My mum's a nursery headteacher
...not a headmistress, as I would call her, but that's a different story...

There's a certain group in the area who are trying to promote the advancement of muslims in the educational system. They invited my mum on a course to help avoid discrimination. One of the first things they did was ask everyone to write down six words they thought described themselves - my mum wrote "Mother, Teacher, Woman..." you get the idea. The point they were trying to make was that muslims think of themselves as a "muslim" first, and that everything else is secondary to that. The guy sat next to her (ostenstibly white, dark curly hair, looks kinda Greek) wrote "African" first. The organiser turned around in disbelief and said "African?" The guy replied, "Yeah, my mum was born in Africa, my dad was born in Africa and I was born in Africa. Problem?"

The same group, when it turned out that muslim boys were the highest scoring group in their SATs one year, invited my mum to a celebratory dinner. She refused, on the grounds that to her, all the children in her school are "children", and beyond that any subdivision is irrelevant.

This group is still at large in the West Midlands and most people are terrified of offending them. One of the governers at my mum's school - a muslim woman - said that while she has breath in her body, they will never have any influence over her school.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Sun 25 Nov 2007, 0:31, Reply)