We had a cute, fair, bob haired Islamiat/class teacher and she taught us how to say "Good Morning" on the very first day of school. She came to the class with another rather scary looking teacher, and told us, "children i will go out and when i get back in, you will stand up and say Good Morning Teacher" and so we practised that. Gosh this brain of mine, i wonder how can i remember something from when i was 2.5 years old, but i cherish it sometimes, now in my mid 30s.
The main thing however that i remember from my Nursery till Grade 1, at YWCA was the equality, something that Muslims claim to be taught in our religion, but i got that lesson from a Christian school.
So here is what was unique in that school, the children of our sweepers, maids, helpers, gardners (they have vast gardens) , drivers and teachers, used to study with us in the same class, sat with us on the same benches, and have been friends with us, without being labelled.
You wanna know how? The school made our seating arrangments from Day 1 in Nursery in the manner that US, the outsiders, have been paired with an insider kid. And by outsider i mean, muslim, and not from their community. I was paired with the daughter of our sweeper aunty, and she had been my bench mate till i was in the school. My best friend was paired with one of the twins of our Social Studies Christian , black teacher, and she stayed his bench mate till she stayed in the school. By bench mates it meant, that you would be partners in practically each and every activity going on in the school, and boy i missed the fun. The tabelos, the drills, the doctor checks, the garden parties, the fun fairs.
And people, this was my first lesson in terms of tolerence, religious, race, ethnicity, class and what not, and i often wonder why I have never heard of any such experience from any other Pakistani from their school stories, and why is it not common???
B.E.A.UTIFUL
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