Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Cannot Cooperate Aisha is known as a responsible and smart student. I have known her for the last two years, but this year is the first time she is taking one of my classes. She is in my 10th grade US History class. Recently, I started using small group projects in my class. I simply want my students to learn to cooperate, exchange ideas, and produce the project together. Although Aisha is willing to take part in these small group projects, she does not want to be in groups with male students because of her religious beliefs. When she told me about this, I told her that she was in the United States and that she had to work with whoever she is in a group with. In the first group project, Aisha was in a group with three males and one female students. She simply did not participate in any of the group activities. I wonder if should reconsider my original position on this issue and accommodate Aisha by having her work only with girls. Would I be doing her a disservice? What should I do? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) While I recognize some people may recommend that Aisha be pushed to assimilate and learn to work with both genders I believe that as Spring suggested, there may be increased pressure on girls to obey social norms especially when they come from a patriarchal culture or religion. If you try and force this young woman to go against her religious beliefs in order to cooperate in school you may cause her to shut down. If she feels she has to make a choice between her school and her church or family she may not choose school. It is our responsibility to prevent this situation from turning into an either or choice. It is also important to remember that within the United States the constitution guarantees all people attending a public school to a right to religious freedom. If this request does truly stem from a religious belief the teacher has no legal choice but to accommodate her. It would be in both the teacher and student's best interest if the teacher were understanding and didn't create a schism between school values and religious values.