Reply #93: LOL. Public school is a wonderful thing. [View All]

[PsychoDad]

"There are plenty of assimilated, English-speaking, Avril Lavigne (may God help them) listening, GAP jeans wearing, JLo "Still" spritzing, American Idol TIVO-ing, business school-applying, rollerblading, gum-snapping, whatEVER-hmmphing Muslim girls in the US and elsewhere - who wear hijab." Very true, Sounds like my 13 yo daughter, Alhamdulilah. :)

But back to "Public school is a wonderful thing", where else can you meet so many people of different sizes, shapes and colors, not to mention races and creeds, on a more or less equal footing. The education doesn't stop at the teachers, I remember the free exchange of learning about others student's lives as being a wonderful and eye opening experience. There is a lot of information exchanged when someone asks, "what is that thing?", "Why are you wearing that?" It was in public school that I met friends from around the world. It's a great place to learn tolerance, and that even given our differences, we members of the human family are all the same inside.

But that learning and tolerance has to go both ways. The French cannot expect Muslims to accept French culture, if they are trying to expunge the cultural distinctiveness of Muslims, or anyone else for that matter.