In the People’s Republic of Germany, homeschooling is illegal and parents face fines, imprisonment, lawsuits, state harrassment, and the possible loss of their children for the crime of seeking to educate their children themselves.
"A German mom has been sent to jail for six days and fined $115 US because she and her husband insist on home schooling their children, reports ASSIST News Service.
"Home schooling is illegal in Germany. Parents are obliged to send their children to state-registered schools. Parents may not educate their children at home, even for reasons of faith or conscience. Despite this, about 500 German children are home schooled.
"The jailed mom and her husband belong to a Baptist church. They regard religious instruction at school as too liberal and object to the sex-education program.
"Since October, seven other parents in Paderborn County have refused to send their children to public school for religious and ethical reasons. They have been fined $190 US each. The authorities have even threatened the parents, saying they could be taken to court or lose custody of their children if they do not comply with the law. "
If you’re a homeschooler, you can keep an eye on the legal issues surrounding homeschooling at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). It wouldn’t surprise me if the public-school establishment in the United States were looking abroad for anti-homeschooling laws that they could import.
The really frightening thing about this is that some U.S. judges are beginning to apply “international common law” standards in connection with family law as binding on U.S. courts — even when these standards are grounded in treaties to which the U.S. is not a party and when the matter in question is entirely domestic. The latest HSLDA newsletter had a truly frightening article in this regard.
Just imagine U.S. courts someday routinely striking down state homeschooling laws on the basis of what some panel in Europe has declared. Doesn’t seem so very far-fetched, does it?
To paraphase Uncle Gilbert: the government never had as much power when it could send a man to the gallows, as it does when it can send him to the elementary school.
Why on earth would anyone be against homeschooling? I didn’t do it myself, but admire those who do, and IMO anyone who wishes to homeschool their children should have the right to do so. The schools today (at least in North America) are a mess, so homeschooling should be a viable alternative for those parents who favour it. My sons are now in University, and when they were in elem/HS things were just beginning to go downhill. They got out just in time, thank God.. Now the rot has really set in, I feel sorry for those parents who for one reason or another are unable to homeschool their kids. Legislatin against such an option would do a lot more harm than good — it would deprive a lot of children of their right to safety and consistency, which they’d have a better chance for at home rather than in a public school. Private schools, for all their vaunted “excellence”, are sometimes no better than public schools; they just cost more.
A good reminder that, bad as things are in the US, there are places that are a lot worse.
There is no such place as the ‘Peoples Republic pf Germany’.
You must mean the ‘Federal Republic of Germany’, which is the conventional long form name of the (FRG or West Germany) proclaimed 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and French zones; German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) proclaimed 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone; unification of West Germany and East Germany took place 3 October 1990.
I think Michelle meant the “People’s Republic of Germany” in an ironic sense, after the Communist “People’s Republic of China,” etc.–that is, as a way of alluding to the hard-left politics that now prevail in the land.
I know someone, for instance, who refers to the People’s Republic of Massachusetts.
It wasn’t that long ago that homeschooling was illegal in many parts of the U.S.