The Cambridge School Committee recently decided that, beginning in the 2011-12 school year, schools will close for one Muslim holiday each year. On the heels of two events that paint America as an increasingly Islamophobic nation, those being the controversial Ground Zero “mosque” and the lunatic antics of that pastor in Florida, the School Committee’s refreshingly tolerant decision couldn’t come at a better time.
The decision, however, has been met with considerable backlash from the greater Boston community. After all, just one month ago a Wellesley, Massachusetts middle school garnered national media attention when its students visited a local mosque, some participating in the prayer ritual. Such articles about that event claimed students were “blatantly mis-educated [sic] about Islam,” with other pundits fallaciously claiming that “the students were separated by gender and the boys were asked to join the Muslim adults in prayer.” The readers’ comments for these articles were even uglier.
The School Committee’s decision, the first of its kind in Massachusetts but preceded by an identical decision from Burlington (VT) public schools last month, has generated much of the same fear as the middle school’s mosque trip. Boston’s 7NEWS – WHDH offered its viewers the chance to share their thoughts about the decision on Facebook and received mixed responses. As a student who attended the most culturally-diverse high school in my state, I applaud the School Committee’s decision for making its holiday policy more inclusive to all students, especially with the rise in Muslim students.
On the other hand, as a former student representative to my local school committee, I feel the community of Cambridge, led by the School Committee, is now obligated to educate those with personal reservations about this decision. There are clearly persistent misconceptions about Muslims, their adherence to Islam, and the Qur’an. The School Committee’s decision is certainly a bold step in the right direction, but the policy change must be accompanied by an education movement to make the social change truly successful. This education is, in fact, just as important as the policy change itself, because what’s the point of closing schools if students don’t know the day’s significance?
Back in Maine, we’d organize events called “community conversations.” We would bring in a couple of individuals knowledgable on the subject at hand, then reach out to the community and invite parents, teachers, students, business owners, and concerned citizens to attend. People came to these events not to debate or argue, but to learn.
I truly believe that if such events were organized in Cambridge, they would be met with overwhelming success. The School Committee’s decision, however optimistic, only marked the beginning of a long process. After all, tolerance is learned, not legislated.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jhi L. Scott