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  Case: Friday Prayer
Mohammad joined my fifth grade classroom in mid-September. It has been about five months since he arrived, and he has been doing a great job on all subjects. He does not cause any discipline problems. He and his family are Muslims. My only problem with Mohammad comes every Friday. The 5th grade team at my school does weekly testing on Fridays to monitor student progress in Reading and Math. Therefore, we need all the students at school on Friday. Mohammad's father wants to take him to Friday prayer every week. I did some research and found out that the Friday prayer is a special prayer in the Muslim world. I want to respect their religion, but because of the Friday prayer, Mohammad has been missing the weekly tests. I talked to my colleagues to entertain the idea of changing the time of the test, but it does not seem possible because of the special area courses and other obligations we have on Fridays. So, my only other option is to ask Mohammad's father. I do not know how to go about this? Should I ask him? What if he says his son must go to the Friday prayer every week? What do I do then?
Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!)
The first thing to do is to alert Mohammad's dad that he is missing a test every Friday. It is possible that the test can be scheduled at a different time than prayer time. It is also possible that prayer time can be done at a different time on Friday. If there is no way to avoid the test conflicting with prayer time, Mohammad can be assessed in a different way. The Friday test is not the only way to check his progress.
 
     
     
  Rating
The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) Yes
The suggested solution is relevant to the case Yes
The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement Yes
The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue Yes
The suggested solution is original Yes
Comments: I agree when you say that a Friday test is not the only way to assess progress.
Rated On: March 2, 2016 11:03 pm
Rated By: daPaJa