COVER STORY this dunya, whether physical or digital, are ephemeral and will at some point end can help them realize that spending so much time on social media is a waste of their time and energy. Curricula in Islamic schools stress the significance of action. One New Jersey Islamic school has created a community service program in which all K-12 students are expected to help out at local soup kitchens and shelters. Thus its classrooms scheduled days during which the youngest students would make goody bags for the needy and the older students would cook and serve food to the homeless. Engaging in these activities with a realization that doing so not only makes the world a better place but also draws us closer to our Creator makes them all the more important in raising young people with strong character. There is much to worry about in today’s world. Daily headlines indicate that existing problems are forever morphing and always requiring our attention. But as daunting as that may be, it is reassuring to know that faith-based education is producing a new generation of leaders and doers who will both continue to make the world a better place for all and reap the rewards of their actions in the Hereafter. ih Aqsa Khan, a certified educator, has taught for seven years in both public and Islamic schools in New York and New Jersey.
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Reclaiming an Islamic Core Value Where do Islamic schools stand when it comes to genuinely serving their students and staff by providing them a nurturing environment? BY ASLIHAN YILDIZ-ODEH
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n its March 2017 issue, Forbes magazine reported that psychologist Angela Duckworth, who has spent years trying to understand what makes high achievers so successful, was surprised by what she found. It wasn’t SAT or IQ scores, or even a top-ranking business school diploma that turned out to be the best predictor of success, but a “combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special,” she reported. “In a word, they had grit.” According to Duckworth, being gritty is the ability to persevere. It’s about being unusually resilient and hardworking — so much so that you’re willing to continue on in the face of difficulties, obstacles and even failures. It’s about being constantly driven to improve. And where do children spend most of their time in their formative years? At school, of course. According to Alicia Chodkiewicz and Christopher Boyle (Positive psychology school-based interventions: A reflection on current success and future directions. Review of Education, August 2016), an increased focus on youth development has led to an understanding of the importance
of children and young people’s wellbeing, resilience and mental health. As a result, over the last two decades a growing body of research has begun to increasingly recognize the complexities of learning and development during one’s school years. Alongside this trend is the rise of positive psychology, which is changing our conceptions of youth, education and development. Support for a new era of student-centric teaching practices dedicated to enhancing student wellbeing has come from researchers and psychologists, as well as from school and education authorities, who are showing a greater desire to integrate positive psychology-based programs into the learning curriculum. Anna Pluskota states that according to the World Health Organization website (WHO; www.who.int/en; Mental Health, 2001), mental depression is the main cause of disability. After remarking that it had become the world’s fourth gravest health problem (see the YLD-indicator [Years of life Lost due to Disability] and the DALYindicator [Disability-Adjusted Life Years]) by 2000, WHO experts went on to estimate that depression would become the world’s second largest health problem by 2020. The