What is the most ridiculous thing you have heard a teacher say?
“Okay, so the Kaaba’ is what the people of Islam worship, and they go around it 7 times and chant a prayer”, my 7th grade history teacher told the class.
(The Kaaba’ is the block in the center; it’s so pretty :) )
We were in 2nd period, and me being me, I was half awake and kept dozing off, until I heard what he just said.
My shoulder partner tapped me. “Is that true?”
I shook my head no, then rose my hand.
“Yes?”
“Um, Muslims don’t worship the Kaaba’. They worship Allah, which is just Arabic for God”, I told him.
“Are you Muslim?”
“Yes” (I didn’t wear the scarf back then, so it wasn’t as obvious).
He leaned back onto his desk. “I learned that the Kaaba’ is what the people of Islam worship, and that Allah is the main God”.
The 4 other Muslims in my class stared at him in shock. Everyone else was confused.
“Main God? It’s only one, though? Who taught you that? We only believe in one God, and we refer to him as Allah. We don’t worship man-made architecture”, I explained.
“I understand that the information may be incorrect, but it’s what the standards teach, and I have to test you all on this info”.
My jaw dropped.
“So you’re gonna spread wrong info about us? That we, what, worship architecture?”.
“I’m sorry that it seems that way-”
“No, who does that? That makes no sense, like, it’s all wrong? Why bother teaching it in the first place? Is this even legal? What university did you go to? What was your professor’s name?”.
On and on I went, asking about the “information” he was trying to teach us.
He sighed and asked me to step out. “We can continue this discussion privately”.
“If I step out, I’m not coming back in. At all. That’s so…stupid and offensive. People deserve to know what’s right, and I can tell you right now, but I know more than you do about my own religion”.
My shoulder mate clapped, and eventually, the whole class clapped.
“Amon. Step. Out”.
“No, I want to see what else you’ll be saying about Islam. Go ahead”.
The principal was eventually called into the classroom, and we (my teacher and I) were asked to follow him and discuss what had happened in class.
Turns out the information in the textbooks he used was actually correct, but he was spitting out false information (I still don’t know why). I may have sounded rude, but I was highly pissed off that he had the audacity to lie about a religion to his students.
The next year, he was fired for stepping into classrooms during state testing and checking in on students.
Either way, I’m glad I spoke up, and I’m even more glad he was gone. Who knows what else he lied about.
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