CBNNews.com — A report from the U.S. State Department on human rights abuses to be released next year will include Germany’s harsh treatment of homeschoolers, CBN News sources say.

Last year’s report, which was just released, does not mention the homeschooling situation in German. Several homeschooling parents have been jailed and fined thousands of euros.

Homeschooling is illegal in Germany. There are estimated to be only about 300 to 500 homeschooling families in the entire nation.Some homeschoolers have lost their homes and businesses, while others have fled the country with their children.

In the most highly publicized case, 15-year-old Melissa Busekros was taken from her homeschooling parents in Bavaria in a SWAT-style police raid and placed in a mental hospital and then put into foster care. A state psychiatric evaluation of the girl claimed she suffered from “school phobia” and was too devoted and obedient to her father. The parents have failed to regain custody.

Concern in the U.S. State Department over Germany’s harsh treatment of homeschoolers follows a United Nations report last month that labeled Germany’s school system “an anachronism.”

The report by Vernor Muñoz Villalobos, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to education, said that Germany’s education system should not include “the suppression of forms of education that do not require attendance in school.” It recommended Germany adopt the necessary measures “to ensure that the home schooling system is properly supervised by the State, thereby upholding the right of the parents to employ this form of education when necessary and appropriate.”

But the U.N. recommendation was rejected by the German government, which issued a press release saying homeschooling is “no model for Germany.”

CBN

Well well well.

The Germans are fond of telling people to go back and vote until you get it right when anyone in the EU disagrees with them, maybe the UN will tell them to go back and remove Hitler’s anti Home Schooling law, and keep telling them to go back until they get it right.

It is interesting how they say homeschooling is “no model for Germany.”. Home Schooling is something that individual families choose it may or may not be right for individual families, and that is their choice, but what is ‘good for Germany’ is not the issue (or at least it should not be) because families are not the property of the state in a democratic country. Privatized railways can be good or bad for Germany. Speed limits on the motor-ways can be good or bad for Germany… you get the picture.

There are several problems with this story, the main ones concerning the stubborn and ignorant Germans, whom we have discussed before.

The other ones that are new to us are the statements of Vernor Muñoz Villalobos. Now, I am not saying that Mr. Villalobos is biased, but in his home country of Costa Rica Home Schooling is illegal. This might be the reason why he used the phrase:

thereby upholding the right of the parents to employ this form of education when necessary and appropriate.”

What he SHOULD have said was, “Uphold the right of the parents to employ this form of education should it be their choice for whatever reason”.

Also, it is completely wrong for him to suggest that Germany, “(adopt the necessary measures) to ensure that the home schooling system is properly supervised by the State”. Home Schooling should not be supervised by the state. Many people choose Home Schooling precisely to get away from state interference in education; the state of Nevada is showing clear headed and informed thinking by introducing legislation to make it easier to Home School. The state should be backing away from this area, not trying to get entrenched in it.

Vernor Muñoz Villalobos and all ministers responsible for education need to take the facts into consideration, stay away from trying to control Home Schooling, and stop behaving as if this is the 1970s. Home Schooling is an unstoppable and positive force that is improving the lives of children and families.

Any educator that is against Home Schooling doesn’t know the facts about Home Schooling – it is as simple as that. After seeing the results and getting to grips with how Home Schooling works, all reasonable people are for it and not against it.

Unless of course, you are from the party that claims that day is night.

update…

Here is the crucial part of the UN report by Vernor Muñoz Villalobos, which is more important than the philosophically erroneous recommendation:

62. According to reports received, it is possible that, in some Länder, education is understood exclusively to mean school attendance. Even though the Special Rapporteur is a strong advocate of public, free and compulsory education, it should be noted that education may not be reduced to mere school attendance and that educational processes should be strengthened to ensure that they always and primarily serve the best interests of the child. Distance learning methods and home schooling represent valid options which could be developed in certain circumstances, bearing in mind that parents have the right to choose the appropriate type of education for their children, as stipulated in article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The promotion and development of a system of public, government-funded education should not entail the suppression of forms of education that do not require attendance at a school. In this context, the Special Rapporteur received complaints about threats to withdraw the parental rights of parents who chose home-schooling methods for their children.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 8:32 am and is filed under Home Schooling, Yes yes yes!.