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US Grants Home Schooling German Family Political Asylum
A US judge has granted political asylum to a family who said they fled Germany to avoid persecution for home schooling their children. Uwe Romeike and his wife, Hannelore, moved to Tennessee after German authorities fined them for keeping their children out of school and sent police to escort them to classes. Mike Connelly, attorney for the Home School Legal Defence Association, argued the case. He says, "Home schoolers in Germany are a particular social group, which is one of the protected grounds under the asylum law. This judge looked at the evidence, he heard their testimony, and he felt that the way Germany is treating home schoolers is wrong. The rights being violated here are basic human rights."
You know, as the nerd's nerd I can't say I've ever enjoyed school, and echo a lot of the sentiments in your post. However, there is something to say for being able to adapt to, and relate to, the society that keeps me alive, whether I like it or not. For the crowd who feels that conventional school is too slow and holds them back, I say that school ends at 3pm (ish, depending on location). You have all that time afterward for self-education, go nuts.
These kids are being protected from "evil" and "immoral" ideas from other religions, but will one day have to entire the big world where such ideas are common and, in many cases, respected. If the boy continues fighting, and the girl continues to be unable to focus in the presence of these other ideas, they are likely going to end up in prison or worse.
Education of children is about more than facts, it's about adapting them to the environment they will have to live and succeed in. The older they get, the more "serious" the education is, but they need to learn very early, and very often to get along, how to get along, and how to cope with alien ideas. Buddhists are real, Muslims are real, Hindu's are real, homosexuals are here and they're queer, etc. Get used to it.