The document discusses integrated teaching and making schooling more worthwhile. It criticizes the current school system for being authoritarian and focusing on memorization rather than understanding. Schools prioritize income over student needs and discourage questioning. The document advocates starting fresh to create a new generation by focusing on values, autonomy for students, practical application of knowledge, and accountability to Allah. It provides examples of project-based learning centered around topics like oceans and mountains to integrate different subjects. The purpose of teaching is to change lives by connecting students to Allah and teaching life skills, not just accumulating information.

1. Integrated Teaching
Making schooling worthwhile

2. The two capital crimes committed
against society are the
commercialization of education and
health care.

3. Situational diagnosis
What happens today in the name of
education

4. Why schooling?
1. What do you call a person who studied full time
for 17 years but has no life skills and can't
survive for a week unaided?
2. High School Graduate.
4
And remember, you paid for it

5. Who is the school for?
1. Then why do you have Parent/Teacher meetings?
2. Why are children not involved in decision making?
3. What choices do children have?
5
So really, who is the school for?

6. The first casualty of schooling is
imagination. The second is
independence. Confidence dies on its
own of a broken heart.

8. What is this place?
1. Authoritarian
structure
2. Dress code
3. Silence & order
4. Punishment
5. Walk in lines
6. Loss of autonomy
7. Abridged freedoms
8. No input in decision
making
9. Set time enforced for
waking, eating, etc.
8

9. Problem with schools today
1. Schools are run for profit
2. Teachers teach because it is their job
3. Parents want to outsource parenting
4. Students are prisoners without choice
9All of the above must change if we want value

10. Problem with teaching
1. Discrete subjects with no relation to each other or
to practical application of learning
2. Pressure on memorizing, not understanding
3. Questioning is discouraged, dissent is banned
4. Practical application of knowledge is ignored
5. Exams measure nothing except memory
10
Compulsion kills all joy, energy, enthusiasm

11. Class size & composition
1. Classes made up by date of manufacture
2. Size to maximize income per student
3. Seating to kill all inter-student communication
4. Pressure on silence, obedience, conformity
5. Questioning, disagreement not allowed
11
How do you measure teacher effectiveness?

12. Why else would global leaders make
the same mistakes since the Roman
Empire except that they're trained in
a flawed system?

13. How is it possible that we know all
about the world and that there's no
other world and yet continue to
destroy it? Is this knowledge?

14. What if?
1. Schooling created a lifelong love for learning?
2. Inculcated ethics, morals and values?
3. Taught brotherhood, teamwork, leadership?
4. Produced strong, compassionate, courageous
citizens of the world
14
All is possible but only for those who really want it

15. What must be done?
Start fresh to create a new generation

16. Teachers must change first
1. You must love your children enough to cry for them
before Allah‫ﷻ‬
2. You must become their role models
3. You must be their point of reference if they are in a
moral dilemma even after you are dead
4. Learning must be visibly your first priority
16
Because only a lighted lamp can light others

17. Collect dots or connect dots - is the
difference between information and
knowledge; mugging and
understanding; success and failure.

18. 18Schooling must achieve these four things

19. The single, most powerful change to
transform the world is to move from -
the world is responsible for me to, I'm
responsible for the world.

20. Foundation of Values
Values drive behavior
Behavior drives results
20
Values must be inculcated
They can’t be legislated

21. Accountability to Allah‫ﷻ‬
1. Integrity
2. Truthfulness
3. Compassion
4. Courage
5. Citizenship
6. Teamwork
This is why we need the right teachers first 21

22. Everything must change
1. Core Purpose
2. Autonomy of students
3. Class size & composition
4. Curriculum & syllabus
5. Teaching methodology
6. Examination system
But first the mindset must change 22

23. Core Purpose
1. What are you trying to create in your school?
2. What differentiates you in the market?
3. Define the final product in terms of what he will
be trained for and capable of doing
23
What will be lost if your school doesn’t exist?

24. Autonomy of students
1. If the school is for children they must decide
what happens there
2. Dignity begins with choice – give them dignity
3. Teachers/authority must be accountable to the
children and must be evaluated by them
24
Otherwise it is a prison, not a school

25. Class size & composition
1. Not more than fifteen students per class
2. Multiple ages – not by date of manufacture
3. Multiple teachers – class + subject teachers
25
Supported by state-of-the-art technology

26. Curriculum and syllabus
1. Refer to your Core Purpose and design a
curriculum that can deliver that
2. Focus on understanding and application
3. Must create a lifelong love for learning
26
Stop teaching – start discovering

27. Teaching methodology
1. Integrate knowledge – not discrete subjects
2. Focus on its application – practical experience
3. Open doors to further enquiry – support
questioning, dissent, critical analysis
27
Teach by demonstration because
they listen with their eyes

28. Examination system
1. Regurgitating undigested food is called vomit.
Regurgitating undigested information is called
passing exams.
2. Exams: Name given to test if you can regurgitate
unprocessed information at a specified time.
28
Abolish this insane, illogical and inhuman system

29. What must change?
1. In the current exam system, if a person recalls
the information 5 minutes later, you fail him
because the exam is over. How stupid is that?
2. Test understanding, application skill, changed
values, broadened horizons - not memory.
29Your student is human and not a silicon chip.

