AIMA Sample Writing Prompts

The American Islamic Montessori Association (AIMA) aims to publish articles and essays that will help to develop the focus of Islamic Montessori Education. Our goal and purpose in so doing, is to discern best practices, to create quality standards, and to promote the practice of Islamic Montessori Education (IME) across the U.S. and around the world.

AIMA invites and encourages submissions from the general public, provided the composition is centered around the value, theory and/or practice of Islamic Montessori Education in the United States. For your convenience, the following prompts are offered as possible themes for development and/or amplification. The list is not conclusive, however, and is provided merely as a springboard for ideas and to encourage broad participation.

• Is there a need for Islamic education in the US today? Why?
• What is the role of Islamic schools in the US and how are these schools shaping the identity of Muslim children in the West?
• How does Islamic Montessori Education (IME) uniquely equip our youth to meet the challenges of a changing and often unpredictable world?
• Why is the practice of Islamic Montessori Education (IME) important in the U.S. today?
  • Does the practice of IME in the U.S. have implications for our Ummah around the world? Discuss.
• Discuss the parallels between Montessori and Islam. In what ways are they concordant? In what ways are they discordant?
• How does the Montessori approach support Islamic Education? Provide support from the Qur’an and Sunnah.
• How does IME correlate with characteristics of adaptive mental health? How does it support emotional wellness and promote healthy lifestyles among our youth?
• Is Islam unique in its ability to benefit from using Montessori as a secular infrastructure for conveying values or might other faiths also benefit from the integration of Montessori infrastructure?
  • What makes Montessori particularly valuable to Islam?
• Can education be characterized as Islamic?
  • What is meant by the term “Islamicize” as relates to academic subject matter? Please discuss.
• What qualities, characteristics, and key factors distinguish a quality IME school from an average one?
  • What should parents should look for when selecting a quality IME school for their child?
• Discuss the difference between the “application” and the “integration” of Montessori in an Islamic school environment.
  • Are application and integration discrete states (i.e., either it is applied OR it is integrated)? If yes, which state is preferable in an IME school and why?
  • Do application and integration exist along a spectrum (i.e., a continuum that ranges from strictly applied to fully integrated)? If yes, what are some of the clues that reveal the nature of practice in an IME school