Monday, April 29, 2013

German Home-Schooling

..to "counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies."
 

This is a quote from the German High Court explaining why they have outlawed homeschooling in Germany. A common school system counteracts the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies. The common school system promoted homogeneity.
 

There is a lot here. Looking around at various societies, the "parallel society" seems to be a real problem with real risk. But, for example, how would a Muslim German citizen respond to this? Is the Protestant north taught the same as Catholic Bavaria?
 

More specifically, is this ordering pressure applied in the right way? Outlawing home-schools seems more like herding than leading, confining than directing.
 

A better approach might be to create a core understanding of the nation's basics and make that understanding mandatory. All the rest, home-schooling included, would be elaboration.

But this would require the nation have a good concept of self.

No comments: