German national socialism in reality if not name:
There has been tension concerning home schooling for Germans who have sought asylum in the US. This seems no to have relaxed. (Lexington The Home School Conundrum ECONOMIST vol. 411 no. 8881 April 5, 2014 page 29) The parents in question are Germans, who found that the local school was not to their liking. Their children were bullied. Two were stoned by classmates and a little girl saw a child’s pants pulled down.
They decided they would teach the children at home. Police turned up and carted the children off to public school although they backed down the next day when the neighbors showed up to protest. That the children might be taken by the state was an authentic threat.
They are now in Tennessee. Home schooling, of course is legal and in fact popular in the US. Many are Christians, who think their beliefs are not respected in the public schools their children would otherwise attend. The couple in question are Christian as well, and the city was prepared to hide them if the US government tried to deport them.
The government’s situation is tricky, of course. The US does not want to offend Germany. Yes, yes, I know. The US was caught red handed spying on German politicians, even their prime Minister Angela Merkel. If that wasn’t an insult, I know not what would be.
But given city fathers who were willing to go to jail in support of the chance for the children to be home schooled, the government was also reluctant to precipitate a confrontation. That would have drawn a lot of attention to the fact that we permit home schooling and Germany does not. The possibility of an even more profound insult was palpable in the air.
One of those supporting the children blames Germany’s laws on their Nazi past. After all, what is National Socialism if not national socialism? (A tissue of lies, of course, but it was sold as national socialism and that was the course of its evil strength.
I am not the first to draw the parallel. The article denies any connection. In fact it asserts just the reverse, that somehow the laws against home schooling are there to prevent the return of national socialism. Really? Well I guess being able to follow such logic is why they are paid the big bucks and I am not. Still the article is warmly disposed toward the efforts of the family, and I am most grateful for that.
So the next time I start screaming that our public school system is primarily concerned in indoctrinating our children in the publicly supported values of our society, feel free to call me down and say, “Well, at least we permit home schooling, don’t we. It didn’t have to be that way.”
And were it just we and the Germans, we would surely have the last laugh. Their birth rate is catastrophic. Ours is merely bad. And do not think for a moment that the wish to withdraw from the mass is unrelated to fertility.
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