Describe something you learned in high school.
In a G 11 history class, the teacher started world history class unit with the question: ” What do you know about Islam? ” The general consensus was that Muslims are terrorists and they conquerored using ‘the sword’. Both misconceptions affected me personally as i was a Muslim teen in the 80s. I can’t fault my peers at the time as they were parroting what the media wanted them to perceive. It was interesting to see the change in my peers’ behavior with me after that. That was, also, perhaps one of the first times when I encountered such hate at a young age. At the time, I didn’t think of it as traumatic, but it is a form of bullying, where ‘if you’re not like us, just leave’. Today, the platforms for bullying have extended to social media as well and are affecting our teens negatively. For some, it’s so bad, that they opt to committing suicide. My question, for those of you who have teens: ‘Are you close enough to your teen to help them overcome what’s happening to them? What are the steps you’d take?’
Poetry for Change 