I have gotten the awesome opportunity to interview a German blogger, Jeannine, of Sharing Life. I must say that this interview really gives you a feel for what’s going on in Germany, and what the feeling is towards homeschoolers, and why there is so much trouble. It’s a little long, but worth your time to read it. Feel free to ask more questions.

So here we go….

Agent Tim: “I want to thank you for doing this interview Jeanine. It’s an honor to have you answer my questions. Could you start by telling us a little about yourself?

Jeannine: “I am a just-turned-29 university graduate with a degree in law. (Therefore a double interest in the homeschooling question: theological and legal). I am German and grew up in Germany and Norway. I’m currently living in Germany. Most of my child and teen years I was involved in some kind of church activity (Salvation Army Sunday School, youth group etc.), but I made my decision to follow Christ at the age of 17 on a church summer camp. I’m currently a member of an interdenominational international church in Bonn. I’m not married yet, but have a wonderful boyfriend. And no kids yet, either [smiles].”

Agent Tim: “So, what is your personal opinion of homeschoolers in your area? What are the opinions of others that you know?”

Jeannine: “Ok, first tricky question. Generally I respect the desire of Christian parents to homeschool their children. There are several reasons for that: Many homeschoolers base their decision to homeschool on verses from Scripture. I agree that these verses show that the primary responsibility to educate their children lies with the parents, not the State. If the State interferes too intensely with moral and other aspects of education, I can understand that parents decide to take their children out of public schools to completely take over their responsibility of education. (Though I am not entirely convinced that the State has really gone that far in Germany. But that’s up to the parents who are close to what happens at school, not me.) I also can understand the desire to protect children, at least or especially at a young age, from certain teachings and social developments that Christians consider sinful/contrary to God’s commands.

But nevertheless, some reasons to take children out of public school are more difficult to understand than others. Personally I do not see a children’s theatre play with hand puppets depicting traditional children’s stories (Kasperle) as sinful and therefore a reason to take your child out of school…

To sum my opinion up a little: as a Christian I understand and respect the desire to raise your children in a godly way by yourself and protecting them from other influences that are considered harmful. Even though I might take a different decision myself.

The opinions of most others that I know are not very favorable for homeschoolers. This includes Christians. To non-Christians homeschooling is a totally alien concept. Probably because we haven’t had it here for so long. Parents who want to homeschool are often considered as fundamentalists (not in a nice way), weird, strange, ultra-conservative, holding outdated views or strange ones (like creation), harmful to their children because they want to keep them from society etc. Another concern is also the lack of socializing for homeschooled kids. As far as I know most Christians who attend the German Protestant Church also hold rather negative views of homeschoolers. Others I do not know.

Society has become so secular that it cannot understand the desire to raise children according to “just” one worldview with a claim for absolute truth and values.

But before you think almost every German is hostile to homeschoolers, this is not true. I think a lot of people, maybe the majority, has not formed an opinion, because they are hardly ever exposed to homeschoolers. So they do not really know much about the reasons Christian parents have for homeschooling.

So the general opinion is probably more apathy than animosity. And if people are against homeschooling, many are motivated by a truly-felt (though often misguided) concern for the children.”

Agent Tim: “Do you think there is a feeling of animosity towards homeschoolers only in government, or in daily life?”

Jeannine: “Well, I answered this one partly already in my answer to your last question.

I am personally not convinced that there is a feeling of animosity in government. I think it is rather a result of a huge misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the reasons for homeschooling and the effects of homeschooling on children. There might be animosity though, I’m not really in a position to tell. That can probably better be answered by people who actually homeschool.

The view of the government is probably that homeschooling is harmful to children because it hinders their exposure to different views (so they won’t become tolerant…) and the development of their social abilities.

These are two very different worldviews set against each other. A “fundamental” Christian one and a pluralist one and they focus on partly very different values and morals.

Agent Tim: “Just wondering here…do you know any homeschoolers?”

Jeannine: “Easy question: no, I do not. At least not any Germans.”

Agent Tim: “O.K. With all these court decisions over homeschoolers, I wonder what type of rights do you have in Germany? Do you think the government is overstepping the law to take these kids from their parents?”

Jeannine: “Whoa, this requires a very thought-through answer.

The German Basic Law (our constitution) contains in its first part an enumeration of fundamental rights. Every action of the State has to be in conformity with those rights. These start with the absolute protection of human dignity. The catalogue also includes e.g. the right to life, a protection against discrimination, guarantees of freedom of science and art, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, protection of marriage and the family, the right to have private schools, the right to free assembly, to choose a profession, the protection of the home and of property etc. It is also protected that the upbringing and education of children are first and foremost the right and duty of parents. And of course, freedom of religion is guaranteed. This includes internal freedom (you can believe what you want) and external freedom. External freedom not only covers services etc., but also gives you the right to live your whole life in accordance with your belief. So now, you might say: “Well, that’s easy then, homeschooling is part of my external religious freedom!” Agreed. But homeschooling not only involves religious freedom, but also the education of children and the schoolsystem. According to our Basic Law the State is the guardian overlooking the parents’ performance in their upbringing and education of their children and especially over the whole schoolsystem. This includes that also the State has a constitutional duty for the education of children. So the State can interfere with the parents’ right to education. And with the exercise of their religious freedom too, if I get it right.

