Michael Farris:
Here in the United States, the treatment of German homeschoolers is not headline news. Few Americans are aware that German homeschoolers have been fighting for the right to teach their children at home for at least a decade. You may not know that a recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights actually upheld Germany’s anti-homeschool law. Parents have been jailed, children have been subjected to psychiatric evaluation, and families have been torn apart. Many have fled Germany to homeschool in peace elsewhere.

Having just returned from a visit to Germany, I have seen the homeschooling situation there firsthand. And I must warn you that just because this news is buried in the back of the newspaper somewhere, American homeschoolers cannot ignore it.

German law does not actually ban homeschooling. Rather, it allows for exceptions to compulsory school attendance if the local school officials believe that there are “special circumstances” which warrant an excuse. School officials all across Germany have unilaterally decided that homeschooling never qualifies as a special circumstance. What does this situation have to do with us in America? Homeschooling is legal in every state. Our rights seem secure.

We may be tempted to think that Germany’s homeschooling situation simply reflects the experience of American homeschoolers in the 1980s and ‘90s. However, this is a far too optimistic a view. In the situation in Germany, I see dark shadows of the American future.

I’m Mike Farris.