Things are different in the Fatherland of Germany, where a judge recently ordered that parents may not have custody of their children because “the family might move to another country and homeschool, posing a ‘concrete endangerment’ to the children.”Wow. Just, wow.
Got that? Let me repeat it just in case. A German judge took children away from their parents because “he family might move to another country and homeschool, posing a ‘concrete endangerment’ to the children.”
In August, 20 armed police, equipped with a battering ram just in case, arrived at the door of this Darmstadt family and forcibly took four children, ages 7 to 14.
Was there anything wrong with the children? Nope. The judge — whose name, by the way, is Marcus Malkmus, in case you have a voodoo doll handy or wish to burn him in effigy — the judge admitted that the children were 1) academically proficient and 2) well adjusted socially.
He just didn’t like homeschooling.
Why? Pay attention now: this takes us deep into the heart of a leftist: because he feared that “the children would grow up in a parallel society without having learned to be integrated or to have a dialogue with those who think differently and facing them in the sense of practicing tolerance.”
The invocation of “tolerance” is especially cute, don’t you think?
Monday, January 13, 2014
You Fear For The School Choice Movement? It Could Be Worse
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7 comments:
It would help if the school choice advocates would read some economics, and come up with a plan that did something other than give a subsidy to the wealthy while making it still inaccessible to the most.
My lingering fear is that some other nation - China, India - comes to the conclusion that a public education system's a stupid idea and not worth the money it absorbs before we come to that conclusion. Getting rid of the public education system would substantially reduce the burden of government while converting an intellectually moribund institution into a vigorously competitive, and thus innovative, institution.
I doubt we have much to fear in that regard from Germany but some nations have embraced free market principles more avidly then others so it's just a matter of time before a searching gaze is directed at their public education system.
I'm amazed that this family has to go through so much, and very few people outside homeschooling circles are speaking out.
So THANK YOU for saying something.
allen .. public education benefits society. That does not mean that government needs to provide the schooling ... but they should put the money on the table and require kids go. To somewhere. Otherwise, many will not, and that's good for none of us...
Max, reiterating an assertion does nothing to prove it.
History, in fact, provides ample proof that freedom, not coercion, results in an educated population or else how is it that the Federalist Papers were widely-published and widely-read?
Mandatory attendance was a twinkle in Horace Mann's eye in 1852, some seventy years after the creation of this nation so a mandatory attendance public education system's unnecessary to the creation of this nation. I think proof then is required to support the assertion that the nation can't survive without what was unnecessary to its creation.
And I'd refer you to the work of Dr. James Tooley if you want to have an idea of the true value of government funding in the education process.
I 'll check out Tooley. But I find it difficult to believe that you would argue against a basic level of education being required/funded... I want everyone to be able to be able to read and do basic math (well, and economics, but I'm biased there), and have a basic sense of how we've arrived at where we are...
How that happens? Doesn't need to be public schools. But I strongly believe that education ought to be funded, and required ... how much and how long, I'm willing to negotiate. Where, and by whom, I'm willing to negotiate. But if you don't educate the young, you have no idea what potential source of intellect you're tapping off. I'd like to agree with you that education would occur regardless, but the number of parents that won't even make their kids do their homework in the 'coerced' system seem to belie that argument.
Give a subsidy, equivalent to the current per pupil spending, let the parent redeem it at any school they wish ... but don't let the kids off the hook. I'm saddened to believe that many parents would just not send their kids to any school, if they could...and the kids don't know better.
I read some Tooley , allen, and I don't see where we disagree ...the one thing is, people who elect to send their child to a specific school have a vested interest...and their kids are likely to do better. So let's give everyone that vested interest. If public schools can't cut it, they will go out of business and be replaced by others.
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