Friday, January 14, 2005
In Germany, parents teaching their children is illegal
German school official has ordered seven families home-schooling their children in northwest Germany to enroll their children in public schools immediately, or the children will be forcibly removed by police and taken to school. Any resistance on the part of the parents will result in the children being removed from their homes, according to a Home School Legal Defense Association report.
The families argued that, as Christians, they wanted to protect their children from the Godless and humanistic values being taught in public schools. They also assured officials that they were providing an adequate education through a German correspondence school.
County education director Heinz Kohler dismissed the families' beliefs, saying, "You and your children are not living in isolation on some island but rather in an environment posing intra- and extracurricular situations where you'll have to accept that your world view will be curtailed."
Kohler further explained that home-schooling could not be allowed as "...children should not be encapsulated or kept apart from the outside world. In these cases, the parents' rights to personally educate their children would prevent the children from growing up to be responsible individuals within society..."
Check it out once more. Read it slowly. Is it just me, or has he all but promised to reengineer the children's outlook on the world? Of course the state is above the family, Herr Kohler, of course.
The families argued that, as Christians, they wanted to protect their children from the Godless and humanistic values being taught in public schools. They also assured officials that they were providing an adequate education through a German correspondence school.
County education director Heinz Kohler dismissed the families' beliefs, saying, "You and your children are not living in isolation on some island but rather in an environment posing intra- and extracurricular situations where you'll have to accept that your world view will be curtailed."
Kohler further explained that home-schooling could not be allowed as "...children should not be encapsulated or kept apart from the outside world. In these cases, the parents' rights to personally educate their children would prevent the children from growing up to be responsible individuals within society..."
Check it out once more. Read it slowly. Is it just me, or has he all but promised to reengineer the children's outlook on the world? Of course the state is above the family, Herr Kohler, of course.
