Well, I'm here to challenge you to do more than feel sorry for the German homeschool families. Won't you please write to the German Embassy? Copy my letter herein. Make it your own. Change the wording. Spread it around. Let them know we aren't interested in their exchange programs if they are going to put good citizens in jail and fine them for loving and educating the children God has blessed them with. After all, it was HITLER himself who made homeschooling illegal there... and even though Hitler is dead, they hang on to his madness!
Do you really believe your kids are YOURS alone and NOT the STATE'S children? I think it is time we reminded Germany of this fact. No matter what country you live in... the children you have DO NOT belong to the STATE.
DO SOMETHING for THOSE WHO ARE SUFFERING under GERMAN TERRORISM (terrorism is a synonym for totalitarianism)! Write the German Embassy!!!
Wolfgang Ischinger
Ambassador
German Embassy
4645 Reservoir Road
NW Washington, DC, 20007-1998
(202) 298-4000
Dear Honorable Ambassador Ischinger:
I was shocked and saddened to hear that over 40 families are being prosecuted in Germany merely for teaching their children at home. I am aware that they have been given huge fines and that some parents (even those with teaching credentials) have been jailed or forced to flee to other countries. Why would your country, claiming to be part of the "free world", threaten to take your countrymen's children and make them wards of the state? How can this make Germany appealing to anyone (ESPECIALLY students or teachers in other countries where freedom truly does ring)?
This is deplorable and unacceptable for any free nation to persecute Christian families who are providing an excellent education for their children. I ask you to stop prosecuting these families like the Maisches, the Pletts, the Bauers, the Rudolphs, and the many others. Homeschooling needs to be legalized in Germany. The German governments need to make homeschooling legal.
My own children are homeschooled. From the ages of 2.5 and 4.5, I have taught them both. They are now only 9 and 7 and can read at a high school or college level. They know more about geography than most college students in the US. They are socially advanced and able to hold intelligent conversations with strangers of any age. You can not imagine how many compliments I get on their behavior, vocabulary, and wit. I can't see how parents and children like my children and I would be ANY kind of threat to a nation. We are only trying to foster a love of learning and a Christian values-based education in our kids so that they value themselves and others. What harm is there in teaching children at home? I see only benefit after benefit... and the children who are graduating from homeschool (being snatched up by colleges all over the world) are PROOF of this.
Please reconsider your country's barbaric stance on homeschooling. Let HITLER and HIS LAWS be put completely in your country's PAST! Bring your country into the light of the 21st Century! After all, homeschooling is nothing new. Loving parents through the entire history of mankind have been teaching their children and it has never been a problem until our sterilized, institutionalized and secularized schools were invented.
Thank you for listening to an American mother and teacher's point of view. I hope to see many positive changes in the future regarding Germany's homeschool policies.
Sincerely,
... Your name here!
Buzz Words: Homeschooling, CRC, Homeschool, Learning, regulation, Education, freedom, prosecution, education, teaching, School, activist, Christianity, Europe, jail, children, family, parents, prayer, parental+rights, parenting, government, interferance, human rights, help, Germany
6 comments:
Howdy,
Are you e-mailing them? Do you have an email address?
Hi Kelli... here's how you/we can help...
THIS FROM THE HSB ARTICLE I LINKED:
The German Embassy can be contacted at:
Wolfgang Ischinger
Ambassador
German Embassy
4645 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, DC, 20007-1998
(202) 298-4000
The embassy can be e-mailed from its website:
http://www.globescope.biz/germany/reg/index.cfm
2. If you want to support homeschoolers in other countries--and causes such as Schulunterricht zu Hause in Germany -- you can make a donation
to the Home School Foundation's international fund. For more
information visit http://www.homeschoolfoundation.org/ .
3. Please pray fervently for these poor families facing incredible
pressure and fear.
THANK YOU!
Hebrews 13:3 - Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Hmmm.
Just browsing on the web when I ran across your website.
If these families are evangelical homeschoolers, then yes, they would probably not be tolerated in Germany. Many European countries, Germany in particular, are very aware of insidious prejudice. Some fundamentalist groups have been banned in Europe because their beliefs are recognized as espousing and promoting beliefs which are intolerant, if not hostile, to groups such as homosexuals & Jews. There is little tolerance to this, particularly in Germany, given their recent past and struggle to make sure it never happens again.
