Perseverance — Page 187
PART III – My Return to the United States 187 CREATION OF AN AHMADI SCHOOL A directive was given by the Missionary in Charge, Syed M i r Ma h m u d Ahmad N as ir, to the Dayton, Milwaukee and Washington DC Jam a ‘ ā t [pl. of Jam ā ‘ah] to start Ahmadi schools. A progress report was to be submitted to the National ‘Aamilah during their next meeting. Dayton responded that it was required to have at least 50 students in order to start a school and they did not have sufficient people. Washington replied that their scattered membership locations made it too difficult logistically. I was the President of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Jam ā ‘ah and we had no such restrictions. We began planning for the school. We had no funding for this venture, but the willing membership made it possible. We implemented classes in the Milwaukee mission house during the hours of 8:00am to 3:30pm and taught regular school subjects for grades 1 to 6, including math, science, language arts and geography. We also taught Islamic subjects including the Holy Qur’ ā n and Ah a d ī th. All of the faculty were Ahmadi members with the exception of one woman who was paid out of the contributions of enrolled students. Each student paid $40 per month unless they were experiencing financial hardship. The school ran for 10 years and successfully earned state accreditation. This meant that students could pass our school and then be admitted into public state schools without additional testing. However, a member of our Jam ā ‘ah had complained that one day he was unable to pray in the mission house due to our school