Prague, Dec 8 (CTK) – Czech teachers may receive new manuals, written by civics teacher Petra Slamova, to help them explain Islam and associated questions to schoolchildren, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
Teachers are often helpless when having to explain the current questions such as Islam, the migrant crisis and terrorist attacks to children, it adds.
The manuals to help them are being distributed by the Association of Civics Teachers (AUOV) across the Czech Republic, LN writes.
Slamova was inspired by the practice in the past months. The media was flooded by the news about refugees and children often hear adult people discussing Muslims, sometimes in a incorrect fashion, it adds.
As a result, the children were often “brain-washed” with bizarre views and teachers were under the fire of the questions and comments to which it was sometimes difficult to react, LN writes.
Now, they find the recommendations along with manuals on a webpage administered by the AUOV.
Some teachers are opposed to the new manuals, arguing that politics has no place at school, LN writes.
However, the AUOV and Education Minister Katerina Valachova (Social Democrats, CSSD) have taken issue with the argument.
“I would like to agree on the condemnation of terrorism at school. At the same time, we cannot see an enemy in every refugee,” Valachova is quoted as saying.
However, she did not give any specific instruction to teachers. “This is a matter of each school, this cannot be ordered by Prague,” she added.
History teacher Zuzana Ruzickova from Trutnov, east Bohemia, recently tried an unorthodox method of teaching about Islam.
She came to the seventh class dressed in a niqab and also showed other parts of the traditional Muslim dress to the schoolchildren. Rather then explaining the difference between a chador, hijab and burqa, she let the parts of the dress circulate among the children so that all of them could try them.
She ended the lesson by showing the Muslim prayer, LN writes.
However, some parents rebelled and the photos the school itself originally posted on its website were widely distributed on social networks.
Some online chatters have absurdly accused the Trutnov school of promoting Islam, LN writes.
Valachova then expressed her position on the case and called for calming down the situation, it adds.
“It was a beautiful sign of invention and courage,” Slamova said.
“Unfortunately, we have to take into account during the instruction that not all parents have what is called correct views,” she added.
The manual primarily focuses on the migrant crisis, LN writes.
Its first part, called “Who Is Fleeing and Why?” is for the children from the fourth and fifth classes, while the second part, called “I Am Leaving My Home,” is for the eighth and ninth classes, it adds.
During the lesson, the schoolchildren are explained the notions of refugee, migrant and emigration and older pupils are also told what are the notions of asylum and asylum seekers, LN writes.
Since the beginning of last year, the Muslims With the Eyes of Czech Schoolchildren group has been offering free workshops and lectures to headteachers, it adds.
On its website, it warns of Islamophobia and promises to present “balanced and correct information” to the schoolchildren, LN writes.
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