“There is a difference between the persecution of a discrete group and the prosecution of those who violate a generally applicable law. As the Board of Immigration Appeals permissibly found, the German authorities have not singled out the Romeikes in particular or homeschoolers in general for persecution. As a result, we must deny the Romeikes’ petition for review and, with it, their applications for asylum.”

The Romeike family counsel made a promise to appeal the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision.  Two opinions were presented.  One represented the entire three-judge panel’s opinion, while Judge Rogers offered a separate, concurring opinion.  President Bush nominated two judges – Rogers and Sutton – to the appeals court. President Clinton nominated Judge Gilman in 1997. (more…)

In Cincinnati, three judges in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals asked hard questions and heard the Romeike family bid for United States asylum from their home country of Germany.The Obama administration’s Department of Justice opposes the asylum claim that was originally granted in 2010 by Judge Berman in Memphis’ Immigration Court.

Here’s a review of yesterday’s court hearing from a couple of sources.  (more…)

Religion News Service reports on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Romeike Hearing regarding the German family’s political asylum request to stay here in the United States.

(RNS) When Uwe and Hannelore Romeike’s asylum case is argued Tuesday (April 23) before a panel of federal judges, their lawyers won’t talk about poverty, war, or any of the reasons most immigrants cite in their bid to stay in the U.S.

Instead, they’ll focus on a parent’s right to teach their children at home, which isn’t allowed in the Romeikes’ native Germany. There, home-schooling families face fines, jail time and even loss of custody if their children are not enrolled in a traditional school.

The major question seems to be whether homeschoolers are considered a “particular social group“,  as proposed by the original judge ruling for the family’s political asylum request.  Judge Berman stated he “did find that the homeschoolers are a particular social group for the purpose of asylum law.”

The RNS article pointed out another German homeschooling family’s stand in regard to their country’s government policies.

“There are new cases cropping up all the time,” said Jurgen Dudek, a Christian home-schooling father of eight. His family, one of just a few that is open about home schooling, faces a near-constant cycle of fines and court appearances.

Dudek spoke last week at a homeschooling conference in Minnesota, and plans to attend the Romeikes’ hearing. Even if the Romeikes win, he said, his family will remain in Germany.

“We wouldn’t want (the German government) to be triumphant in ousting the Dudek family,” he said.

Kudos to the Dudek family staying in their home country, a federal republic, and dealing with the oppressive rules inflicted on home educating citizens.  Good wishes for the Romeike family and their quest to educate their children as they wish.

It’s never good when the title starts out with this: Concerns over lack of checks as home schooling rate booms in Victoria

This isn’t sounding any better in the sub-heading: THE number of children being home-schooled in Victoria is skyrocketing but, unlike other states, there are no checks in place to monitor standards.

(more…)

The petition drive on the White House site calling for an Obama administration response has passed the required 100,000 threshold level.  Here’s what the petition requests:

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the Obama Administration grant full and permanent legal status to Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their children. The Romeikes, a homeschooling family represented by HSLDA, were granted asylum in 2010 because Germany persecutes homeschoolers with fines, criminal prosecution, and forcible removal of children from their families. Every state in the United States of America recognizes the right to homeschool, and the U.S. has the world’s largest and most vibrant homeschool community. Regrettably, this family faces deportation in spite of the persecution they will suffer in Germany. The Romeikes hope for the same freedom our forefathers sought. Please grant the privilege of liberty to the Romeike family.

The Department of Justice contests the Romeike family’s request for asylum and the granting thereof by the Memphis Immigration Court’s original decision allowing asylum.  The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear their appeal April 23.  There has been much attention in the media about this case.  There has also been some homeschooling community dissension related to complicated political concerns created over the years.  With the Home School Legal Defense Association‘s involvement in this case, some have automatic distrust due to HSLDA’s negative involvement with several invasive state homeschooling regulations over the years.  Others feel camaraderie and solidarity with the family against oppressive homeschool  clamps by any government towards family choice.  In the diverse homeschool alliance, the extra wedge relates to the Obama administration’s attitude and policies pertaining to homeschoolers. His strong teacher union support has been perplexing to many since President Obama hit the national political scene. (more…)

Pakistan’s Express Tribune hosted a piece by Rahul Karamat Barlaas.  The idea of homeschooling is well represented.

Yes, I was home-schooled and I turned out fine

My parents decided to do things a bit differently with me and my siblings. They didn’t want us to be fed with the same prejudices that inhabit the thinking of regular schoolchildren. They wanted us to have an open mind, form our own opinions and have the confidence of being able to think out of the box. This is why we never even hired a professional tutor.

The education system in our society – be it schools or madrassas – tend to frame minds according to their ideologies. Our parents let us act according to our own choice and did not force us to fit in to a particular mindset. They let us decide what we wanted to pursue and who we wanted to be.

Learning by example set them off on the right track.

In the beginning, we were inspired to study when we noticed the people around us; they were often seen with reading material in their hands.

As Piaget’s theory on child development points out, a child should be seen as an explorer. We, too, explored the things which were around us; we explored books. We would take the books to our parents and asked them to tell us what they were for because they seemed so interesting. Our parents encouraged us to read the books ourselves. That was the commencement of self-studying. And of course, this was after we had developed familiarity with the alphabets and so on!

