Why Home Schooling?
By Sania Qureshi
S
tatistics show that homeschooling is
becoming more and more popular all
over the world, and one of the reasons
is that the parents can tailor the
educational curriculum to their needs; whether
that is for religious, social, economical or any
other number of reasons.
I also homeschool my kids along with my friend
and classmate, Evita. Ours would, maybe, not be
classified as the traditional homeschool, as Evita
and I only teach a limited number of subjects
and the rest are taught by teachers who come to
our home.
Homeschooling started for both of us at the
beginning of the school year of 2012 due to the
mashwarah (seeking advice) and encouragement
of my Shaykh (spiritual guide). It was in response
to the need that I was completely unsatisfied
NISBAH 36
by how my children were doing in school in
their academics and their social and religious
development.
Back then when this project first started Evita
and I were both ‘Aamah students. We were
completely immersed in the spiritual and
academic environment of our madrasah (islamic
school), but we were having a very difficult time
transferring this change that was taking within
us to our children and husbands. We, as students
of the madrasah were taught one thing, and my
children in their secular environment in school
were learning something completely different.
The last straw was when my nine year old
daughter came home from school on Valentine’s
Day and said “Mama, all the boys and girls were
playing Valentine’s Day games at school. I knew
that it was wrong, but I had to join in because
otherwise they would all make fun of me.”