My guess is it's not the homeschooling that upsets the Germans; it's the views promoted therein. They want to ensure educational material is accurate in subjects such as science, health, and history.
Additionally, I would reconsider using Hitler's name in your letter ; it's not something Germans throw around or take lightly. Though a bit ironic given your stance, it would indicate more ignorance than understanding of both the issue & German culture.
anonymous...
I know you probably won't be back in here to read this, but for those who will, I thought it best to reply to your biased and off-base comments:
1. Evangelicals deserve the same rights as homosexuals. Homosexuals are just as intollerant as you believe evangelicals to be, if not MORE SO. Just because the Bible condemns the practice of homosexual sex does not mean that Christians are out to kill homosexuals or prevent them from practicing sin in their life. On the contrary... Christians are simply repeating the Bible and praying for others to do the right thing. That is not intollerant, it is compassionate.
2. If Germany were so interested in not persecuting anyone like they did the Jews and Christians during the holocaust, then why are they continuing the practice by singling out evangelicals? Seems a bit ironic, doesn't it? Doesn't look to me like they are "trying to make sure it never happens again".
3. Homeschooling shouldn't upset Germans. It upset HITLER because it took the innocent children's minds out of his control. That is why HE banned it. That is precisely why Germany should REVERSE this idiotic law.
4. The STATE does not BIRTH children, PEOPLE DO. Most people I know LOVE their kids. Therefore, why would you think a normal parent would intentionally teach their kids lies about "science, health or history"??? Hmmmmm? And what does it matter to anyone, anyway!? They are YOUR KIDS, not GERMANY's KIDS!
5. (and most important) I will NOT reconsider using Hitler's name in my post. I call it like I see it. Germans may not take it lightly, but I don't think the evangelicals they persecute take that lightly, either.
6. Ignorance of German culture has nothing to do with facts, dear. The facts are that:
a) Germany is persecuting Christians.
b) The ban on homeschooling was instituted by Hitler.
c) Germany is basically saying that if you don't let the state educate your kids, they will take them from you.
I can almost hear the steam trains in the distance with weeping "undesirables" as cargo... pulling up to Auschwitz....
JUST WHO IS BEING INTOLLERANT????
I just discovered this post and I want to say something although it's a bit late.
First, German public schools are better than American ones- so on this point no need for homeschooling.
Second, Germans are very sensitive about Hitler etc. Nazi symbols are forbidden, denying the Holocaust can be punished ("Volksverhetzung").
Third, this goes also for other themes and theories. If Germans want to teach their children that evolution theory is wrong, that homosexuals are sinners etc. they can, but after school. If they don't want expose their children to themes like theory of evolution (in school) they can expat to U.S., adopt U. S. citizenship and homeschool their children.
Fourth, Germany experienced once how catastrophal it can be when an extremist ideology shared only by few can infect a whole country-
When Hitler first appeared on political stage in the mid- 1920ies his abhorrent, terrible ideology was shared only by few people. But Hitler knew how to attract people and his ideology was spread in Germany. Through fear, oppression, convinced followers, racists...
What I'm trying to say is that neo- nazis, communists etc. are considered to be dangerous becacause even a small group of people can have great influence. And societies like Nazi- Germany are still possible nowadays- everywhere (ever read M. Rhues "The Wave"?). And despite it should never happen again, it did (different though, but): Cambodia for example (Pol Pot) or Ruanda.
Germany and many Germans think that children need to be protected from dangerous ideologies (and our society is somewaht differnet from U. S.- some Republicans and Christians Evangelicals for example are considered dangerous to some extent) and the best way to protect them is to educate them in schools.
Fifth, there are more Neo- Nazis in the USA than in Germany. Germany (FDR, not GDR) is a democracy with equal rights for everyone since 1949. The USA weren't that fast (since 1964 (Civil Rights Act)).
Sixth, sorry for my angry comment. I don't meant to insult you or other homeschoolers. I truly believe in freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. With one restriction: when people are harmed. Due to our history, we Germans have more restrictions than other people.
And we don't like the mention of Hitler. He is dead. Germany and every true German condemn HItler and his ideas. Probably that was the main reason why I got angry.
Seventh, I'm German, a 24 year- old history student, Roman Catholic and I believe in God and theory of evolution. Oh, and sorry for my English, I haven't practiced that much since my final exam in school.
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