Homeschool Asylum
- on 03.05.10
- Education
- 2 Comments
Have you heard the one about the homeschooling family who fled Germany to seek political asylum in the US?
Evidently, homeschooling in Germany is seriously illegal. And if you read the article, you’ll see that everything homeschoolers are afraid of here in the US actually happens in Germany.
Home School Legal Defense Association assisted in the process of helping the Romeikes (the German family in question) get asylum.
I, personally, am glad to know that HSLDA is still around. As a child, I comforted myself with the knowledge that if a US state tried to pull what the German government continues to pull, HSLDA would be there to help.
But it’s been a while since I’ve thought at any length about HSLDA or the legal side of the life of homeschoolers — so I don’t know how HSLDA has changed or grown over the years, and I don’t keep up with the current state of homeschooling legislation in the US. However, stories like the Romeikes’ must hit very close to home for those of you working on the front lines of homeschooling.
So, read the article, and let me know what you think. Does the situation in Germany warrant the granting of asylum here in the US for German homeschoolers?
-Micah Tillman
[Micah is a Mt. Sophia graduate who is working on his doctoral dissertation at The Catholic University of America. He also gets to teach philosophy (as a "graduate fellow"), which he loves.]
Related posts:
We are very blessed here in the USA to have the freedom to educate our children in the way we feel led. It was a hard-won right. Thank God for it.
We recently discussed the illegality of homeschooling in Germany when I gave an overview of Germany for Mrs.D’s Geography class. It’s been part of Germany’s culture dating back to the Prussian times, when it was considered groundbreaking to respect a child’s right to be educated (vs. presumably forcing them to stay home and work on the farm or in a factory).
I’ve become good friends with several German co-workers. Even among such good friends, they’ve all been shocked (some even horrified) to learn that my children are homeschooled. Perhaps it’s the characteristic German respect for the law, or perhaps the ban is so ingrained across many generations that it’s impossible to recognize the change for good. In any case, we’re all still good friends and I hope my interactions with them have put a more positive light on homeschooling for the small segment of the German population with whom I have frequent interactions!
Along that same train of thought, HSLDA recently published information on an e-Pal program which pairs up US-homeschooled students with ‘e-Pals’ from Germany. The goal is to have a bit of cultural exchange (like traditional pen-pals) with the hope that many young Germans will get to see the benefits of US homeschooling in action. Perhaps over time this can lead to changes in the German laws?
Information about the program can be found at http://www.homeschoolamericainc.org/programs.php There is a small fee to register. Participants do NOT have to know German in order to participate.