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Editor's Note: Ambassador Akbar S. Ahmed, a distinguished professor at American University, first submitted this posting to Public School Insights in March 2008. Ambassador Ahmed's comments on education about Islam are particularly timely during this presidential election, which has stirred ugly anti-Muslim sentiment in some quarters. We're pleased to publish this contribution by a man the BBC described as "the world's leading authority on contemporary Islam."

As a Muslim professor teaching on campus, nothing is more important to me than the education of the young generation, who represent the future of this planet. In the United States, the world's only superpower, knowledge of the rest of the world is often startlingly lacking, and misperception, intolerance, and hatred against "others," especially Muslims, are far too common. Popular media conceptions of Muslims as evil or Islam as an inherently violent doctrine are widespread. Prominent media figures and government officials have referred to Muslims as "ragheads" and "satan-worshippers." Muslims have been the target of cross-burnings and widespread intimidation. An atmosphere of fear dominates life in America and rabid Islamophobia runs just below, or indeed often above, the surface. It is in this environment that thousands of young Americans out of high school are sent to places like Iraq to fight wars in cultures they don't understand. ...

A growing chorus of voices is calling for federal education policies that support, rather than seek to prescribe, good practice. Groups like the Forum for Education and Democracy, the National Education Association and the "Broader, Bolder Approach" Coalition have published manifestos on the federal role in education. We at the Learning First Alliance joined that chorus on Monday, when we published our own statement on the federal role.

A common thread in these manifestos is that schools generally do their best work if given the capacity to succeed. Yesterday, I came across two vivid examples of this point. ...

For parents, staff and students at the John Stanford International School, it's never too early to go global.  The diverse public elementary school in Seattle holds classes in Japanese, Spanish and English, focuses on world cultures, and even allows some students to attend school in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  All the while, students maintain impressive scores on Washington State assessments. (See our full story about the John Stanford School here.)

I recently caught up with three teachers from John Stanford, Maria Buceta Miller, Margretta Murnane and JoAnne Uhlenkott.  They shared some of the secrets of their success.

You can download the entire 20-minute conversation here. You can also read through a transcript of highlights below. 

Alternatively, you can download any of the following excerpts from the full interview:   ...

That's the tagline of a new ad campaign to discourage bullying and harassment of gay and lesbian students in American schools.  The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) teamed up with the Ad Council to launch the campaign, which targets pervasive but offensive phrases like "that's so gay"-a comment teens commonly use to describe anything unappealing:  "When you say, 'That's so gay,' do you realize what you're saying? Knock it off."

The campaign is getting off the ground amidst news that 9 out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (lgbt) youths suffer verbal of physical harassment in school.  According to a new GLSEN School Climate Study, more than 1 in 5 report that they have been physically assaulted.

You can learn more about the campaign at http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com. ...