Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         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!) I would definitely have a meeting with Mohammad's father to discuss working out a plan to ensure Mohammad will be able to have this testing done. Explain to his father, while also being respect of their religion, that his son's attendance is very important for his education. Ask his father if their is another time that he can go to prayer and if not explain that since their are sharing his school time, maybe Mohammad could share some of his spare time to come in either early on Friday of come after prayer in order to get these tests done.