (including Jews) write out some of the proclamations from Muslim Clerics, denying the Holocaust and declaring Jews to have descended from apes and pigs. What’s the big deal? It just looks like graffiti.
Maybe they should have the students (including the black students) write out a statement from the Civil War, arguing why black people should continue to be slaves. What’s the big deal? If it’s in a different language, they can’t read it anyways.
I’m sure all of their parents would be just thrilled to plaster those interesting collections of graffiti in their living rooms.
Now you’re equating the shahada and Christian statements of belief in the divinity of Jesus with bigoted rants about Jews being pigs and black people deserving to be slaves? Do you really want to go there, busdriver? You might want to rethink.
A poll… Would you wear a t-shirt with a bunch of Chinese characters because it is just a bunch of gibberish to you? I would not unless I am certain about the meaning.
Would I? No. Do people do this? Yes, all the time. Do I think it’s equivalent to wearing the same thing in a language that the wearer understands? No.
“Now you’re equating the shahada and Christian statements of belief in the divinity of Jesus with bigoted rants about Jews being pigs and black people deserving to be slaves? Do you really want to go there, busdriver? You might want to rethink.”
Nope, not going to rethink. My point is (and I suspect that you understand this, despite your straw man argument), is that even though something is written in a foreign language, it matters what it is. What may look like just graffiti to most, can be an offensive statement to others. I wouldn’t ask a class of diverse students to write something that could be very disturbing to one group, just because it was in a different language. Kids are smart, and even the not so smart ones can Google. If you wouldn’t ask someone to write (or say) something in English, don’t ask them to write (or say) it in another language.
Along with BunsenBurner’s thought, I would not wear a foreign language t-shirt that I wasn’t certain of it’s meaning. It could be something terribly offensive.
There are whole sites dedicated to badly translated t-shirts. So yes, people do it, and they do it all over the world. Hell, people get tattoos of incorrect words and characters in other languages.
The only point here is lack of language knowledge does not negate the meaning. If schools are opposed to incorporation of religious stuff into the curriculum, it does not matter that 99% of teachers and students do not know Arabic.
(No, I do not consider copying it being equivalent to conversion to a Muslim. Stupid? Yes. Pointless? Yes. Waste of time? Yes. A plot to convert? Not even remotely close.
A better use of the students’
artistic skills and time would be an exercise invilved copying a map of the Middle East… At least they would see that there is no Agrabah on it!!)
100% agree with BunsenBurner!
Years ago (1986?) I had a teal crop tee with Chinese characters on it. No idea what it said. One day I was at the Hoover Dam and passed an asian woman who looked at my shirt and started laughing. I ran after her and asked if she knew what it meant. She said no, but she thought it was the name of some park or other in China.
So, I guess, yes, I would wear a shirt with Chinese characters I didn’t know the meaning of…
I always laugh when I see the Chinese symbol tattoos. I keep thinking how the person thinks it says brave or something similar when it might really say eats poop.
The text chosen for copying ( Shahada) was inappropriate, but not truly harmful to the kids, as there was no attempt to convert the students. And conversion doesn’t happen by magic, or copying calligraphy, or reading a text selection. Still, I agree some other words would have been a better choice.
I understand the purpose of asking kids to “try their hand” at calligraphy, if that is being taught. My students have learned the Arabic & English names of the 5 Pillars of Faith and their meaning, just as they have done projects on the Seven Catholic sacraments.
They are just learning about other religions, not joining them.
It does matter that the students do not know Arabic and cannot translate what they’re copying if the argument is that the students were bidden to renounce their own faith and adopt a new one as they tried to imitate the calligraphy.
There’s nothing in that assignment that says, now translate the passage and recite it in English. Over and over.
I agree that for geography class, a map of the Middle East made more sense. But if this is a class that tries to include cultures along with geography, it’s not egregious to include a discussion of the religious practices in that region and a one-time assignment to copy some calligraphy. (Assuming it was one time.)
To me, it is a different matter, and cause for someone to object, if a public school class or choir including nonChristians and nonbelievers is required to sing (usually rehearsing multiple times) explicit professions of a particular faith. Not talking “Dashing through the snow” or “Jingle Bells” but “Christ our Savior is born…”. One could argue that there is some subtle indoctrination going on in that case.
“It does matter that the students do not know Arabic and cannot translate what they’re copying if the argument is that the students were bidden to renounce their own faith and adopt a new one as they tried to imitate the calligraphy.”
Nope. The argument is keeping religious material out of schools. Hardly anyone here argues that it was “conversion.” Words do not lose their meaning and become a piece of art simply because the person looking at them does not understand the language.
It wasn’t even that. Calligraphy is writing, in a certain way, with certain strokes. The students were not being asked to to write the Shahada in a certain way, with certain strokes. They were asked to copy the drawing.
It’s a terrible assignment for a lot of reasons, but it’s a million times worse that unhinged lunatic parents threatened the school district about this minor problem, so dangerously that twelve schools had to shut down. The unhinged parental lunacy is the real problem here.
As usual, there’s a middle ground here. I can certainly see a teacher viewing this as a harmless assignment, as few rational people would believe copying down a statement of faith you don’t believe in and can’t even understand as part of a calligraphy exercise would constitute a binding conversion or a threat to one’s religious identity.
On the other hand, I myself would not be comfortable doing this, as I would see it as a violation of my own religion, in the same way that I would consider it to be a violation of my religion to say the Hail Mary. It doesn’t matter that I wouldn’t know precisely what I was writing; once I knew that I was writing a statement of faith, I would feel obliged to stop.
However, if I had been in that class, here (I’m pretty sure) is what the ensuing phone call would have been like:
“Hi Mrs. so and so. This is mini - apprenticeprof’s Mom. I understand that you’re doing a unit on world religions, which is fantastic. I did want to mention, however, that professing allegiance to other faiths is forbidden under Judaism, so my daughter will not be completing/did not complete/ should not have been asked to complete the assignment to copy out the Shahada. I know that the calligraphy assignment isn’t in any way intended to proselytize, but technically, it falls under the prohibition I’ve mentioned. If you think it is really essential for her to complete the calligraphy assignment, could you choose another, more content-neutral text? Thanks.”
See how there’s a difference between “Please be respectful to the faith traditions of all your students” and “How dare you indoctrinate my children in that evil religion?”
I continue to object to the assignment being described as “copying out” the Shahada. I certainly concur that apprentice mini shouldn’t have to have done the assignment, but in no way is reproducing what looks to Western eyes like a drawing accurately described as “copying out” or calligraphy.
“I continue to object to the assignment being described as “copying out” the Shahada. I certainly concur that apprentice mini shouldn’t have to have done the assignment, but in no way is reproducing what looks to Western eyes like a drawing accurately described as “copying out” or calligraphy.”
In my eyes, that’s just silly. Words are words, even if they are written in a fancy sort of writing. You can recognize the words written in calligraphy in your own language, and is no way writing out words a drawing. You really can’t pretend they were just drawing a pretty picture.
Did your eyes actually look at the item in question, busdriver? Please tell me how to divide that design into words. I can’t tell. And if I saw that, say, printed, repeated, on a scarf, I wouldn’t know it was writing.
http://thinkprogress.org/education/2015/12/17/3733679/arabic-calligraphy-school-closure/