Posted on 09/08/2004 7:26:33 AM PDT by Mikey
Germans who choose to homeschool their children are coming under increasing pressure from the state with some families escaping the European Union nation to keep from having their children taken from them.
The U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, has appealed to its members to assist its counterpart organization in Germany as it battles for the right to homeschool.
Said a statement from HSLDA: "The United States has been blessed for many years with the freedom to homeschool. Other countries do not have this freedom. If we do not help 'the least of these' in other nations, who will help them?"
The organization tells of the struggles German families are having with the judicial system there.
A few weeks ago, HSLDA reports, a German homeschool family escaped to Central America under threat of a judge who wanted to take custody of the couple's school-aged child. A social worker helped the family escape by warning them of the judge's intent and delaying the paperwork needed for the seizure.
In another instance, a family escaped with their child to Austria. According to HSLDA, even though the family no longer lived in Germany, a judge gave custody of the child to the state and let the family know if it ever returned to Germany, the child would be taken.
Another German homeschool family lost a recent court case when the judge ruled that the parents had no rights to have input into the manner and method of education in government schools. In this case, hard-core pornography reportedly was being used to teach the children in their German-language course. The judge also ruled that fundamentalist Christians who do not want their children to attend the government schools are not protected by the nation's constitution.
HSLDA helped start an advocacy organization for homeschoolers in Germany, School Instruction at Home, and is encouraging Americans to donate to the German group to help in its battle for the rights of families there.
"Many homeschoolers in the United States have forgotten the terror of being taken to jail for exercising their God-given responsibility to homeschool," HSLDA said. "We have been able to legalize homeschooling in all 50 states. … But our freedom to homeschool was not free. Many families had to sacrifice in order to legalize homeschooling in the 1980s and '90s.
"German homeschoolers are facing this battle right now. It is vital that we in America, who have been given so much, rally around these families and lift up the homeschooling movement in Germany."
The group has set up a site where donations can be made to the German homeschooling organization.
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Oh really. Here in Virginia if one wishs to home school ones children, first one needs permission from the STATE. Then one has to follow the STATES curriculum. Yeah we have the "freedom" to home-school our children, we're free to ask permission and we're free to teach them whatever the STATE says we can teach them.
The J didn't post. Ummmmmm.
LOL.
After WWII the Nazis moved to the U.S. and went to work for the government.
And how does the state of Virginia force one to follow the state's curriculum???????? And where does a Virginian go to get permission from the state to homeschool????? Does the state of Virginia only allow certain things to be taught to children in schools and those who are homeschooled?????? Are earplugs inserted and blinders put on when state-approved instruction time is over????
Very sobering...and sad indeed. Prayers going up for those families.
MO was instructed by the federal court to rewrite its state homeschooling laws, and the result was a law that's been a real boon for homeschoolers here. You don't have to get state permission or even register. You don't have to show your documents to any state official unless subpoenaed by the district attorney (very rare), and Division of Family Services by statute has no authority over home school questions.
Other states out of the jurisdiction of our federal court still have "substantially equivalent" provisions in their state laws (I don't know if VA is one of them.)
BTW, MO got its laws changed without having to rely on any outside help from any organizations like HSLDA. MO parents, with the help of a local lawyer, did it entirely on their own. Homeschooling parents in other states can consult with their own *local* constitutional lawyers & could do it too.
First, they came for the weisenheimers...
At first I read "Austria" as "Austin" and I thought, "Hmm, out of the frying pan and into the fire."
A close friend of mine and her husband home-schooled their son years ago and she showed me all this paper work one had to fill out, plus the STATE approved curriculum one was to adhere to. I know what your saying as far as what one actually will teach the child. When they were home-schooling, they taught what they felt was appropriate, but the point I'm trying to make is this; One still has to ask permission from the STATE and one is required to at least have a copy of the STATES curriculum.
I'll see M and her husband this week and I'll ask them for a copy of all the required BS and I'll scan it in and post it here on this thread either by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.
What you say about Virginia is not true. Here is a page from the HSLDA which explains the four options available to Virginia home-schoolers. Only one of them requires what you mention. There are three ways to avoid dealing with the state, the simplest being the religion option or the group school option where each home is the classroom. Again, only one of the options fits your description.
http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/VA.pdf
"A close friend of mine and her husband home-schooled their son years ago and she showed me all this paper work one had to fill out, plus the STATE approved curriculum one was to adhere to. I know what your saying as far as what one actually will teach the child. When they were home-schooling, they taught what they felt was appropriate, but the point I'm trying to make is this; One still has to ask permission from the STATE and one is required to at least have a copy of the STATES curriculum.
I'll see M and her husband this week and I'll ask them for a copy of all the required BS and I'll scan it in and post it here on this thread either by the end of this week or the beginning of next week."
So you're not a home-schooler yourself? Based on what I learned about Virginia's laws, at the link posted in a message above, your friends are incorrect. They could have bypassed all of that. Just trying to keep the record straight. Virginia is listed as a state with low requirement on the site.
Public schools - the last bastion and stronghold for the revival of idiotic ideas and dangerous prejudices once they have been rooted out of every other corner of the world. Perhaps I exaggerate, but not by much!
Public schools - the last bastion and stronghold for the revival of idiotic ideas and dangerous prejudices once they have been rooted out of every other corner of the world. Perhaps I exaggerate, but not by much!
Well, we have homeschooled in VA, and we had NO dealings with the state at all. We did deal with the local school system, and it was not unpleasant nor did we ever feel threatened by "the state." The mastery of the Virginia SOLs are required for students in the public schools. As of today, I do not believe VA homeschoolers are required to take the Virginia SOLs.
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