Readers' Mixed Feelings About Germany's Homeschooling Ban | Services from Deutsche Welle | DW | 06.02.2009
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Readers' Mixed Feelings About Germany's Homeschooling Ban

An article about a German family which fled to the US to homeschool their children brought in mixed reactions. Homeschooling is banned in Germany.

homeschooling family

The following comments reflect the views of DW-WORLD.DE readers. Not all reader comments have been published. DW-WORLD.DE reserves the right to edit for length and appropriateness of content.

Parents should be allowed to educate their children at home in Germany for the following reasons: Children educated at home perform better scholastically than their institutionally educated peers, develop secure relationships with their parents and thus are more emotionally secure than those taught to be peer dependent in institutional schools. They also see the sacrifices their parents make for them, and imitate it to become healthy, future oriented, self-sacrificing citizens. -- Sue Schlagel, US

I think it should be possible to home school children in Germany. This is the case in the UK and it can work very well. There are some things I would not want my children to learn in state schools and as a teacher I know I could give them a very good education up to secondary level at home. There is also the case of bullying at school which can affect a child, even though all schools will try to prevent this. The state has no right to forbid learning and socialisation given at home if it can be done as well as at school and parents are against some of the things taught at school. -- Kaye Poole, Great Britain

Home schooling is a criminal act against children. Reading them the bible is a criminal act against their minds. Only in a country that has been dominated by the conservative party during the past eight years would such unfit parents be allowed to home-school their children. -- Josef Pfauntsch, US

Homeschooling is a very positive thing for our family. We are not dependent on the public system to determine how, what, or when our children will learn. When our children excel in an area, we are able to adjust their learning. When they need help, we can spend more time on the subject in a fashion where they can learn best. The children are not held back or forced beyond their level of understanding based on what a preset group of others, either their classmates, or their authorities, has determined. -- C. Hammer, US

We are a family from Germany now living in New Zealand because we had to leave our country because of homeschooling. Here in New Zealand, homeschooling is quite normal and we have the feeling to live in a free country. In Germany we felt already as persecuted Christians as the German government is not interested in Christian education anymore. We did homeschooling in Germany in a bilingual way so the children had no difficulties to move into an English speaking country. They passed the tests at a homeschool cooperated school very well, as well as all other native speakers. And they are able to learn much more life skills than in a school building. We also realize here in New Zealand that children are far more accepted in the society than in Germany. -- Laurien Family, NZ

With all due respect to the family, I do not believe that people should be educating their children at home. If they really want to make a difference in their son's life, then they could talk to their children after school. To deny them of the chance to hear, learn and watch a lot of different subjects is unfortunate. We should give all children the chance to embrace education and society. -- Azucena, Mexico

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  • Date 06.02.2009
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  • Date 06.02.2009
  • Author Compiled by DW staff (ot)
  • Print Print this page
  • Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/Go1O
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