Tennessee Mom Goes Off On School Teaching About Islam, Demands Textbook Change

A Tennessee mom's impassioned rant at a board of education meeting this week after her daughter "proudly" failed an assignment about Islam has caused at least one school official to reconsider which textbook is used to teach world religion.

Michelle Edmisten — a mom in Sullivan County, Tennessee, in the northeastern part of the state — was the only parent to offer comment in a packed meeting Monday. "It is time as parents, teachers and administrators we stand up and take back our families, our schools and our country," she told the crowd.

She showed a local TV station a school assignment her daughter brought home. The questions included "Islam's holy book is called the ______" and "List the five pillars of Islam." Edmisten's daughter left many of the answers blank and "proudly" failed the assignment.

Edmisten said she wants to see the textbook "yanked from the school immediately."

"I would like to see parents, Christians, veterans, anyone that’s anyone, stand up for this fight," she told WJHL. "How can I, as a Christian, say that I have these values? And I want to instill these values in my daughter, but then say it's OK go ahead and do it."

At least one school board member agrees with her.

Mark Ireson proposed a motion at the end of the meeting to take the textbook out of school circulation "because it does not represent the values of the county," the Kingsport Times reported.

Removing a textbook from the school curriculum, though, isn't so easy.

As board members explained to Edmisten, according to the Kingsport Times, yanking a textbook would require a parent to formally file a request, a committee to be formed and a formal meeting be held to discuss the matter.

And even if that happened, the district would be hard pressed to find a textbook that pleased parents like Edmisten yet still met state education requirements. Learning about world religions, including Islam, is required by state of Tennessee social studies standards.

Tennessee is in the process of modifying those standards, but a draft of new standards still includes studying these religions.

“I will not give up this fight,” Edmisten said.

Image via David Evers, Flickr, used under Creative Commons