For much of the top half of the planet, these present days mark the return to school. Kids from California to Kamchatka bid a fond adieu to fun, freedom and non-school food.
They trade the joys of summer for the challenges of school, including sometimes being and other times welcoming new kids.
Some of those new kids in some of those schools will be Muslim. And some of those will have all of the standard new kid vibes plus they’ll be wearing a hijab or bearing a very non-Jaden/Braden/Caden name.
If you’re reading this as it drops and your nearby school starts on Monday like it does for my tribe, you’ve got a couple of days to maybe make a difference. If kids owe you respect because you’re way older than them, attention because you’re their teacher or maybe money because you feed and house them, gather them around you. (An open bag of Sour Patch Kids is great bait for my munchkins.)
Tell them it’s possible there will be a new student or two at their school who is Muslim. You may mention Muslims follow a different faith, but we have some things in common. Share that some students will be weirded out by Muslim kids, but you’d like them to remember this:
Muslim kids are lit! (They’ll know “lit” is a good thing, even it it isn’t part of your everyday vocabulary.) Proceed to work the acronym:
L: Loved by God.
I: Insecure. Of course not all are, but since most kids are insecure the first few days of school, the likelihood is high! Plus the extra stuff.
T: Terrific. You don’t need to be afraid of them. In fact, they might become a really good friend for you and you for them.
If it’s in your authority to do so, tell them you’ll give them a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids if they set up a play date in the first week of school!
Feel free to pass this idea along. Cut and paste in your bulletin or post it on the church Facebook page.