Comments on: Why German homeschoolers get asylum and torture survivors don’t http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/03/03/german-homeschool-asylum-torture/ Reporter & Producer Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:31:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: cmg http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/03/03/german-homeschool-asylum-torture/#comment-782 cmg Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:32:16 +0000 http://www.jinamoore.com/?p=1298#comment-782 BTW, the Nazi reference comes from the fact that although compulsory schooling was introduced in the Weimar Constitution in 1919, this put Germany at the same level of other European countries that have compulsory schooling laws, but do not enforce them, or interpret it loosely to include home education and distance education models. Compulsory schooling was still subordinate to the rights of parents in deciding on their children's education. It was in 1938 that the Schulzwang provision was added in the „Gesetz über die Schulpflicht im Deutschen Reich“ (Reichsschulpflichtgesetz). The National Socialists had no interests in preserving parental rights and the law just stated baldly that all children were subject to compulsory school attendance. It went on to say that this "secures the education and instruction of the German youth in the spirit of National Socialism". This law also extended compulsory school attendance with a duty to attend vocational school after the age of 14 years, something that exists in all German states today (other EU countries also have compulsory education up to 16, but this does not preclude education that involves non-school-attendance This law also introduced "Schulzwang" or enforced school attendance in § 12, stating that "Children and young people who do not comply with the duty to attend school or vocational school will be brought to school under compulsion. The police can be called on for assistance in this regard." This exact wording was placed in the education laws of various (not all) German states and is applied by the courts and official agencies to this day, even in those states where the law is not on the statute books. Other countries also have similar measures for dealing with truants, but it must be noted that in these countries, children who are home educated or doing their schooling through distance education are not regarded as truants. This is not the case in Germany, where the right of parents to decide on their children's education (which was still primary in the Weimar Republic) and the original duty of the state and schools to support parents in this regard has been abandoned. Although the German courts have stated that the state's educational mandate is equal to that of the parents, in cases where parents have appealed for the right to have their children exempted from compulsory school attendance or are having their children removed from them because of non-attendance at school or are in court for fines or criminal charges, the courts have almost universally refused to examine evidence regarding the failure of the state in fulfilling this mandate, so that the parents' educational mandate is actually treated as subordinate to that of the state, which was basically the position under Nazi Germany. Here is a very interesting paper, which discusses this http://www.homeschooling.de/Res2008tSchulzwang.pdf BTW, the Nazi reference comes from the fact that although compulsory schooling was introduced in the Weimar Constitution in 1919, this put Germany at the same level of other European countries that have compulsory schooling laws, but do not enforce them, or interpret it loosely to include home education and distance education models. Compulsory schooling was still subordinate to the rights of parents in deciding on their children's education. It was in 1938 that the Schulzwang provision was added in the „Gesetz über die Schulpflicht im Deutschen Reich“ (Reichsschulpflichtgesetz). The National Socialists had no interests in preserving parental rights and the law just stated baldly that all children were subject to compulsory school attendance. It went on to say that this "secures the education and instruction of the German youth in the spirit of National Socialism".

This law also extended compulsory school attendance with a duty to attend vocational school after the age of 14 years, something that exists in all German states today (other EU countries also have compulsory education up to 16, but this does not preclude education that involves non-school-attendance

This law also introduced "Schulzwang" or enforced school attendance in § 12, stating that "Children and young people who do not comply with the duty to attend school or vocational school will be brought to school under compulsion. The police can be called on for assistance in this regard." This exact wording was placed in the education laws of various (not all) German states and is applied by the courts and official agencies to this day, even in those states where the law is not on the statute books. Other countries also have similar measures for dealing with truants, but it must be noted that in these countries, children who are home educated or doing their schooling through distance education are not regarded as truants. This is not the case in Germany, where the right of parents to decide on their children's education (which was still primary in the Weimar Republic) and the original duty of the state and schools to support parents in this regard has been abandoned.

Although the German courts have stated that the state's educational mandate is equal to that of the parents, in cases where parents have appealed for the right to have their children exempted from compulsory school attendance or are having their children removed from them because of non-attendance at school or are in court for fines or criminal charges, the courts have almost universally refused to examine evidence regarding the failure of the state in fulfilling this mandate, so that the parents' educational mandate is actually treated as subordinate to that of the state, which was basically the position under Nazi Germany.

Here is a very interesting paper, which discusses this
http://www.homeschooling.de/Res2008tSchulzwang.pdf

]]> By: cmg http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/03/03/german-homeschool-asylum-torture/#comment-734 cmg Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:59:02 +0000 http://www.jinamoore.com/?p=1298#comment-734 Very interesting perspective, Jina. I was involved in the asylum application (I did some translations of various German court decisions about compulsory schooling) and I have to agree this does seem like a slap in the face for people who have had asylum applications refused for worse human rights violations. By the way, another family has recently also applied for asylum . They had lost custody of their children because they were homeschooling and were in danger of losing custody again: http://educatinggermany.7doves.com/?cat=116 I suppose here it could be argued that because their children had already been made wards of the state, they were not safe from the German Jugendamt in any other EU country, so that the USA was possibly one of the few viable destinations for them. Another family is seeking asylum in Canada Here's a link to an interesting blog posting and discussion (in the comments section) on the Romeike asylum case: http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/german_joys/2010/01/homeschooling_in_germany.html#more Very interesting perspective, Jina. I was involved in the asylum application (I did some translations of various German court decisions about compulsory schooling) and I have to agree this does seem like a slap in the face for people who have had asylum applications refused for worse human rights violations. By the way, another family has recently also applied for asylum . They had lost custody of their children because they were homeschooling and were in danger of losing custody again: http://educatinggermany.7doves.com/?cat=116
I suppose here it could be argued that because their children had already been made wards of the state, they were not safe from the German Jugendamt in any other EU country, so that the USA was possibly one of the few viable destinations for them. Another family is seeking asylum in Canada

Here's a link to an interesting blog posting and discussion (in the comments section) on the Romeike asylum case: http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/..._in_germany.html#more

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