I'm following this post with my letter.
October 24, 2003
Dear HSLDA Members and friends,
On October 30th, homeschooling will be debated in the Netherland's
parliament. They will either direct the Minister of Education to
crack down on homeschooling (which the Minister wants to do) or
legalize homeschooling.
The Netherlands Home School Association (NHSA) believes your calls
and e-mails will likely make the difference on whether homeschooling
will survive in Holland.
Right now, most members of parliament do not think the issue is very
important because it only effects 50 families that are legally
homeschooling. But there are hundreds of others underground waiting
for relief.
Will you take a few minutes and help "the least of these" who are
requesting our assistance? Remember, in the past, your calls and e-
mails helped release a homeschool family from jail in South Africa, a
homeschool court case to be dismissed in Germany, harmful homeschool
legislation defeated in Ireland and the Czech Republic and much more.
ACTION REQUESTED
There are three places to send a copy of your e-mail listed below to
make this grassroots effort a success.
Please give the Education Committee in the Dutch Parliament, the
Minister of Education, and the Dutch embassy this message:
"Please legalize homeschooling in the Netherlands. One of the most
basic human rights that every free nation must recognize, is the
right of parents to choose the education and training of their
children. Homeschooling is producing thousands of productive and
successful adults. Homeschooling works and should be protected." You
can also give some general information about the success of your
homeschool.
Deliver the message to:
1) The Education Committee of the Dutch Parliament which will be
meeting to debate homeschooling on October 30th. E-mail:
cie.ocw@tk.parliament.nl. 2) The Minister of Education, Maria van der Hoeven at
info@minocw.nl. (A copy to the Netherlands Home School Association is important, home-
education@xs4all.nl, so that they can make a compilation of your
messages and present them to the Dutch press).
3) Call Ambassador Boudewijn van Eenennaam at the Dutch embassy (202)
244-5300 or via e-mail
was@minbuza.nl BACKGROUND
In the Netherlands home education as such is currently not a legal
option. Home schooling parents may try to get an exemption from
school registration, but only for deeply felt religious or
philosophical reasons. However, these exemptions are recognized with
great reluctance, for children are not considered to be educated
effectively without public school attendance. Many are denied. Once a
child has attended a school even this option is barred.
Now only the parents of about a 100 children have been able to avoid
this trap to secure their freedom. Many more families would like to
home-educate their children but are not able to get their way without
years filled with court cases and child protection investigations.
Since some court cases have been won rather unexpectedly by home-
educators this year, Maria van der Hoeven, the Dutch Minister of
Education, wants to make life even more difficult for them. Despite
the fact that the current law does not consider home-education to be
an effective option compared with institutional schooling, she wants
to put homeschoolers under tight educational supervision. The
Education Committee of the Second Chamber, the Dutch House of
Representatives, will debate her plan October 30, at 10.00 AM.
The Netherlands Home School Association sent us this plea, "We, a
group of home-educating parents in the Netherlands, want home-
education to become a legal option, its efficacy recognized by the
authorities, and most of all we want parents to exercise a free
choice for and with their children without unnecessary state
interference.
"That is why we ask for your help. We know some members of parliament
sympathize with us, after receiving tens of pages of arguments
against the Minister's view, but all this input has come from a small
group of activists so far.
"So, after delivering lots of research and different legislative
possibilities we need a lot of your messages to reach the hearts of
those Members of Parliament! Let them find out that home-education
has grown to a worldwide grass-roots movement of responsible
families!"
Thank you for assisting the homeschool movement in the Netherlands!
Sincerely,
Chris Klicka
HSLDA Senior Counsel
Dear Mr. Ambassador, Officials of the Dutch Parliament, Madame Minster of Education,
I suspect you noticed my surname (Vande Pol). My great-grandfather, Hendrikus van de Pol, came to America from Lunteren, near Arnhem in 1864. He built a substantial farm near Pella, Iowa. There he raised nine sons. He asked for nothing from his government, and instead, gave much to his country in return for its gift of freedom.
You probably noticed that our family name is spelled incorrectly. It's an amusing story. Some bureaucrat at Ellis Island wouldn't allow more than three names and they all had to be capitalized. So great-grandfather Hendrikus made a decision and signed the form. Somehow, there's something appropriate about this story as relates to the topic of this letter.
I have been to Holland for extended trips several times, especially in the South, both for business and pleasure. It is a beautiful country and especially kind to visitors. It is the product of a staggering amount of work; one is constantly surrounded with works older of high craftsmanship from every trade. I am proud of that heritage. Accordingly, my wife and I went there on our honeymoon. The trains were wonderful, directions easy to understand, and scheduled such that a person could read a map and catch the connecting train before it left (unlike Germany). The VVV was always helpful and the pensions were uniformly pleasant. I greatly enjoyed learning about dog training by observing a full KNPV trial. In speaking to the businessmen there, many wanted to come to America for freedom from oppressive bureaucracy and taxation.
On our honeymoon, we witnessed the repetitive rows of blockhouse apartments, drank excellent beer with retirees in their 40s, and exchanged ideas with students pursuing subjects with no career objective. The joyless emptiness of so many of these residents was obvious. Holland was a paradox to us, of comfort, of decency, and a history of arduous work. It was built into one of the great societies in history: a middle class country seeking religious freedom, now (from what I have seen) a people with a dispiriting view of their future.
I am writing to you to offer them hope.
Here in America, you can see the same ennui as you see all over Holland in the shuffling footsteps of our middle school children. To sit outside such an institution and watch them leaving when school lets out is a most instructive exercise. Try it sometime. Ask yourself, 'How many of them look happy?'
It's socialism. We don't want any part of it.
I home school my two children, 9 and 11. We do it because we have no faith in the schools here in California. Have no fear, because we want the best for our children and know them better than anyone, they are getting an outstanding education. The eleven-year-old starts college calculus this year and her nine-year-old sister will be doing geometry. Both have read Homer and Herodotus and study French. Both have a clear understanding of how much work restoring natural habitat can be. They have traveled all over the West, and learned much of the threat government corruption poses to farms, ranches, and communities. You can read one of their term papers online at
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/737140/posts. I am proud to say that these kids are the delight of the neighborhood. They are happy, kind, and witty. They don't cuss. We have had parents beg us to "loan" them for a time to serve as a positive influence over their children. We never want for free supervision. They are an asset to this community.
You now know why I wrote you this letter, so I won't tire you with an entreaty.
Zeer aangenaam,
Mark Edward Vande Pol