"Miss, You're Too Curious"

One of my brighter students told me this the other day when I was walking with him out of the school. What prompted the comment was the fact that there are posters all over the school talking about the wonders of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him). It's his birthday. Well, actually I'm not sure exactly when his birthday was (sorta like another famous prophet right?!)

I am constantly amazed and sometimes amused because of the abundance of Islamic posters, etc in our school. And it's not because I'm condemning it, but rather because I am an American and the whole "Seperation of Church and State" is a part of my thought process. Truly I took it for granted until I came here.

So, this student was watching me look at the posters in Arabic and asking him what it said and he told me I was too interested in finding out about other cultures. I was a little taken back and I told him so.
"How else can I learn about your culture if I don't ask questions"
"I know Miss but you should just not ask so much"
"Why not?"
"Because Miss it's (pause) harum" (translation: bad juju)

I didn't explain to the young lad that this is how I was raised. My parents were wonderful people (Peace Be Upon THEM!) but there wasn't a lot of school-learning between them. My mom had scarlet fever as a child and was held back a grade in school. She bore the stigma of that her whole life. She actually had a teacher tell her she would "never amount to anything". My father went to school until 8th grade and then, as was customary in that time, didn't go on to high school but rather worked to support the family. I believe they were proud of my sister and I when we graduated from college, although they didn't understand what went into the process, they always supported the idea of learning.

But perhaps the most important lesson I ever learned came from my father on my 16th birthday. He said to me:
"I'm going to tell you the secret to success. When you want something, say please. When you get it, say thank you and when you don't know something, ask".

Too curious? Never.