MCWS–Crescent Academy

By Adil James, MMNS

File:  A 2007 fundraiser for the Crescent Academy.

Farmington–September 24–Another school in suburban Detroit is the Muslim Community of the Western Suburbs School on Palmer Road in Canton.

According to its website, the Crescent Academy International is “a private, college preparatory, Islamic school  enrolling students in Montessori preschool up to 8th grade.”

It was founded in 1991 by the Michigan Education Council (which is an organization which exists in cooperation with the MCWS).  The facility it occupies is a substantial Muslim institution, which cost approximately $7 million dollars to build.

A member of the Board of Trustees (which offers strategic policy guidance to the school while the Board of Directors controls day to day operations), Masood Rab, explained that there is a philosophy behind the school of “tarbiyah,” which consists of “developing the overall personality of the Muslim children in Qur`an and all subjects, but with a Divine perspective,” or a perspective on the Divine.

As the other local Islamic schools, the purpose is to maintain a level of Islamic knowledge and character while educating the community’s children in religious, secular sciences, and arts.  While developing a core curriculum (which covers a broad array of academic and religious subjects including Islamic Studies, Arabic language, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, health, art, and physical education), the school also offers an “enrichment” curriculum consisting of subject areas intended to tap into the inner interests of each child–this curriculum involves field trips to take students to places “of educational interest and value,” in the words of the school’s website.

The school’s high level of organization, and its will toward inclusion in the wider society’s extracurricular activities is reflected in a tradition of intramural sports, and plans to convene a Crescent Academy student council and chapter of the National Honor Society.

The school principal is Ms. Sumayyah Flowers.  The Director of MCWS, the person behind the concept of tarbiyah, which is a unique and pioneering school concept, is Mr. Dawud Tauhidi.

Crescent Academy claimed approximately 350 students in an interview with The Muslim Observer in May of 2007.  The cost of attending the school is comparable to the other local Islamic schools–it is not publicized in their brochure or on their website.

The school has 32 brand new classrooms and a brand new facility (just completed about one year ago).  The teachers, according to the Crescent brochure, are state certified.  Crescent Academy is “fully approved by the Dept. of Education in the State of Michigan.”

The school is located at 40440 Palmer Road, Canton, MI;  734-729-1000; http://www.mcws.org/crescentacadmey.  (misspelling is the way the web address is spelled).

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