Forwarded from Leslie Barson:

I am sending on a copy of an email (with permission) recieved on the Learning Unlimited list in the hope that someone who is closer to Stanstead may be able to help this fmaily for a few days…. If you think you can help please email Aldona directly at ‘aldona99 (at) yahoo.com’. You can also pass this on to any list you think might be appropriate. Thanks Leslie

Hello dear friends,

I’m trying to help a displaced family get out of Europe to N.America who have fled Germany a few months ago, and are hiding out in another country. They have twins, 10 yrs. old that have gone through alot in the past 12 months. They have become very fragile, are clinging to their parents, and literally have anxiety attacks when they encounter people speaking german. One of the twins is very sick, and really needs to take doses of oxygen throughout the day. The boys have not been to a decent doctor in months. Now they have the possibility of getting to their destination, thanks to donations made by caring people, but they need to make the trip as short as possible, and as cheap as possible, since its the 4 of them.

I’ve managed to find a flight directly from London Heathrow to Calgary, but they first need to get to London, so there’s a flight for practically pennies (well, you still have to add the taxes… ) into Stanstead a day or two before they fly for Canada.

The father has good prospects of getting a job with one of the job hunters they have been in contact with for almost 6 months already.

I’m actually hoping to find someone in the London or airport areas who could find the time, space and compassion to help this family get to their destination. This really reminds me of two historical events…. the time when the the slaves were helped and when the jews were being scurried out of the country and out of harm’s reach.

The dates would be around Easter time… between April 8-10, around that time frame. I’ll have more details soon. If someone could find some time at a more opportune time for them we could eventually postpone the trip a few days…

Thank you all for all the moral support you’ve given hundred of homeschoolers throughout the past few years…

Most Sincerely, Aldona Guenter in Germany

This is a sad story, and really, it is less about home schooling and more about the principles of freedom.

This family has been forced to flee Germany. They have been made to pack up and leave their homes so that they can follow their principles, whatever they may be. This is wrong. By being forced to leave their homes in this way, they have been deprived of their right to their property, and the right to be secure in their homes. All decent countries have these rights written down unambiguously.

Western countries need all the decent families that they can get. Their societies are having trouble on many fronts; moral decline and a population decline to name but two.

Home Schoolers are being actively courted in more advanced countries like the USA. They understand that Home Schooled children are a precious resource; Universities and employers both are scrambling for these individuals.

If all the home schoolers in Germany, around 500 families, are forced to flee to free countries, this would constitute a significant ‘brain drain’; and Germany would be the loser. In practicing their insane ideas about creating a homogenous society, they are expelling the very people they need to bring sparkle, decency and variety to their society all of which are essential to any nations health.

The Germans have a history of doing this. They did the same thing with their absurd ideas about ‘Jewish Physics‘ which stopped them from getting the Atomic Bomb. But that was a good thing.

The fact is that a society that is completely homogenous cannot come up with the great ideas; it is doomed to wither and stagnate. It is analogous to the health and life of languages; English is a very strong and healthy language because it willingly includes words from other languages into its base. Other languages that resist new words from other cultures stagnate and are supplanted by English. The French (who have just passed some new and stupid anti-home schooling laws) use a special government department that controls additions to the French language. They are a culture under siege, and persecuting their home schoolers will only make it worse. Luckily there is a place in Canada where they can home school freely AND speak French, Quebec, should they need to escape.

The Societies that have different philosophies (running inside the national culture, i.e. speaking English in England and French in France) flourishing freely inside them are stronger, more innovative, able to ‘come up with the goods’ more often, and are better places to live in. Germany is the opposite of this. It is a bad place to live, a place where your ideas, (and by extension, you) are considered worthless by everyone.

Perhaps a society like Germany cannot be trusted with the precious families that home school. Canada and the United States will reap the benefits of these families and their children, and the ripples of this transferral will propagate down the generations, improving those countries while Germany becomes like an old vine unable to produce grapes.

I hope you will be able to send this family a little something to help them rebuild their lives.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Astonishing, Home Schooling, Justice.