There are many types of ideologies your child will most likely encounter in a public school setting: non-Christian (or possibly even anti-Christian), Hindu, Jewish, and even Muslim.
In fact, we’ve covered how we can approach talking about evangelism with our kids in this post: The conversation we all need to be having with our children.
It is important to teach our children how to interact with nonbelievers while they are in classes with them, along with how they can be a witness to them! But this becomes quite a different conversation if your child has a teacher who is from another religion.
Because of certain laws in our country, there is a strict separation in public schools that tries to keep religion out of everything. But we know that the odds of our kids hearing about someone else’s opposing beliefs are not small, especially if that person is a teacher who has influence over the classroom. This teacher may subtly transfer their worldview to the class.
How do I prepare my child for having a Muslim teacher?
In general, teachers focus on teaching and hopefully don’t bring religion into the lessons. But if this teacher wears a hijab or takes time to do some of their mandatory prayers during school, then your child is going to notice this and have questions.
First, it helps to give your child a solid understanding of what Islam is and what their teacher believes. Reading through a resource together and talking about it could be a great way to start deep conversations with them (if they are old enough to understand, of course).
Depending on their age, we have resources that would be great for your family to walk through together. If you want a very matter-of-fact, easy to understand book, check out The Simple Truth for a side-by-side brief comparison of 60 topics in Islam and Christianity. If your teen is ready for some in-depth studying of the Bible in comparison to Islam's teachings check out Dare to Explore as a Bible study that you can walk through together!
Make sure your child’s teacher is keeping healthy boundaries around religion
You may want to prepare your child in case their teacher shares details about their faith with the class. Get out ahead of it and talk about Islam together.
If your child starts coming home with sentences, stories, or information about Islam from the teacher, know that this teacher may be trying to practice da’wa (Islamic mission) in the classroom. Part of da’wa is to present Islam to non-Muslims in an attractive and beautiful way so the children start to be fascinated and want to know more.
On the other hand, make sure your child knows that if their teacher ever speaks negatively about their Christian faith, they should tell you immediately. This is obviously a worst-case scenario, but it is better to prepare our kids ahead of time, instead of leaving them unprepared or in an awkward situation.
What is your role as a Christian parent with a student under a Muslim teacher?
If your child wants to share Jesus with their teacher, you can encourage them in this. But it is not proper or appropriate for us to ask our children to worry about evangelizing to their teachers or other adults because of the vast maturity differences.
However, you as a parent may have a great opportunity to show Christ’s love to this person!
If the teacher knows your family is Christian, they might be nervous when the time for parent-teacher conferences comes around; many Muslims believe that Christians hate them, and they will expect you to be disrespectful.
Use every opportunity you have to show the love of Christ to your child’s Muslim teacher! When you see them, smile, be warm, and tell them that you pray for them as they teach. You can give them a special gift on Teacher’s day, a Christmas gift with the nativity story for Christmas, cards of thanks or encouragement, or even an invitation to join your family for a church picnic or a Christmas event.
It is important to find the balance between protecting your child’s heart from false teachings and guiding them to love Muslims instead of fearing them! Ultimately, our prayer should always be to see people through God’s eyes.
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
Prayer over our children in public schools
Dear Lord, please let my entire family be a light of the gospel to a world shrouded in darkness. Give me wisdom to protect my children from the lies, but to also empower them to love others the way You have loved us. Amen.
