Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder has said that home schooling is not a parent’s right. It is a
statement some are saying should frighten American parents.
Nations like Germany and Sweden show that
when governments take away home schooling rights, it’s a slippery slope
to no parental rights.
America the Refuge or Not
The Romeike family came
to the United States from Germany five years ago hoping to find refuge.
They wanted to home-school their children in freedom and a federal
judge granted them asylum.
But now the Obama administration has been
trying to deport them, arguing that home schooling is not a right. The
case is currently before a federal appeals court.
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike began home
schooling in Germany because they didn’t want their children exposed to
things like witchcraft and graphic sex education that are taught in
German schools.
“There were stories where [school
children] were encouraged to ask the devil for help instead of God and
actually the devil would help (in the story),” Uwe said.
“When we found out what’s in the
textbooks, it’s exactly the opposite from what the Bible tells us and
teaches us, and we wanted to protect [our children],” his wife Hannelore
added.
But home schooling is illegal in Germany,
except in rare cases. And many home schooling parents are persecuted
with fines, jail, or the loss of their children.
Homeschoolers Going Into Exile?
Most home-schoolers in America are left
alone. But what if state politicians and the federal government started
to move against it?
Two of the worst nations for
home-schoolers are Germany and Sweden. If you want to see what things
might be like if home schooling was banned in America, travel to Sweden,
where the government controls education and the home schooling movement
has been crushed.
In fact, the head of the Swedish
Homeschooling Association, Jonas Himmelstrand, had to take his family
into exile. They fled to Finland.
“We’re in exile. We were forced out of
our country and that makes a stronger impact than I can imagine,” he
told CBN News. “This was our country. This was where we had our friends
and business relationships and a whole lot of things and now we’re
pushed away from it.”
Attorney Michael Donnelly, the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, called the situation “incredible for a nation like Sweden that calls itself a free nation, a democracy, so to speak.”
Ruby Harrold-Claesson, President of the
Nordic Committee for Human Rights, went even further, branding Sweden a
dictatorship where social workers tell parents what to do.
“Sweden claims to be a democracy but it’s
far from it. It’s a dictatorship,” he said. “You have the social
workers dictating how people are to live. You’re not supposed to be
different. You’re not supposed to be different from anyone else in
Sweden. Everyone is supposed to be uniform. They want to have these
cookie cutter children.”
Claesson is also the lawyer representing Christer and Annie Johansson, who have lost custody of their son Domenic, because of home schooling. After Domenic was abducted by Swedish officials, Annie’s health began to fail.
Christer said the stress of the ordeal is killing his wife.
“If we cannot solve this issue soon, Domenic won’t have a mother anymore,” he said.
Russia, A Home Schooling Haven
Nations like Germany and Sweden could
learn a thing or two about parent’s rights from, of all places, Russia,
which is one of the freest nations in which to homeschool.
“We have complete freedom of home
education in Russia, in terms of legality,” Pavel Parfentiev, a family
rights advocate in Russia, said.
“The Russian Federation is sort of a
champion of human rights in this particular area, so of course I think
it is a good example for both Germany and Sweden where home educators
are persecuted,” he said.
Among the persecuted, German
home-schooler Juergen Dudek has been taken to court every year for the
past 10 years by the German Jugendamt, or Youth Office.
“The Youth Office, I used to call it the
‘Gestapo for the Young.’ As soon as they step in, as soon as they get
hold of you, you’ve really got problems,” Dudek said.
German homeschooler Dirk Wunderlich and
his wife have lost custody of their children, although they are still
allowed to live with them. He also told CBN News he expects to be sent
to jail, but said he will never stop homeschooling.
“But I’m not afraid of this. I’m only sad
for my family. I will go (to jail) laughing. You can do what you want
but my children will not go to school,” he said.
America Safe for Homeschoolers?
In America, a red flag went up earlier
this year when the Justice Department argued in the Romeike case that
home schooling is not a fundamental human right.
A source close to the case said the White
House cares more about relations with Germany than about a family
seeking political asylum.
Asylum for the Romeikes might open a floodgate of refugees from Germany, further embarrassing the German government.
Uwe Roemike, who makes his living as a piano teacher, knows what to expect if they’re deported.
“First they would fine us with increasingly higher fines and they would threaten to take away custody,” he explained.
“There might be jail time, too, but the
main threat is the aspect of custody because then, of course, the
children are taken away from you completely and that’s what no family
wants,” he said.
Uwe said the fact the White House would
be willing to deny homeschooling freedom to his family, should make all
American home-schoolers concerned.
Source:
spreadlibertynews.com
http://worldtruth.tv
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