I won’t go as far as to say that the way of homeschooling is something exceptionally great or that conventional schooling is less qualitative. It is simply an experience of freedom.

The specific freedom to sleep as needed has recently been shown as a strong benefit for homeschoolers.

But it’s not like home-school isn’t cool. There are no boundaries in this system; you can do whatever you feel like doing regardless of time constraints. In fact, you are entirely free to follow your call, study when you think it is the right time and indulge in whatever subjects you enjoy the most. If you don’t feel like studying, there’s no one to force you to do it. Everything you do is up to you. You have the liberty to wake up and sleep when you want to. Nobody is there to tell you to go to bed because you have to wake up for school tomorrow. No one will wake you up early in the morning and say,

“Beta, wake up! It’s time to go to school!”

The Washington Post also discovered the National Jewish Health Sleep Study and the benefits of homeschooling.

This young man offered a great homeschooling snapshot in his opinion piece.

Music teachers, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, want to homeschool their children.  In the United States, potential homeschoolers  seek out our state homeschooling rights and responsibilities and follow them in order to homeschool.  Romeikes would prefer their children were educated in their home country of Germany.  But, unlike the United States, homeschooling isn’t possible in Germany, so they moved to Tennessee to continue educating their children as they wished.  Political asylum was sought in the United States to protect the family from being fined, having their children forced from their home and taken to public school, along with the potential they could lose their children for homeschooling them.  Trying to wade past the emotion within the homeschool community, this post will share some of the details of an asylum case that will be heard in April in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

From the New York Times in 2010 – by Campbell Robertson, regarding Uwe and Hannelore discovering homeschooling and their start in Germany educating their two oldest children:

“She knew a family, but she didn’t want to mention their name because it wasn’t legal,” Mr. Romeike said.

Months of research followed: the Romeikes read articles, sat in on court cases and talked to other home-schoolers in Germany. Eventually they decided to give it a try. Working with a curriculum from a private Christian correspondence school — one not recognized by the German government — they expected to be punished with moderate fines and otherwise left alone.

Before I started homeschooling, I researched, read articles and talked to other homeschoolers.  Fortunately, I did not have to sit in a court room weighing the cons of homeschooling.  My neighbors did not have to block the police from removing my children from our home because we homeschooled.  The Global Post reports this 2006 incident in Krista Kapralos’ 2010 article:

Romeike’s heart stopped. He didn’t know what to do. He prayed the officers would go away if he didn’t answer the door. Instead, Romeike said, the officers left a voice message threatening to break in. (more…)

The Ipswich Queensland Times talks about homeschooling.

More families join home-schooling boom by Geoff Egan

“We feel that as humans we’re always learning so we don’t do book work as such.

“We take our kids out and to museums to learn all the time.”

Similarly, mum Bec Draper said she chose to educate her children from home after seeing a lack of support for autistic children.

“Three of our children have high-functioning autism spectrum disorder, which means they are eligible and expected to attend mainstream school,” she said.

“Whilst the idea of ‘inclusion’ is a fantastic one, the practical implementation of this approach is just not working in our school system, at the moment.”

The comments discusses support of special needs in the schools, along with the usual problem of bullying.

This is an interesting article discussing the Langariti family’s routine, meals, and challenges.  The “expert view” focused on nutritional needs, which I found oddly refreshing compared to the usual concerns of “socialization” and finding a way to count us.

Homeschooling my kids gives me satisfaction New Vision

From her own life experience — missing out on the attention of her parents — Beatrice Langariti promised herself that she would be there for her children and one of the ways would be homeschooling and she has kept this promise. The mother of five put aside her degree and masters to teach her children. She shared her story with Gloria Nakajubi.

This is good news for Welsh homeschoolers.  After their continued feedback, hopefully the homeschool registration prospect will completely disappear.

Home school register on hold after parents’ backlash By Daniel Davies BBC

Education Minister Leighton Andrews has now removed the idea from forthcoming legislation and civil servants are analysing the responses to a consultation on a draft bill which would have changed the law.

Mike Fortune-Wood (sharing his wisdom here in NewsComm on a different UK homeschooling subject) is quoted in the BBC Wales article:

He [Fortune-Wood] said local council officials did not have the expertise to decide whether children were being taught properly.

You’ve got to remember a lot of these families are home educators because of serious problems at school”

“It (the bill) effectively means the state is responsible for educating the children and parents have to seek permission for what otherwise would have been their responsibility.”

Here is more background information about the now delayed proposal:

Home schooling: Parents in Wales must register children  September 3, 2012 BBC Wales

Last year 986 children of compulsory school age were known to have been taught at home.

But it is difficult to compile accurate figures because parents are not currently required to register home-schooled children with their local authority, unless the child is registered at a special school.

The authorities’ concern for accurate home education statistics is befuddling.  Unless, we consider the real fear might be the lack of control.  Another excerpt from the 2012 BBC article:

Education Minister Leighton Andrews said the existing laws had shortcomings.

Without a requirement for parents to notify councils “it is very difficult for local authorities to carry out their duties to ensure that children are receiving a suitable education,” he said.

Possibly, over the months, Andrews and others considered parents wanting the best for their beloved children might rule out the notion that local authorities need to follow up on private education.