30. Teachers must become farmers
• Think agriculture
1. Prepare the soil
2. Plant the best seed
3. Water it
30
Without a good farmer nothing will flourish –
teachers must be inspired to be inspirational

31. Quranic teaching methodology
Recognize Allah‫,ﷻ‬ then research His creation

32. Dhikr wa Tafakkur
ِ‫ت‬ْ‫اخ‬َ‫و‬ ِ‫ض‬ْ‫َر‬‫أل‬‫ا‬َ‫و‬ ِ‫ات‬َ‫او‬َ‫م‬َّ‫الس‬ ِ‫ق‬ْ‫ل‬َ‫خ‬ ِ‫ِف‬ َّ‫ن‬ِ‫إ‬‫آل‬ ِ‫ر‬‫ا‬َ‫َّه‬‫الن‬َ‫و‬ ِ‫ل‬ْ‫ي‬َّ‫ل‬‫ال‬ ِ‫ف‬َ‫ال‬ٍ‫ت‬َ‫َي‬
ِ‫اب‬َ‫ب‬ْ‫ل‬‫األ‬ ِ‫ِل‬ْ‫ُو‬ِِ‫أل‬
َ‫و‬ ‫ا‬ً‫ود‬ُ‫ع‬ُ‫ق‬َ‫و‬ ‫ا‬ً‫ام‬َ‫ي‬ِ‫ق‬ َِ‫اّلل‬ َ‫ن‬‫و‬ُ‫ر‬ُ‫ك‬ْ‫ذ‬َ‫ي‬ َ‫ين‬ِ‫ذ‬َّ‫ل‬‫ا‬َّ‫ك‬َ‫ف‬َ‫ت‬َ‫ي‬َ‫و‬ ْ‫م‬ِِ‫وِب‬ُ‫ن‬ُ‫ج‬ َ‫ى‬َ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬ِ‫ِف‬ َ‫ن‬‫و‬ُ‫ر‬
َ‫ل‬َ‫خ‬ ‫ا‬َ‫م‬ ‫ا‬َ‫ن‬َّ‫ب‬َ‫ر‬ ِ‫ض‬ْ‫َر‬‫أل‬‫ا‬َ‫و‬ ِ‫ات‬َ‫او‬َ‫م‬َّ‫الس‬ ِ‫ق‬ْ‫ل‬َ‫خ‬َ‫ك‬َ‫ن‬‫ا‬َ‫ح‬ْ‫ب‬ُ‫س‬ ً‫ال‬ِ‫ط‬َ‫َب‬ ‫ذا‬َ‫ه‬ َ‫ت‬ْ‫ق‬
ِ‫ر‬‫َّا‬‫ن‬‫ال‬ َ‫اب‬َ‫ذ‬َ‫ع‬ ‫ا‬َ‫ن‬ِ‫ق‬َ‫ف‬
32

33. A’al Imraan
• 190. Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the
alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of
understanding.
• 191. Those who remember Allâh standing, sitting, and lying down on
their sides, and reflect about the creation of the heavens and the
earth, (saying): ‘Our Rabb! You have not created (all) this without
purpose, glory to You. Give us salvation from the torment of the
Fire.’
The purpose of knowledge is to open the eyes 33

34. First priority
1. Connect them to Allah‫ﷻ‬
2. Introduce them to Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬
3. Make the Aakhira real for them
4. Enable them to love the Qur’an
5. Reveal to them the secret of the Sunnah
34But you have to do all this first

35. To achieve this…
1. Tazkiyatun Nafs
2. Tarbiyatul Akhlaaq
3. Demonstrating by personal example
4. Study of Seerah and biographies
35
Teacher must stand in the night and
ask for the help of Allah‫ﷻ‬

36. Shape attitudes
1. Contribution, not consumption
2. Humility, not arrogance
3. Confidence, not dependence
4. Collaboration, not competition
5. Compassion, not selfishness
36What are the metrics to show that this is happening?

