FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO HOMESCHOOL — Mike Farris talks with a family who have already taken their plea to the German Supreme Court. Although the family lost at that level, they are still homeschooling.
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Posted on 10/20/2006 7:08:55 AM PDT by NYer
Germany jails homeschoolers
FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO HOMESCHOOL — Mike Farris talks with a family who have already taken their plea to the German Supreme Court. Although the family lost at that level, they are still homeschooling.
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
On Thursday, Sept. 7, in Paderborn, Germany, a female plainclothes police officer rang the doorbell at the home of Katharina Plett. When Plett opened the door, other police officers who were hiding rushed into her home.
Plett was placed under arrest. The officers followed her into the bedroom where she was permitted to change her clothes. Before being taken to nearby Gelsenkirchen prison, she was permitted to contact her husband, who had fled the country the day before with their 12 children.
If you suspect Plett is guilty of a very serious crime, guess again. She was arrested and thrown in prison for homeschooling her children.
Homeschooling, along with any educational institution other than state-run schools, was outlawed by Adolf Hitler in 1938. But a recent decline, both academically and morally, in the country’s public school system has more and more German parents looking for better ways to educate their children.
“The German people want options,” said Christopher J. Klicka, senior counsel at the Virgina-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) which consults with homeschooling organizations in Germany and other nations. “They want to get out of the public school system so they’re testing the limits, and the German government is slamming their fingers as soon as they try.”
The situation became even more grave on Sept. 27, when the European Court of Human Rights delivered a stunning defeat to another German couple, Fritz and Marianna Konrad, who had argued for the right to homeschool their two children.
The Konrads contended that Germany’s compulsory school attendance laws were a violation of their human rights.
The human rights court ruled: “Parents may not refuse the right to education of a child on the basis of their convictions,” adding that the right to education “by its very nature calls for regulation by the state.”
Klicka said his association was “very disappointed” by the ruling. “When you look at the language of the European Union (EU) human rights constitution — which is a higher law over all the 25 countries of the European Union — they have a reference to a parent’s right to educate their children. When you look at wording of the constitution, it looks pretty good.
“But when I looked at the opinion of this Court, and how they interpreted the German situation, I was incredulous at how they took the plain language of the human rights constitution and just twisted it up to come up with this ruling.”
What makes the decision so menacing is that it opens the door to other European nations that may wish to curtail homeschooling in their countries.
“In Europe, homeschooling is legal in some fashion everywhere but Germany,” Klicka said. “It might be regulated or restricted a little, such as in France, where they subject homeschoolers to curriculum review, and the Czech Republic, where you can homeschool until the fifth grade.
“This ruling doesn’t change any of the [laws of] other nations, it just gives them the okay that if they wanted to crack down legislatively — outlaw or prohibit homeschooling — they can do that.”
Since the E.U. human rights court ruling, German families that want to homeschool can forget trying to win the right to do so through the court system.
“For Germany, it’s curtains,” Klicka said.
Unfortunately for German parents, the climate in public school education shows no signs of improving. Graphic sex education, the promotion of ideologies that undermine Biblical morality, and poor academic performance in public schools continues to fuel the movement to challenge the government’s 68 year old stranglehold on education.
Thanks to the internet, German families are discovering that the same problems in U.S. public schools sparked the success of a homeschooling movement whose ranks have swollen to two million children, many of whom consistently outperform their public school peers.
“Three main issues have sparked the movement toward homeschooling in Germany,” Klicka said. “First, the knowledge of homeschooling has increased because of the internet; second, moral issues such as graphic sex education and homosexuality; and third, academic studies are showing that things are not going so well in German public schools.”
An Italian study completed five years ago measured children’s academic performance in 20 European countries. Germany was very close to the bottom of the list.
“That was a very embarrassing study for Germany,” Klicka said. “All of a sudden, people were doubting the public school system and wondering if their kids were getting a good education. Although we have many of the same problems with our public schools, Americans have the option to choose to homeschool.”
German couples are not so lucky, and many of them have paid a high price in the form of fines or imprisonment for trying to change the laws.
For instance, in 2004, Sigrid and Michael Bauer tried to fight compulsory school attendance for their five children because public education was undermining their Christian beliefs. The state ultimately ruled that parents must accept the teaching methods and content of public school education, even if they contradict a family’s religious convictions. The law says that parents who “continually or obstinately prevent their children from fulfilling the compulsory school attendance” be slapped with stiff fines or prison terms up to six months.
“The only options left for Germans is to seek asylum in America or other countries,” Klicka said. He was one of seven members of the board of a German homeschooling association, called School Instruction at Home, that included at least 200 families. Of the seven original members, only one still lives in Germany.
“The other option is to put pressure on the government,” Klicka said. “If there’s enough international pressure and media attention, the Germans could change their legislation to allow homeschooling. All countries are somewhat sensitive to the US perspective.”
