"Holistic" Education the Islamic Way
Abdul-Lateef Abdullah reports from the Taqwa Gayong Academy, an American Islamic boarding school offering  troubled youth,  a stable, disciplined and supportive environment for their education.

As a social work professional who has worked with troubled youth in different settings, the Taqwa Gayong Academy home school in Paulsboro, New Jersey is one of the few that I have experienced that aggressively addresses the many needs of today's youth. There are a variety of programs and schools that claim to work with young people in a "holistic" manner, but in the compartmentalized secular world of the United States, few actually live up to this claim. Taqwa Gayong Academy is one, however, that truly offers the kind of holistic education that is so often missing in the lives of youth, particularly those who grow up in at-risk environments.

There are many examples of the term "holistic" and what it means in the context of youth development and education. Many social scientists in the U.S. who are proponents of a "positive youth development" approach to working with youth favor this type of framework when working directly with young people. They believe in providing youth with appropriate and sufficient developmental supports and opportunities to not only keep youth away from "negative" behaviors such as crime and drug-use, but to adequately prepare them for competent and healthy adulthood.

This secular notion of youth development incorporates religion into its framework only as one piece of a large loosely-defined puzzle, making faith just one of many factors that may, or may not, help to determine whether a young person ultimately "succeeds" in his or her transition to adulthood. Ultimately, however, religion and belief in God plays a secondary or supportive role in providing for a young person's positive development. This approach has some similarities, but many important differences to a religious or God-conscious one, such as that put forth by Islam.

To Muslims, "holistic-ness" can only mean starting with God and through taqwa, or God-consciousness, following through with God via the application of God-centered beliefs and commands in every aspect of life (i.e., tawhid). In Islam, you cannot separate the part from the whole, and you cannot separate a child's education from God -- the Creator, Cherisher and Sustainer of all the worlds - because ultimately, all knowledge is His. Therefore, for Muslims, any comprehensive approach toward working with children and orienting them to the world must start with God, and the lifestyle he has put forth through the deen of Islam.

This is the foundation that forms the curriculum at Taqwa Gayong Academy, a full-boarding, all-year-round Islamic home school that has set out to create the most unique Islamic academic institution in the U.S. Listed below are some of the specific ways the Academy provides an educational setting that puts forth a true example of the Islamic understanding of what a holistic youth setting should include.

1. Spirituality - Taqwa Gayong Academy is a deen-intensive school, infusing spirituality throughout all aspects of its program. By balancing the academic, physical and spiritual disciplines throughout the daily curriculum, students at the Academy are exposed to a daily routine geared towards their healthy and well-rounded development. In addition, as an Islamic school, all activities are taught with taqwa or God-consciousness, so the students learn true spirituality through the application of their daily responsibilities and activities.

2. Family environment - The breakdown of the family institution is the main cause of difficulty in the social and emotional lives of young people. Such is the reason why Islam works so hard to protect and shelter the family, and why it stresses the importance of preserving the family within society. Without a nurturing, healthy family environment, a child's development and learning can be greatly affected. The family provides a child with his or her first experiences with the world, and is the setting where the most basic skills and behaviors are first acquired. Taqwa Gayong Academy specializes in troubled youth, and through its family-focused, full-boarding program, its students are provided with a stable, disciplined and supportive environment for their education. Run by a husband and wife team, Taqwa Gayong Academy provides its students with the strong social and emotional foundation that they need to succeed in life.

3. Structured and balanced curriculum - Many youth today are not afforded structured, supervised activities in the out-of-school hours. Studies have shown that such idle time plays a major role in young people engaging in negative behaviors such as crime and drug use. Taqwa Gayong Academy addresses this issue by providing its disciples with structured activity from morning until night. Beginning with Fajr solat, Taqwa Gayong Academy's students are exposed to a variety of academic, Islamic and physical activities. This level of structure gives the students a program that not only keeps them off the streets and out of the malls, but prepares them to be strong, knowledgeable, and most importantly - God-fearing.

4. Silat Gayong - "Gayong" is a Muslim art of war founded by the late legendary Malay warrior, Mahaguru Dato' Meor Abdul Rahman. Although the official inception of Gayong as an organization took place in the 1960's the art traces itself further to the 15th century when Islam was propagated in the Malay Archipelago by Muslim traders. Known for its Islamic foundation, Gayong now has over 900,000 members extending all over the world. Gayong is a warrior art in every sense of the word in that it teaches its students not to ever fight, but to overcome that which is before them. This attitude being not only meant for situations with the potential for physical confrontation, but for any incident that may arise in one's life. Through its rugged training that focuses on deception, flexibility and creativity in overcoming one's enemy, Gayong provides its disciples with a physical application of the Islamic notion that all that comes to us comes from Allah (swt), and only through reliance on Him alone can we overcome whatever is put before us. Thus, Gayong students not only learn to fear Allah in theory, but in practice as well through training and preparation for precarious situations.

This well-rounded, deen-intensive program has been created with one goal: To prepare today's Muslim youth to be strong in every facet of life and to not only prepare them to succeed in this world and the next, but to lead others to do so as well. Taqwa Gayong Academy's curriculum is designed to prepare its students to handle any situation in which they may find themselves - the classroom, the masjid, the boardroom, or the battlefield -- wherever Allah (swt) wills that they be.

The crisis in education that exists in the United States today is not isolated to this country. All over the world, young people are being denied quality education that not only provides them with information, but affords them the experiences and knowledge they need to be truly successful. As Allah (swt) says in the Qur'an around the true definition of success, "Lo! those who believe and do good works, theirs will be Gardens underneath which rivers flow. That is the Great Success (85:11)." And again "These are the limits (imposed by) Allah. Whoso obeyeth Allah and His messenger, He will make him enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow, where such will dwell for ever. That will be the great success. (4:13)" As we can see from the words of our Creator, success that does not include obedience to Allah cannot be true achievement in the eyes of the only One who matters. This, therefore, should be the ultimate goal of education for our children, and why our youth need to know how to handle themselves - Islamically - in any of today's complex settings.

Read other articles by Abdul-Lateef Abdullah here.

Email: abd_lateef@hotmail.com