"Germany does not allow home schooling. I am aware that the radical libertarian tradition in the US...gives home-schooling a certain cachet. ". Parents are the primary educators of their children, and the State plays a subsidiary role. On the principle of subsidiarity, the larger social units do things the smallers social units cannot. So if the smallest social unit -- the family -- can educate the children, they ought to, and ought /not/ outsource this to the state, who have the deck stacked against them (just look at the student:teacher ratio!) .
As for "learning social skills", what skills are, say, 20 fifth graders sitting together learning? That's not life; in life we interact with people of all ages. And this is the life experience learned when kids in 1-12 grade sit together and learn, as in the family home, full of life and love. On Feb 1, 9:52 am, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > A German family has been given political asylum in the US because of > their refusal to send their children to school in Germany and the > subsequent, according to the US judge granting the application, "well > founded fear of persecution." > > http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,674492,00.html > > Germany does not allow home schooling. The article in "der Spiegel" > explains: "Mandatory school attendance is based on "the idea that > group learning in school also helps develop social skills," says > Martina Elschenbroich, an expert on education law with the Culture > Minister Conference, an assembly that brings together education > ministers from Germany's 16 states. Children learn how to interact > with people who hold different views, which serves as the basis of a > democratic society, says Elschenbroich." The German position has been > upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in 2006. > > I am aware that the radical libertarian tradition in the US (and the > impossibility of mandatory school attendance for many chidren in the > legendary frontier days of the 19th. Century) gives home-schooling a > certain cachet. On the other hand, it seems to me that it harbours > great dangers in giving all kinds of - sorry to be so blunt - nuts the > chance to indocrinate their children with rubbish. > > Any thoughts? > > Francis -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