He said members of his association, which supports and has helped to found homeschooling organizations in 28 countries, have made a difference by contacting embassies.
“We’ve had some success with stopping bad bills in the Czech Republic and Ireland, and we passed a good bill in South Africa,” he said. “And it was purely through international pressure.”
Readers may respectfully protest the German government’s actions by writing to the German ambassador at the following address:
Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador; German Embassy, 4845 Reservoir Road NW;
Washington, D.C., 20007-1998, and by calling (202) 298-4000 or visiting on the Web: www.globescope.biz/germany/reg/index.cfm.
Wouldn't a windsor be less expensive than a tudor? :)
Tudor? I hardly know 'er!
I had that dang spell-check on...for British English. It'll fail you everytime.
They're all just bricks in the wall. Apparently books like Farenheit 451 are read longingly in some sectors.
exactly...
weakening the anti-homeschooling legislation would be bending to islam.
I hope our weak governments remain firm at least in this point.
I can draw jack sh&/ and I am a german PhD in chemistry. A bad mark in drawing and sports could only theoretically spoil your 'carreer'. In real life you get your D marks (necessary to pass to the next class) if you don't mop up.
Certainly to go to higher school your math and german better be good then.
Just remember after the Nazis fell, no judges were replaced, except very few.
Actually, it's kind of interesting because we are homeschooling my youngest; when my wife and I first looked into homeschool a few years ago the overall mood was somewhat hostile to the idea. Now the feeling seems to be that the schools are happy to outsource the work.
They still get my tax money and there is one less child using the county's resources in the system. That would probably change if I were to get a tax-cut or voucher.
How 'bout Germany stops importing Muslims rather than limiting the rights of German parents to rear their children as they see fit?
Maybe in the inner cities schools have such issues but around where I live the public schools are not "bad" at all. It would be inconceivable for a child to have those deficiencies in knowledge in the public schools around my area.
What do you mean about "social issues"? If it is rude or aggressive behavior, that would at least mean that the rest of the children aren't being influenced by it.
Without going into great detail, because it probably would not be appropriate for me to do so, "some" of the home schooled children have serious issues. I mean... something along the line of a "complete inability" to deal with other children (who also happen to be home schooled). There is nothing wrong with simply being "weird" (hey I was guilty as that as a child.
If it means being considered a bit weird, well there are those in the public schools as well. Moreover, I would rather have a child with "social issues", if that means non-conformity with modern anti-culture, than for him to be trained into docile acceptance of all sorts of peer pressure.
Why do you have a chip on your shoulder?? As I said in my last post many of the homeschoolers my wife deals with are very smart, well behaved and are great children. My point was that the "few" that seem left behind, well... they are really really REALLY left behind.
I don't have anything against home schooling at all. If anything it seems to produce some very smart children. I simply think there are "some" parents that do a very bad job of it and according to the parent, it is on purpose. Things like "math isn't important" type of attitudes. That kind of thing where they come right out and say that some of the basic tenets of any education just aren't deemed important enough to teach.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Later pingout.
I see you got this one first!
If people think this couldn't happen here, they're asleep. Fortunately there are many homeschoolers and they will keep informed about news.
Isn't there also the option for religious schooling?
The policy in Germany, (quite) a bit more stringent than in France, seems to be that children must be institutionalized for schooling.
There are reasons for that which are not necessarily bad, having to do with socialization and exposure to a wide range of things; also standardization of curriculum and knowledge learned. In France, people have the option to teach their children (few take it), but what they teach is subject to curricular review. Basically, the national curriculum must be taught, because those are the basics to function in a social society. He who cannot read, write or compute cannot function in a modern state and will be a laisser-pour-compte burden on the welfare state. Ergo, every child must be educated to the basic standards. If parents want to do this, and add their own particular flavor of additional learning, it is acceptable in France.
Few do, because it is a royal pain in the ass, and the public school system is good and comprehensive.
But of course, in France, there are those who are deeply wedded to their religion (normally Catholicism), and who wish their children to be educated in an explicitly religious environment. Thus the religious schools, mostly Catholic. Now, they too must teach to the national curriculum (for the same reasons: these children must be competitive), but they also have prayers, devotionals and other religious learning. This is the choice of the parents, and in fact the teachers in religious schools in France are also paid out of the state budget (as is maintenance on most of the big Catholic cathedrals which are tourist centers - France is a secular state, but this does not mean that religious institutions are unregistered and unsupported. The Catholics have not the resources to keep the roofs on and the glass polished in Notre Dame and Chartres and Avignon and all of the other cathedrals. These are national treasures which the world flocks to see. It would be foolish for the state to not support this maintenance.)
Anyway, in Germany are there the options of religious schools, Catholic in the South; Lutheran in the North?
If so, why aren't these parents sending their children there, to avoid state system?
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