A Look at Home Schooling


  • Let Your Child Develop Genuine Maturity
  • Preserve and Develop Your Culture and Pass It On To Your Child
  • Let Your Child Learn Genuine Socialization Instead Of False and Negative Socialization & Negative Coping Behaviors
  • Let Your Child Have a Real Family
  • Let Your Child Have You
  • Refrain From Abandoning Your Child
  • Maintain Your ``Right To Assembly’’ as an American

    Dr. Fawzia Mai Tung provides her seven children, ages ranging from one month to 13 ½ years-old, with what is called ``unschooling.’. The term defines the process by which a parent makes up their own curriculum for their children based on what the parent deems is the best education material for their child. Dr. Tung believes that the child can learn more academically in an unschool setting than in the public schools. ``…the child learns how to learn, and becomes self-motivated instead of being spoon-fed knowledge that is forgotten the week after the exam. He/she acquires a life-long skill, that of seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge.’’

    Dr. Tung’s children are learning at a level of at least two grades higher than their own age grade level. Her seven year-old daughter already reads the original unabridged version of Tom Sawyer, a book some students do not read until they reach high school in the public schools.

    Dr. Tung is the Arizona contact person for the Muslim Home School Resources (MHSR), an online resource network for Muslim home schoolers. Tung believes that other advantages to unschooling aside from the academic benefits, are the islamic and social advantages. ``…the child can study Qur’an, Arabic, and Islamic studies at his/her own pace - at home he/she not only studies these but immediately is encouraged to think of their practical sides, and to practice their application; prayer, fasting, charity, respect towards parents/elders, kindness toward siblings/neighbors/others….’’

    She also believes that unschool has had a positive impact on the social behavior of her children unlike the possible negative affects public school can have on some children. ``...public school children are barely walking on their own two legs when they are thrown into the social jungle. It’s a survive or perish situation, and later on peer groups become the prevailing social model. When they finally graduate and start working, they have to learn socialization all over again as they realize life, the world, is not really like that,’’ said Dr. Tung.

    Whether to choose home school/unschool over the public school system is a decision many parents face. Choosing

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