el anillo de la libertad...

Let Freedom Ring...through the school halls
I'm feeling very grateful for my right to raise my children as I see best, without government permission or controll. It's a liberty I don't take for granted. I've often heard of how strict Germany is about their government run school system and just ran across a couple of news articles about how Sweden and Germany are now both anti homeschool countries.
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...Mike Farris says that Sweden will ban all home schooling except for children with medical exemptions and foreign workers with the appropriate work visas. "That's it. People who have religious convictions or are home schooling for religious reasons will not be given one of these very rare exemptions," he points out. "And so for all intents and purposes, home schooling is going to be banned in Sweden. They're following the German statute, following the German model."...

...Mike Donnelly is a staff attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and says home schoolers in Germany are under great persecution. He also notes many German families home school in secret, but if they get caught, they can face fines in the thousands of dollars, lose their personal property, get thrown in jail, or even have their children taken from them. One family, according to Donnelly, has suffered so much persecution that the HSLDA is now helping them seek asylum in the United States. The Romeike family was faced with thousands of dollars in fines and the potential loss of their five children if they did not comply with the demands of German social workers who wanted to put their children in government-run schools...
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This is the kind of thing that makes me want to print up and proudly wear tee shirts that say "I'm a Christian, American, Home Schooler" while on a family vacation to Sweden and Germany, to tour the government buildings and surrounding areas. :-) hee/hee/hee

Earlier this month, Travis and I were eating dinner at an oceanside resaurant enjoying the view and the awesome Italian food when we happened to strike up a friendly conversation with two women that were sitting at the table next to ours. We had all of our kids with us so of course they commented on what a big family we had...that, yes, they were all ours...yes, they all had very curly hair, except the baby...etc. We shared that we were living in Spain for 3 years because of the military and they shared that they were from Germany, both school teachers, on their regular summer vacation in Spain. Then they asked us if our kids went to Spanish school or the military base school. "No, we homeschool our children" we replied. They were almost speachless at this point but proceeded to share that they had never met a family that homeschooled and they couldn't imagine how we could actually do it. They thought only families that lived on small boats might do something like that but not a "regular, nice" family like ours. Needless to say, it was a very interesting turn in our conversation because I knew they came from a country that didn't allow this type of education. I believe we were able to represent our lifesyle in a positive way and thank goodness all my children were very well behaved and friendly through out the dinner . I pray that it will in some little way, be a good reflection of our God-given right and responsibility to raise and educate our precious children as we, the parents, are free to choose.