I thought Germany, in view of its history, would be one place where the rights of parents to educate their own children would be sacrosanct. Hitler was, after all, very keen on youth camps and indoctrination of the young.
And now we see the heavy-handed methods used by the German authorities to enforce the homeschooling ban on another family, the Wunderlichs. 20 social workers, special agents and police with a battering ram stormed into the family home in a quiet village at 8am. The children were frogmarched out and their mother was not even allowed to kiss them and reassure them as they were taken away. The youngest child is 7 years old.
So, if the rights of parents to educate their children are not being acknowledged in the US or Germany, how long before the government in the UK decides that it wants the same sort of control?
6 comments:
Hi, I am German and living in Germany and raising four children, aged 9 years to 5 month.
To say our schooling policy is disturbing is a massive understatement. Its like says a volcano might be a wee warm.
But even more disturbing then the mandatory attendance is the massive "social education" taking place in schools. My oldest son is currently going through his 3rd of 4th "conflict management" programm despite never having shown any violent or aggressive behaviour going beyond what is to be expected for boys in this age.
Which leads me to another point: perfectly healthy boyish behaviour is labelled a problem. I am not in favour of allowing children to beat the crap out of each other, but a certain amount of physicality is to be expected. Girls being "disadvantaged" is repeated over and over again. I think "Come on folks, this country is ruled by a woman...".
The third alarming point (I dont know if anybody in the US has noticed) is the gouvernment exercises massive pressure to put children over the age of 1 (yes, one year!) into daycare so the mothers "can work". I personally raise at 6 am and stop working sometime around 8:30 pm, taking care of my family, I surely do not need another job because I already have one. But raising a family on only one average income is not possible. This economic pressure is labelled "choice". I know of many mothers who would prefer to take care of their family and I know I am blessed I am able to do so.
The second argument is "frühkindliche Bildung" which is a bugger to translate. Early childhood education is the best translation I can up with, but it does not really catch it. This bugger of a German word means both education in a more or less academic sense and "standard" things like learning speech development. The claim is you need to be a professional, else your child will not learn anything. So far, all of my children have mastered speaking :-)
We already have state-controlled annual pediatrician check-ups and are talking about mandatory, state-enforced vaccacination.
Additionally, officially to enhance the education of disfavoured children and ensure sufficient nutrition through school meals and to enable mothers to work, schools covering the time between 8 am (some start even earlier) to up to 5 pm are promoted. Traditionally, school here ends around noon till grade 9 or 10.
I am sick of it- I am sick of being told I am unable to raise children, unable to teach them and too stupid or lazy to feed them decent meals. When I bring this up with a politician, they always say "but we dont mean parents like you, we just have to include everybody so those poor children whose parents are unwilling are covered, too". I truely pity nelegted children and I am absolutely willing to support stepds against parents who abused, beat, or nelegt their children. But I dont want to be treated liek a criminal without even being suspected of a crime.
I am absolutely sick and tired of being told I need a job, else I am just kind of wrong. I am tired of hearing jobs are so much more demanding end entertaining then raising a family. For the Mercy of the Lord- did they ever raise a family? I am dealing with more challenges then my job will ever offer me. I have learned things I never ever else would have learned, built skills I else would never ever have needed. I surely dont bore the brain of of me on a day at home!
So, pray for us. That is all you can do, but actually, thats is what we need most and what will, if anything changed, be the way to change it.
The following post (from a highly secular blog) points out that the law is one of those relics of the Nazi era that the Germans never got round to disposing of:
http://www.samizdata.net/2013/08/get-used-to-it-two-more-minor-acts-of-oppression-in-developed-countries/
From my experience of having lived there, Germans tend to have far greater reverence for the State and belief in its inherent rightness and goodness than we do.
Well, saying the law on mandatory school attendance going back to National Spcialism is not entirelly correct. Its a tad more complicated.
Hitler instituted mandatory school attendance for the sake of "Volksgemeinschaft" (community of the people, in this cause in defined in a racial way) and for indoctrination reasons, so much is true.
When the war ended, the local German self-administration forming itself under the military rule went back to the legislation of the Weimar Republic, when school attendance was common, but not mandatory.
But occupation politics called for the "Four D"- Demilitarisation, Denazification, Democratisation and Decentralisation. For the democratisation of Germany, educating the German youth and de-nazifying those who had spend their youth under the rule of Hitler was considered sessential, so the mandatory school attendance came back.
Parts of the population was sceptical, but eased with the promise of a democratic education and free school meals. Since food was a key issue, many children were severely undernourished and this was an argument for many parents who were gratefull to have their children fed a bowl of soup for lunch. Besides that, military rule does not need democratic consent.
So, claiming the whole thing goes back to Hitler is not entirely true.
But else: we do have much trust in the state. Basically, we are still good in obeying orders :-)
Of course we will pray and pray Cassandra. Would letters to the German ambassadors of our countries help at all? The violence of the child-snatching described by Mulier Fortis disgusts people here. Surely Frau Merkel doesn`t approve it?
Of course we will pray and pray Cassandra. Would letters to the German ambassadors of our countries help at all? The violence of the child-snatching described by Mulier Fortis disgusts people here. Surely Frau Merkel doesn`t approve it?
Sorry to reply that late. The German gouvernment seems so far mnot willing to support homeschooling in any way. Mrs Merkels political party supports mandatory school attandance. I know of only one influential politician of her party, Mr Norbert Blüm, former Secretary of Employment, who is supportive of homeschooling to some degree. Mrs Merkel does not have voiced an opinion on it at all, its mostly a non-topic here because the support for mandatory schooling is incredible high. Maybe letters can help, but I am sceptical. It seems to me one of those situation only the Lord himself can chance.
Last week more children who did not attend school were taken away from their families. In this case, massive child abuse seems to have been the reason. If this is true, those people did a bad service to the homeschool movement. Cases like this just make the opposition firmer and fuel the argument of homeschoolers abusing and mistreating their children.
Bringing it up in the European Union might be a solution.
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