“To me, a Christian child should not be made to write that,” Porterfield, mother of a seventh grader at Spring Hill Middle School, told the Columbia Daily News.
She also takes offense to what she said is a three week focus on Islam in her daughter’s history course, especially since the class skipped past a chapter on Christianity –
the predominant religion in Tennessee.
“I have a big problem with that,” Porterfield said. “From a historical point of view, that’s a lot of history these kids are missing. Also, for them to spend three weeks on Islam after having skipped Christianity, it seems to me they are making a choice about which religion to discuss.”
The news site posted an image of one student’s assignment about “Shahada” – Islam’s profession of faith – in which the child copied the require phrase, “Allah is the only god Mohammad is his prophet,” but also drew an arrow to it and wrote “!Lie!” The Shahada assignment was based on “creed,” one of the Five Pillars of Islam covered in the unit.
Porterfield said the class skipped Christianity because
it’s not required by the state’s standards. Those standards, TN Core, are very similar to the national Common Core standards, though Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill scrapping Common Core in May.
Porterfield said her daughter’s teacher “was not happy about it” but said she must follow the standards.
“
She said this will be on (standardized tests). Both her teacher and Principal Shanda Sparrow said students would not have to write the Shahada again,” Porterfield told the Spring Hill Homepage.
On Tuesday the teacher required students to recite the five pillars verbally, including the Shahada, she said.
Maury County Director of Schools Chris Marczak talked in circles in a statement to parents, and set up a public meeting Sept. 17 for parents to voice their concerns to teachers and administrators. ....
Parent Joy Ellis isn’t buying the district’s justifications for the Islam assignments.
“My child was required to write ‘Allah is the only God,’” Ellis said. “
This is a seventh grade state standard, and will be on the (state standardized test). Christianity was completely skipped and is not a standard. I didn’t have a problem with the
history of Islam being taught, but to go so far as to make my child write the Shahada, is unacceptable.”