37. Teach life skills
1. How money works
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Investment
4. Politics = Influencing
5. Conflict resolution
6. Negotiation Skills
5. Media analysis
6. Thought steering
7. Communication
8. Discipline of Dialogue
9. Photography & Film
making
37Above all, teach them discipline

38. Teach life skills
1. Art, drama, literature, poetry
2. Artisan crafts, carpentry,
pottery
3. Appreciate difference
4. Gardening, agriculture,
ecology, conservation
5. Survival skills, orienteering
6. Woodcraft, tracking, archery,
fishing, shooting
7. Horsemanship and training
animals, Swimming, sailing
8. Love of service
38
Teach them that value is intrinsic

39. Teach through Projects
Because knowledge and people are holistic

40. Why Projects?
1. Projects are a wonderful way to teach because
they encourage participation from the child in
learning
2. Choose a topic; then teach all subjects with that
topic as the base
40Make learning practical and applicable

41. Project: Oceans
1. Biology: Marine plants & animals
2. Physics: Displacement floats ships
3. Chemistry: Why is sea water salty?
4. Geography: Navigation:
Orientation, sailing, Qibla
5. History: Maritime history of
nations
6. Trade: Routes, goods, cultural &
population change
7. Tafsir: Qur’anic Ayaat relating to Oceans
8. Fiqh: Mathaa’il related to sea water,
food, travel etc.
9. Hadith: Ahadith related to the sea
10. Seerah: Stories of Seerah and Sahaba
about the sea
Go sailing, make salt, catch fish, camp by the sea

42. ِ‫ن‬ْ‫ي‬َ‫ر‬ْ‫ح‬َ‫ب‬ْ‫ل‬‫ا‬ َ‫ج‬َ‫ر‬َ‫م‬
ْ‫ذ‬َ‫ع‬ ‫ا‬َ‫ذ‬َ‫ه‬ ِ‫ن‬ْ‫ي‬َ‫ر‬ْ‫ح‬َ‫ب‬ْ‫ل‬‫ا‬ َ‫ج‬َ‫ر‬َ‫م‬ ‫ي‬ِ‫ذ‬َّ‫ل‬‫ا‬ َ‫و‬ُ‫ه‬َ‫و‬ٌ‫اج‬َ‫ُج‬‫أ‬ ٌ‫ح‬ْ‫ل‬ِ‫م‬ ‫ا‬َ‫ذ‬َ‫ه‬َ‫و‬ ٌ‫ات‬َ‫ر‬ُ‫ف‬ ٌ‫ب‬
َّْ‫ّم‬ ‫ا‬ً‫ر‬ْ‫ج‬ِ‫ح‬َ‫و‬ ‫ا‬ً‫خ‬َ‫ز‬ْ‫ر‬َ‫ب‬ ‫ا‬َ‫م‬ُ‫ه‬َ‫ن‬ْ‫ي‬َ‫ب‬ َ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬َ‫ج‬َ‫و‬‫ا‬ً‫ور‬ُ‫ج‬
• Furqan 25: 53. And it is He Who set free the two seas (kinds of
water), one palatable and sweet, and the other salt and bitter, and
He set a barrier and a complete partition between them.
42

43. Project: Mountains
1. Geology: Isostacy of
mountains: Stabilizing effect
2. Geography: How mountains
effect climate
3. Biology: Mountain flora &
fauna
4. History: How mountains
affected nations
5. Tafsir: Ayaat related to
mountains
6. Seerah: Mountain of Uhud
7. Hadith: Related to mountains
Camp in the mountains, rock climbing,
rappelling, climb Kilimanjaro

44. Think & Question
1. Teach them to ask questions and draw lessons
2. Encourage imagination, dreaming, dissent
3. Let them teach for that’s the best way to learn
4. Ask, ‘Why not?’ and ‘So what?’
44
Essential lesson: Critical analysis is not criticism

45. Study the Seerah
1. Study the Seerah and draw lessons for today
2. Show how values, ethics and morals are ageless
and eternal – what worked then still does
3. Teach biographies of Sahaba to show how they
changed their world
45Make Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬ real to them

46. Bring theology alive
1. While teaching history, ask them what they would
have done in a similar situation and why?
2. Let them appreciate the challenges that Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬
faced and show parallels in today’s world
3. Show them how his methods apply today and how
they can get us the same results if we practice them
46
Islam spread by winning hearts, not arguments

47. Purpose of teaching
1. Is to change lives
2. Not to accumulate information without
understanding its meaning, implications or
value and without the tools to use it
47
Because learning is for life
Not only for a living

48. Question
• If Islam can’t change their lives in this world, how
can it help them in the Aakhira?
• We have to learn & teach how to leverage the
knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah to become
valuable contributors
48Only then will we fulfill our purpose

49. Because Allah‫ﷻ‬ sent us to
take from Him
And give to the rest of the world