Spunky Homeschool

German Schools

Feb. 8, 2006 at 9:53 AM

Homeschooling

While we head down a path with increasing federal control in education, it is worth taking a look at a few places where our theory has met with reality. Germany might provide one such example. The state controls all areas of schooling and parents are seen as incapable of teaching their children. So how are the schools in Germany? According to one mother, Gerlinde Unverzagt's whose book The Teacher Hate - A Mother's Reckoning Up has topped the German Amazon best sellers list, the results are not impressive. Her controversial book has sparked a debate over how well the German schools are actually doing. Mrs Unverzagt told the Sunday Telegraph:

"My four children have a spent a total of 26 years in Berlin schools and my anger has steadily increased over this time. Teachers' work is never subject to controls - if they perform badly it has no consequences. They don't enforce discipline, most just do what they want - and that is grossly unprofessional."

She describes a primary teacher who takes pride in her pupils' unlimited spelling mistakes. "In my class children can write how they like," she says. "If we were to insist that they spell correctly, we would only frighten them."

Teachers were outraged and demanded the book be banned. Frustrated parents are now forced to teach what they schools have failed to do. They are forced into teaching their children because the schools are not doing their job. Which may be a good thing. However, homeschooling is not permitted in Germany. So the students must sit in the governement schools and then the parents make up the difference after hours.

Sheila Lange recently posted about a public school teacher in Germany who was fired because her husband was homeschooling 4 of their 7 children. The Lange's are trying to homeschool in Germany without much success. Several other fathers were arrested last summer for homeschooling their children.
The targeted parents are all Christians, whose faith encourages them to act upon their principles, but the fierceness of the authorities’ reaction is telling. The dispute is not about religion (though that alone would be bad enough) but about the hearts and minds of the children. In Germany schools have become vehicles of indoctrination where children are brought up to unquestioningly accept the authority of the state in all areas of life. It is no coincidence that those who have escaped from indoctrination under the Soviets discern what the government is doing in the schools and are sufficiently concerned to want to protect their children from it. What is worrying is that “free-born” Western parents accept this assault on their freedom as normal and regard the Christian parents who want to opt out of the state system with suspicion.
I don't think homeschooling will become illegal in the United States. However, the "free-born" Western parents accepting the state system and the accompanying loss of freedom as normal could very well become a reality. Especially as the state continues to become the parent to our nation's children.

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For more articles on education visit Edwonk's Carnival of Education. The Carnival is celebrating its one year anniversary.

5 Comments and Trackbacks

posted by gottsegnet on Feb. 8, 2006 at 10:13 AM

Konrad Adenauer was probably the greates leader Germany ever had. The man was amazing and lead Germany through the reconstruction after World War II. He is quoted as sayind, "Without Christ, Germany has no hope." He viewed what was happening in his country at the time as a concrete picture of the death and resurrection of the believer upon accepting Christ. He was homeschooled...probably how he survived the Nazi indoctrination. His grandson, however, is not such a strong leader. He has been quoted as saying, "Germany has no room for fundamentalist Christians" in response to the homeschooling debate. He would rather they just leave, emigrate to Belgium where it is legal.

Have you heard about the "Du bist Deutschland" campaigh put out by Germany that exploded in the blogosphere? It is very telling of the German government's mindset which also affects homeschooling. It means "You are Germany" and is innocuous enough as an ad campaign on its own. But it closely parallels a camapaign Hitler put out and the general population finds it a joke. It quickly became the most tagged item on technorati. The response? Those responsible for the campaign lamented that "Every one with an internet connection thinks he has the right to an opinion."

Whoa. I actually thought everyone had a right to an opinion, even if they didn't have an internet connection. I guess the public school system did not do a very good job with me.

posted by gottsegnet on Feb. 8, 2006 at 10:18 AM

Incidentally, I attended a public school in Germany. The Integrierte Gesamtschule zu Aurich. I loved it. Of course, I was not a Christian at the time. I did well academically despite my handicap of not being a native speaker. I remember sitting in the hall with my friends drinking Vodka. And Champaigne. And simply saying, "keine Lust" (no interest) and leaving school grounds with my friends to go into town and do whatever. There was no fear of recourse. There were not even attendance records.

All kinds of things are twisted that seem a bit of a shock to Americans....to me the big one is the fact that the age of consent is only 12. Can you imagine if some 40 year old man had an interest in your 12 year old son and you could not do anything to hinder the relationship because your 12 year old son is considered "of age?"

posted by on Feb. 8, 2006 at 4:44 PM

Interesting insights. I can't imagine what it was like for you. If you have a website for that German campaign I'd love to read it. (If it has translation.) You may find Shiela Lange's blog interesting reading.

One of the articles I read on Germany recently talked about the campaign you mentioned. It talked about policing playgrounds to make sure that the chidlren only spoke German and other similar activities by the government.

Edited by spunkyhomeschool on Feb. 8, 2006 at 1:45 PM

posted by jaminacema on Feb. 8, 2006 at 6:56 PM

We are truly blessed to have the freedom we do. Reading what is going on in Germany helps me not take that freedom for granted!

posted by gottsegnet on Feb. 10, 2006 at 10:27 AM

here's the best I can find at the moment. Most of the blogs, obviously, are in German, and probably won't do you a lot of good, although they are saying approximately the same thing. They have a nice picture of Hitler using the same ad campaign.

http://www.adhurl.com/2006/02/wecome_to_the_toilet_walls_of.html
or technorati's blog:
http://www.technorati.com/weblog/2006/01/79.html
or Der Spiegel's take:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,397008,00.html

Der Spiegel is Germany's big news magazine. It's actual politics are very left-leaning, but that is typical for Germany. There is no such thing as an "independent press" in Germany, but that is a separate issue.

It is difficult for me to imagine the scene you describe regarding German language usage...but it has been a little over ten years. They are big into a "borderless world." Anti-Turkish sentiments run high...I was instructed not to speak with that "Dreck" (filth, more commonly used to describe chicken feces) of society by my first family who greeted their neighbors with explicatives for being Turks.

It is not like that everywhere, and we have our racists, too. I tend to see it more of a systemic issue in Germany because German law kind of tends to hold the Turkish population separate, not allowing assimilation. Turks tend to view German women as "loose" due to dress and cultural differences and the incidence of rape is high (on my walk to school, I had to walk through a gauntlet of cat calls and harrassing comments from Turkish men.) When you live close to that (and fear for your families safety) it is hard not to become racist.

ok, now you got me going...even though it has nothing to do with my normal blogging, I think I'll take this on tonight. I'll let you know when I'm done, and you can come over there and check it out...

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