Nyssa parent takes exception to educational unit on Islam

Julie Engel | ARgus Observer A Nyssa Middle School parent is upset over an educational unit on Islam. Kendlee Garner said the school has placed far too much emphasis on the unit and questioned why.

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“I bet if you took a world map into the middle school, not one kid could plot Iraq, but now they can all put on a Muslim headdress,” Garner said.

The class has spent far too much time studying Islam, she said.

“When they only spent a week on geography, I figured if they were only going to spend a week on Islam it wouldn't be so bad,” Garner said. “But it has just dragged on and on.”

The unit has involved guest speakers, skits and reports, but an activity on Thursday where students in all three social studies classes dressed in traditional Islamic outfits upset Garner because of the religious nature and the lack of parental notification.

She said she did not want her children putting on garb from other religions, and when she complained, her son was given an alternative assignment and sent to the library.

“The only reason I knew about it was because my son told me about it,” she said. “They sent him to the library instead of stopping what they were doing. I'm sure people would be outraged if they dressed up as the Pope.”

Nyssa School District Superintendent Don Grotting said as part of Benchmark 3 of the state standards, the school has taught similar units in the past.

“I've been here six years,” Grotting said. “This is the only person who has ever voiced, to me, a complaint about it.”

Garner did contact Grotting and NMS school officials with her concerns before contacting the Argus Observer.

“She feels very strongly about her beliefs, and I can respect that,” Grotting said of Garner. “But we can never satisfy 100 percent of people.”

Benchmark 3 of the Oregon Department of Education's Oregon Standards 2006 to 2007 School Year Newspaper does include this line: “SS.08.HS.05.03 Understand the importance of the rise of Islam and its interaction with Europe,” as the fourth unit under World History, “Understand and interpret events, issues, and developments within and across eras of world history.”

The newspaper is a document that outlines standards, guidelines and assessments for the Oregon Department of Education.

The Benchmark 3 standards - topics which a student should understand before the completion of eighth-grade - cover world history from Mesopotamia to the Renaissance. At Nyssa Middle School, topics are broken down by grade level and time period, with sixth-grade covering history through the Roman Empire and seventh-grade continuing with the history of the Middle East and Islam. In eighth- grade, students study U.S. History.

“We start out with the fall of Rome, getting into the Middle Ages, and Islam started during that time,” Pam Wood, seventh- and eight-grade social studies teacher, said. “We also cover the Crusades and through the Renaissance, where we cover the Protestant Revolution.”

Wood said the first two weeks of seventh-grade are spent in geography: one week on world geography and one week on Middle East geography. A few days are spent studying the Bedouins and Middle East trade before entering into the history of Islam.

“Islam is one of the things we do teach,” Grotting said. “Whenever we teach about any culture, we teach about religion. We are not promoting religion, it's just an informative piece.”

About the length of the unit, Grotting said the district is reevaluating how much time is spent on all particular topics in all subject areas to fully cover the state recommendations.

Typically, a unit will span from four to six weeks, and this year the Islam unit will be just over four, Wood said. The next unit will be the feudal system and Imperial Japan, Nyssa Middle School social studies teacher Jim Casad said.

“We try to be cognizant of parents' concerns. At times we will have alternative assignments for some students,” he said. “I believe we're not here to promote or advocate either religion or politics, however, we do have an obligation to inform students of what is going on in our world today and how history and culture have affected that world.”