German Homeschoolers Say Treatment ‘Inhuman, Cold, Brutal’

Juergin Dudek of Germany says his nation’s treatment of homeschoolers is “utterly inhuman, cold, brutal – run by bureaucrats who think they’re only doing their job but uphold the system at all costs.”

He’d know. After all, he and his wife repeatedly have been convicted and fined for homeschooling their own children. One time they even were sentenced to jail, a penalty challenged on appeal.

It’s into that atmosphere in Berlin, where the government has been known to describe homeschooling as child abuse and makes it a violation of the law, that the Global Home Education Conference 2012 is preparing to hold its first-ever meetings, Nov. 1-4.

Organizers say home education is the fastest growing form of basic education around the world today, and has surprised researchers with its excellent results and left university admissions officers amazed.

It’s recognized as a right by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

So why is it still outlawed in Germany and why in the conference going to be held there – roughly the equivalent of having a tea party rally on the front lawn of the Obama White House or a GOP event in the middle of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte over recent days?

“The reason for this is critically important: when the government exercises a monopoly over education, this forecloses freedom and liberty and contributes to a totalitarian society,” organizers explain. Internationally renowned education professors Drs. Charles Glenn and Jan DeGroof have written that to deny parents this fundamental right is “unjust and unworthy of a free society.”

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Homeschoolers say treatment ‘inhuman, cold, brutal’