In addition, every child is by law obliged to attend a public school or a private school which is approved by the State. (There are good Christian schools here which are State-approved.)

So if parents decide to homeschool their children and not send them to a public or private school, they are in breach of German law. You might disagree with the law itself, but it is a fact: they are in breach of the law. If you breach this law, the relevant government offices can fine you. If you still do not send your child to school, the fine will increase. If you do not pay the fine, you will in the end go to jail for a certain period of time. (That’s what happened in some cases.) If the authorities decide that the parents’ behavior is harmful to “the child’s best interests”, they can take custody in educational matters away from the parents. I am not sure if they can take the kids completely from their parents. I do not think that has happened yet. The families in Paderborn “just” lost custody in educational matters.

So, the government is not overstepping the law by their actions.

There is a lawyer in Bonn who has represented families who want to homeschool, but, as far as I know, he has been unsuccessful before every court so far. A complaint of violation of constitutional rights has also been unsuccessful. Which means that our Constitutional Court holds the opinion that the prohibition of homeschooling is in accordance with our constitution.

I think from a legal point of view as our law stands at the moment, that is correct. So if people want to be able to homeschool, it would most likely not only include a change of state law, but of the constitution itself. ” *

Agent Tim: “So the government is not overstepping the law. In other words we need to change the law for homeschoolers to be able to continue. How would we do that? How would we change the law…even the constitution itself?”

Jeannine: “I’ll keep this breif.School laws are laws of the Länder (Germany is comprised of 16 Länder). Therefore the Länder laws would need to be changed one by one. A motion/proposal for an amendment of a law or a new law can be made by the Parliament of the Land or the government of the Land. A draft is decided upon (most likely in a committee) and then the Parliament of the Land passes the Law. There is also the possibility of a petition for a referendum by the people living in a Land. This can be directed at the change of at least under-constitutional laws of the Länder. This possibility does not exist in all Länder, as far as I know.

But if homeschooling is prohibited by the constitutions of the Länder and of the Bund (because of the general duty of school attendance), then those constitutions need to be amended before any pro-homeschooling law could take effect (or might even be passed at all). This is a longer process and needs a qualified majority (2/3 of the members).

Agent Tim: “Wow…that’s really interesting. Now, I know you have said that we shouldn’t compare this to Hitler and the Jews, but do you see a “control of society” by the government?

Jeannine: “You really ask all those difficult questions…

Well, if you look at what happens in society, you don’t really have a feeling that there’s any control, do you? [smiles] I think every government is trying to guide societal developments by allowing certain things and prohibiting others, fostering tolerance and pluralism, protecting minorities etc. This can have beneficial effects, it can also have negative effects. I do not think that there is anything special in this respect to Germany. And there is, as far as I can perceive it, no control in the sense of “control against Christians”. I do not think that the government has “fundamental Christians” as a special target. As I said before, there are two very different worldviews and beliefs set against each other in certain areas. It certainly cannot be compared at all with what happened in Germany from 1933 onwards till 1945.”

Agent Tim: “Right. Now let’s move on to you personally. Would you ever take the risk to homeschool? If you would, what would be your reasons?

Jeannine: “Honestly, I do not know. Currently, I would not homeschool. I went through public school (actually a private school) myself and think I didn’t turn out too bad (although my biology teacher always scoffed on the idea of creation…). And I know lots of great Christian kids who attend public school. If the values and morals taught in school started to differ even more and more from what God teaches us, I would consider giving my children into a good private Christian school. (That’s what I would like to do anyway.)

There is another reason why homeschooling here seems really difficult to me. Our schoolsystem is different from the one in the US. We have three different types of school after primary school. The third one, Gymnasium, leads to the Abitur, the degree which enables you to attend university. American friends have told me that this equals more a college degree than a highschool degree. I do not know if I were able to homeschool my child to the level of Abitur. But that’s something totally different. ”

Agent Tim: “Thank you so much for doing this interview with me. I really hope it gives people a good feel for what’s happening in Germany.”

Jeannine: “Thank you! This was fun, I hope it gives a good picture of the situation in Germany!”

If you liked this interview, feel free to email the link to your friends. Get the word out about Germany. Also, please visit Jeannine’s blog, and drop her a comment!

*Jeannine answered the question of “What’s the reasoning of the constitutional court?” You can read that here. Please note that it is only a part translation, part summary of the reasoning of the German Constitutional Court. It does not reflect Jeannine’s own reasoning.

Thanks to La Shawn for giving me the idea to do this.