Home schooling in Germany

beppi wrote:

romaniac wrote:

Germany criminalizes homeschooling and persecutes those that want to educate their children.

Rewrite this to
"Germany has mandatory schooling and makes sure all kids have the same chances by giving governmentally provided and quality-controlled education to all."
to make it nearer to the truth.
Nobody is persecuted for wanting to educate their children - only those who don't accept the laws are.

Beppi, several families have been granted political asylum in USA and other countries because of being prosecuted over homeschooling in Germany, which many countries of the world consider a fundamental right.  It is a fact, not a subjective truth. However this is dipping into political discussion and we're not supposed to go down that route.  I (and many others) disagree with and insist that it is persecution.

I will say that Germany has a good educational system.  However, whether it affords better quality than qualified parent(s) can, is debatable, and this is not the place to debate it.  I just wish the government would be open minded enough to consider that their way is not the only way, as several other EU countries have concluded.

Well, it's the law that all kids at the relevant ages must attend a school.
And the common consensus among the vast majority of Germans is that this is good and should stay this way.
You have already come to the only sensible conclusion: Don't move here if you don't like this. Thankfully our world offers enough variety to find a niche for everybody!

Romaniac,
wrt to homeschooling and legality.

We knew a US Pastor that homeschooled all their children since 20 years in Germany - publically known - and without being persecuted.

So there is definitely a bit of urban legend on some of the general Q&A websites in this regard.

The trouble starts where people try to educate their kids, where they themselves have no pedagogic background, omits to inform the authority and follow no curriculum.

There are two partially areas that affects this legally :

The most important : Every child as a right to education which cannot be refused, even by his/her parents.

In contrast a parent has the right to educate his kids in his own religious and civil believes (Art. 6, Absatz 2 des GG)

Homeschooling affects the social interaction competences of a child, with others of his age - towards personality development, and hence, in this exception, the daily interaction with the congretation more than much compensated for this inherent weakness.  It is easy to see how an isolated child might suffer in this regard, otherwise and why homeschooling is often frowned upon.

Some background reading for your interest :
http://bvnl.de/index.php/bildung-in-fre … eutschland

JohannesM wrote:

Homeschooling affects the social interaction competences of a child, with others of his age - towards personality development, and hence, in this exception, the daily interaction with the congretation more than much compensated for this inherent weakness.  It is easy to see how an isolated child might suffer in this regard, otherwise and why homeschooling is often frowned upon.

Wow, talk about urban legends! This however is indeed getting unnecessarily off topic, so I'll reserve any further comments about education here.

Romaniac

Hi everyone,

just to inform you that a new thread has been created with title "home schooling in Germany" here.

Thank you,
Christine
Expat.com

Hi all,

we have got compulsory school attendance in Germany. That means that all children in school-age have to visit a state-approved school which may be also a private school.

The reason is - as stated already above - that the majority in Germany believes that school should be a place to transfer knowledge and social skills. The term social skills covers here to deal with the whole spectrum of people of the German society.

Home schooling is often a way to keep the children isolated from others. For example Christian fundamentalists try to protect their children from ideas that may be dangerous to their moral or believe, for example knowledge about sexuality or the evolution of mankind.

Parents that want ot practice home schooling in Germany try to come around the laws by moving their place of residence from one federal state (Bundesland) to another because jurisdiction changes. This may work some years and they hope that their children reaches a school graduation before the pressure gets to high. And it is true, there are some families have been granted political asylum in USA because of being prosecuted over homeschooling in Germany.

n summary one can say that it is no good idea to live in Germany if you want to do home schooling even if you may have the pedagogical skills.