Attorneys with Home School Legal Defense Association and Alliance Defense Fund have filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights asking it to hear the case of a 7-year-old boy seized by Swedish authorities because his parents homeschool. Read more >>
Tag Archives: HSLDA
Coming up this week on HSLDA’s @home e-vents…
Coming up this week on HSLDA’s @home e-vents…
Tuesday, June 8—Single-Parent Homeschooling: Making It Work!
Single homeschooling parents face unique, and often seemingly insurmountable, challenges. Are you a single parent looking for homeschool support and direction? Or do you know of a single parent who needs encouragement to press on? On Tuesday, June 8, @ 9:00 p.m. (ET) single homeschooling mom, author, editor, and speaker Mary Jo Tate will join us to share “Single-Parent Homeschooling: How You Can Make It Work!” Mary Jo will communicate her story of God’s faithfulness and offer practical advice and encouragement for single parents who want to homeschool, and tips for those who want to support them. Register now >>
Wednesday, June 9—Apprenticeships in the 21st Century
Is college always the best option for high school graduates? What if your student would rather not or can’t afford to take the college route? Explore another path that can effectively prepare your home educated student for the future—“Forging Ahead—Apprenticeships in the 21st Century”! On Wednesday, June 9, @ 9:00 p.m. (ET), HSLDA attorney and homeschooling father Mike Donnelly will share practical tips, insightful advice, and valuable resources to guide homeschooling parents and students through the process of planning vocational preparation unique to their calling. Register now >>
Thursday, June 10—Dealing with Disrespect
Do you struggle with back talking, sassing, or rolling eyes in your household? How can you deal with the attitudes at the bottom of these actions without losing your own cool? Do you need a more effective way to handle disrespect in your son or daughter? Discover a godly, balanced way to deal with disrespectful attitudes and glean wisdom from lecturer, biblical family counselor, and father Lou Priolo on Thursday, June 10, @ 9:00 p.m. (ET) as he explains what such attitudes in your child communicate and how they are displayed. Gain the biblical tools to help your children overcome disrespect and learn how to keep your own temper when “Dealing with Disrespect.” And bring your specific questions for Lou to answer at the end of his presentation. Register now >>
Coming up this week on HSLDA’s @home e-vents…
Coming up this week on
HSLDA’s @home e-vents…
Tuesday, April 6—Raising Boys
Have you been privileged with the unique, exciting (and sometimes annoying!) task of raising boys? Have you ever wondered how you can raise these boys to become real men of God?
On Tuesday, April 6, @ 9:00 p.m. (ET), veteran homeschooling leaders and parents Hal and Melanie Young will provide you with advice and encouragement on the subject of boys in their @home e-vent, Raising Real Men. The Youngs will be sharing why it is more crucial than ever that Christian fathers and mothers make an intentional and counter-cultural move today to raise real men to serve God, family, and country in the challenging years ahead.
Don’t miss this chance to hear Hal and Melanie explain the current threat to our boys’ masculine identity and the biblical solution. Come be encouraged as you are equipped to train real leaders for the next generation! Register now
Vellacott opposes 1938 German law that chased persecuted home-schoolers to Canada
Following is a press release from a Canadian MP.
Vellacott opposes
1938 German law that chased
persecuted home-schoolers
to Canada
Maurice Vellacott, MP
Saskatoon-Wanuskewin
Vellacott opposes 1938 German law that chased persecuted home-schoolers to Canada
For Immediate Release
March 22, 2010
OTTAWA – A German home-schooling family is seeking asylum in Canada, and they are appearing before the Immigration and Refugee board in Alberta Tuesday to make their case to remain here.
Another German home-schooling family, seeking refuge in the United States, was recently granted permission to remain there. The law that these home-schoolers are being persecuted under is a 1938 piece of Nazi legislation. The law about compulsory school attendance from 1938
(Reichsschulpflichtgesetz) was the first general regulation in the German Reich without exceptions and with criminal consequences in case of contraventions (Habermalz, 2001: 218).
“Canada has a strong legacy of parental rights and home schooling has been an accepted expression of these rights in Canada,” notes Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin). The family has already been in Canada for a little while and the mother is reported as saying that her two sons are thriving in Alberta: “For us, it’s a gift, a real gift to be able to home-school our children.”
Parents have different reasons for choosing the home-schooling option. For these parents, the primary reasons were freedom of conscience and concerns about the medical well-being of their children, reports their lawyer, Jean Munn.
“I commend these valiant parents for the commitment and devotion they have to the best interests of their children,” said Vellacott.
“I hope the Immigration and Refugee Board in Albert gives a favourable hearing to this case,” he added.
(See more information about home-schooling in Germany here:
http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/201001260.asp)
For further comment, call (613) 992-1966 or (613) 297-2249
Time Magazine covers the Romeike story: How German Homeschoolers Won Asylum in the U.S.
How German Homeschoolers Won Asylum in the U.S.
By Tristana Moore / Berlin Monday, Feb. 01, 2010
Uwe Romeike and his wife Hannelore work with their children at home in Morristown, Tenn.
Wade Payne / AP
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike are not like other asylum seekers, people fleeing war or torture in places like Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia. They’re music teachers from a village in southern Germany. And yet, in what appears to be the first case of its kind, the couple and their five children were granted asylum in the U.S. last week by an immigration judge who ruled that they had a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home country for engaging in what has become a popular albeit somewhat controversial American practice — homeschooling their children.
The Romeikes, who are Evangelical Christians, took their three eldest children out of school in the town of Bissingen in 2006 because they were concerned about the impact the government-approved curriculum and the public-school environment would have on their social development. “Over the past 10 to 20 years, the curriculum in public schools in Germany has been more and more against Christian values, and my eldest children were having problems with violence, bullying and peer pressure. It’s important for parents to have the freedom to choose the way their children can be taught,” Uwe Romeike said in a statement provided by the couple’s attorney, Michael Donnelly of the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).
But here’s the problem: in Germany it’s compulsory for children to attend school, and the Romeikes soon found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Local authorities slapped the couple with a $10,000 fine, and police even took their children to school when the Romeikes refused to send them. Fearing that they could lose custody of their kids or even be put in jail, the Romeikes fled to the U.S. in 2008, looking for a community where they could educate their kids as they saw fit.
That’s exactly what they found in Morristown, Tenn., a town of about 27,000 deep in the Bible Belt. Donnelly says the Romeikes flourished in the environment, becoming “very disciplined” teachers tackling subjects like math, history and social science with the help of textbooks and other teaching materials, all in accordance with state law. The couple also joined a local group that organizes activities and field trips for homeschooled children in the area. Once they were settled in their new community, they applied for asylum in the U.S., claiming they’d be persecuted if they were sent back to Germany…
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1958059,00.html