Teacher told my child that child is not a Muslim

[Jkam24]

My daughter has recently started reception and asked me today if our family are Muslims, to which I said yes. She then started crying saying her teacher told her that she (my daughter) is not a Muslim. Is it unreasonable to be angry about this?

It seems unlikely. Im not sure why you would instantly think it happened. Does it sound likely that a teacher would say this?

Its not impossible, but does it sound likely?

Of course it’s a misunderstanding. Why on earth would a teacher tell a Muslim child she is not a Muslim? 😒

It's not unreasonable to be angry if it's true but you've started a thread seeking support for your anger before you've established the facts. Hopefully you'll be feeling more open minded when you speak to the teacher.

How did the conversation go, as described by your child?

I'm not sure where I said I instantly believed her. My DD is advanced for her age therefore I asked her this explain a few times / in a few different ways, so concluded there is a chance that she would be telling the truth.

I don't think anyone thinks she is lying, I think it is more than likely to be a misunderstanding.

Yes, it's unreasonable to be 'angry about this' because what adult genuinely randomly tells a child he/she (the child) is not a particular religion.

If your child has to ask you her religion in the first place, she isn't clear on that either. So I'm guessing she's misunderstood - the interaction or the whole concept.

Let's not be patronising, I'm sure you are well aware why someone might have done this.

My DS now 15 told me when he was around your dds age that X parents were mean because they had cut his penis off. The boy had had a medical procedure at the hospital which I explained to my DS:).

Kids misunderstand. Maybe the teacher said something like "school is not a religious setting, it's for learning". What I found was offensive when my child was in state primary (now in private Catholic secondary but I'm atheist and so is my son he says) was that many of the muslim boys were referring to a whole bunch of normal activities as "haram" (dancing, holding hands etc)...

Agreed a hundred percent. I just told her perhaps she didn't know, and gave her context about everyone believing different things and how that's ok. Just overthinking the conversation and getting irritated at the thought of it happening as my daughter is quite good with her communication. Wanted to get a feel of others opinions and I'm definitely overthinking it.

If you'e making some sort of accusation about the teacher spell it out, dont be shy.

There is literally nothing patronising about saying it would be a good idea to get all the facts first.

Are you suggesting the teacher might be islamophobic? That's quite a leap to make without the full picture.

Reception teachers have much better things to do than make assertions you think they might for whatever reason you think you're so cleverly alluding to.

😂 everyone thinks they're kids are advanced, especially in reception.

My child is a bright little thing, but still thought that her teacher actually wanted to take her home and eat her for dinner. Teacher had happened to mention being hungry because it was lunchtime and made a comment a few moments later about "or so cute, I could eat it"... DD put two and two together and reached 12 million....

She's not quite good with her communication. She asked you today if your family are Muslim and then started crying. She's four.

I have zero clue as to why anyone would tell a muslim child they weren't Muslim. I may think islamophobia is at play if they say, treated your child differently or were rude/nasty about Muslims Infront of her but that doesn't seem to be the case.

What was the conversation and why did this even come up?

Why would anyone tell a child their family aren't Muslims?

Honestly, if you're suggesting it's some sort of racism, why would the comments be "your family isn't Muslim" ... wouldn't it be something like "I can't believe your family are Muslim...ergh"

Or more likely it would actually be "I didn't know you were Muslim" or "is your family Muslim?"
Or anything along those lines. A curious question or similar.

No, people genuinely do not know why. If you're trying to insinuate that the teacher is racist then the situation still doesn't make sense. A racist would exclude a student because they were muslim or some other race/religion. They would not deny the religious or ethnic orientation of a student and inexplicably tell them so. It would make no sense if they told a black student "You're not black" in their face because that's not how racial micro-aggressions work.

The only possible scenario where this could be construed as offensive is if the teacher is muslim herself, and for some reason she felt your daughter was doing something that wasn't in line with the religion. Eg. If she chose not to do Ramadan or ate certain foods and the response is she's "not Muslim" enough. That would certainly be grounds for offence.

Perhaps the teacher meant that at 4 years old a child can’t possibly know what religion they are. At that age it is something foisted upon them (or not).

And she would be perfectly correct as well.

I’m 99% sure this is a is understanding. I thought my child was advanced at this age and can only laugh at some of the things I’ve had to check with his teacher!

Children ask off the cuff questions all the time. Sometimes I can’t hear them properly in a busy room and answer wrongly. Earlier today one told me their tooth hurt and I answered they it sounds great.

It’s really hard to process 30+ children’s questions all day every day along with the cognitive load of teaching.

its very early in the term, I’m sure the teacher hasn’t memorised every single fact about every child from their admissions form yet.

Exactly, whatever sky fairy you believe in is either directly related to your geography or parental choice. My priest father was pretty sure about his choice and it took me until my teens to realise it was up to me.

This ⬆️

My niece what she was 4 told her nursery teacher about her hamster, it’s name, colour, age what it ate and did! She didn’t have a hamster! It was totally made up!