I am against home schooling

Hi there,

as a German, I think I can give a few comments on the situation in Germany, where the state enforces the schooling monopoly at gunpoint. No kidding, parents who do not agree with the doctrine-of-the-day and try to keep their children out of school are sent to jail as if they were criminals.

The quality of schooling, modest, to be polite, when I was in that age, (finished school in 1978), when due to lack of politically convenient teachers, a third of the courses could not be given, has decreased ever since.

Lowering standards didn't exactly help, and the fact that Germany slides further and further down the PISA ratings, shows clearly that our state monopoly schools have flunked miserably.

Home schooling parents can't screw up worse than our teachers, in point of fact, lessons, given in a language the students understand, can help decisively to reach the goals of education.

Schulpflicht, mandatory Staats-education was an invention of the Kaiserreich, but those who were most rabidly enforcing it were the Nazis in order to indoctrinate the youth their way. The needed obedient war slaves.

The German Democratic Republic followed their tracks ardently, they merely changed a few tunes and the colour of the flags, but the spirit was the same: shut up and obey, never ask questions.

Any society, where freedom means more than the absence of lice on a dog, needs people who can think independently, use their mind to pass judgements for their own sake and act.

No streamlined state - monopoly - education is interested in questiones asked. Only responsibility, learnt at home from parents living an example, can turn out free people. Otherwise, all you'll get is slaves and blue Mao-style ants. Want to be one?

- Ulrich Biele

Munich

Hi there,

thank you for this article (Home schooling vs Conventional Schooling). It is true, in Germany homeschooling is "verboten", and authorities use all means to take care that families who want to free their children, have to leave the country. For example, our sons (8 and 10 years old) want to learn freely at home. They do not like sitting in school and prefer their own enterprises and experiments. We grant them this right since nearly two years. We started to do this, because our elder son had lost every interest in schooling and it was a torture for him to go there. He even did not want to live at all. Today he is, as his younger brother, a happy, enthusiastic, interested, active child again. But now we are threatened by exorbitantly high fines of 6000 € (more than 8000 US-Dollar!) if we do not force our unwilling children to school. For us as small publishers (www.genius-verlag.de, www.walter-russell.org) this is threatening our existence. There are cases where German fathers who did not pay the fine have been imprisoned. Several families before had to flee from Germany because authorities wanted to take their child's custody away for not forcing their children to school. Many families each year decide to leave the country before this point of escalation is reached.

The situation is really strange, because Germany's European neighbours all know the right to unschool children, in different variants. We do not know what to do further except also leaving the country - but this would rob our children of all they have now: friends, relatives, familiar sports club, orchestra, children's choir....

In the meantime, German schoolsystem is in a severe crisis, all newspapers and tv-shows are full of discussions and complaints how bad the results of schooling are. We urgently need more alternatives and possibilities to go new ways of learning if we want to meet future's requests.

Kind regards

- Dagmar Neubronner

bildungsfreiheit@web.de

I am against home schooling. Children need to learn to interact with their own peers.

In addition, I believe that parents are not qualified enough to substitute teachers that earned their teachers’ degrees at universities. I truly believe you need qualified staff to get the job done right. Teaching and parenting are two different shoes.

I am also appalled about the fact that in the US home schooling is used to expose children to a more “faith based” education. I’m glad that religion is kept out of the school curriculum in Germany. Apparently, 75% of home schooled kids in the US are Evangelical Christians. When I read and hear what children sometimes learn while being home schooled, it honestly gives me the creeps.

I am against home schooling if it means taking children out of school altogether or much of the time. The German government is right when it says that children have a right to a public education. There they experience interaction with other pupils, learn social behavior, learn to interact with those that may differ in opinion. They also learn behavior with 'superiors' (i.e. teachers) which may give them a head start with dealing with workplace situations etc. In public schools they are assured to be given the solid educational foundation on (at least somewhat) equal footing with other peers as well as a world view that is not too biased by their parents (e.g. parents that may not want to teach children evolution theory). Plus, where would children be assured to learn about important elements of world history or their country's history?

The right to a public education is infringed upon if parents take the children out of the school system altogether. Parents make vital decisions for their children which may not be in their best interest. There the state becomes the guardian of the welfare of the children as far as education goes. That concept may sound foreign to Americans, but I think it is valid in many ways. It may sound like an infringement on freedom of what the parents choose to do with their children, but at the same time it limits what choices parents can make on behalf of their children.

Personally I am glad I was not home schooled and enjoyed the benefits of a good public education. If public education were to be substandard, then that is what needs to be fixed. Home schooling should not be seen as a remedy for substandard public schools.

Plus, parents are overburdened already. Which parent would have the time to school their children at home in an adequate way? There may be the occasional positive story about home schooled children. but there are probably just as many negative outcomes. If home schooling becomes the answer to failing public schools, it further erodes confidence in our public schools, creates a two class system where the well-off people can afford home schooling (how else could one afford to school children at home?) and the poorer ones are left with a neglected public school system.

If home schooling becomes a major trend, parents who would no longer participate in the school system will lack support for tax dollars to go towards public schools, further eroding their financial base.

Public schools are perhaps the only place where people of a variety of social classes coexist before they venture into the real life and establish their respective social classes. I went to school with people of vastly different background and it has positively shaped my outlook on life. I had friends who were of upper and lower class and I learned and got inspired by both. I would not want to miss this experience.

I used to live in England. In England they do not need permission from local authorities to take children out of school. Although I like the idea of parents having the freedom to decide whether they would like to see their children home schooled or not, there are certain issues that concern me. In England, you are not obliged to have any teaching qualifications, and you are not obliged to follow the national curriculum. The question remains whether home schooling is in the best of interest for the children.
- Claire, Seattle

I am home schooling my two children, and I have to say that they are doing much better than they would have in a public school.