My email box has been flooded recently with a variety of links regarding the inherently violent nature of religion with only one clear conclusion to be drawn: religion is a social ill which needs to be corrected. Or, to use their terminology, a cultural virus to be vaccinated against.

Richard Dawkins equates religious instruction with mental abuse. While the doctrine of hell may cause sleeplessness in some, it needn’t. There is another way. And at any rate, teaching it certainly isn’t as painful as experiencing it.

In a lecture delivered to Amnesty International, psychologist Nicholas Humphrey asserts that while freedom of expression is a fundamental right, it should be limited in an area fundamental to who we are as humans: the expression of religion. Comparing imparting one’s religious values to female circumcision, he argues that the “cultural virus” (Dawkin’s term) must be eradicated by separating the parent from child. He provides an interesting test:

…I want to propose a general test for deciding when and whether the teaching of a belief system to children is morally defensible. As follows. If it is ever the case that teaching this system to children will mean that later in life they come to hold beliefs that, were they in fact to have had access to alternatives, they would most likely not have chosen for themselves, then it is morally wrong of whoever presumes to impose this system and to choose for them to do so. No one has the right to choose badly for anyone else.

Now, I have a question. Since I came to Christ as an adult, once I had an alternative to the pseudo-scientific dogmatism presented to me in the public school and the spiritual vacuum provided by my parents, I guess the teaching of America’s public schools fails the test. I would not have chosen that path for myself and made appropriate corrections to that path once the necessity became clear. So we are back to the question of who is best qualified to make decisions for the child until he is cognitively mature enough to make such decisions for himself. The parent or the state?

Another attack on religion, from someone who also proposes changing the Constitution to read “Freedom from Religion” instead of “Freedom of Religion. And a distorted argument. I had to read it twice to make sense of it, but as a note of clarification, “religion” does not deny the existence of objective truth, and thus using or referring to the scientific method by a Christian does not negate any religious views of the world.

These arguments do not occur in a vacuum and ideas have consequences. Lenin targeted the “bourgeois” (and parents lost the right to give their children a religious education), Hitler targeted the genetically “inferior” (and made sure there was no way for a child to be educated but through the public schools, completely eliminating private schools and encouraging children to spy on their parents for the state) and Pol Pot, in his plan for a classic, utopian society, targeted all religions and completely reorganized the fundamental system of the family.

Dawkins’ and Humphrey’s ideas are not new. The natural consequences are documented in the photo essays linked above. While many are beginning to claim that religion is the source of the world’s wars, we cannot overlook the genocide which has occurred in the attempt to eradicate it.

As Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl writes in The Doctor and the Soul,

I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.

(The photo is of an unidentified girl, tortured and then murdered in the Cambodian genocide. The photo is from the Cambodian Genocide Program archives.)

Related Tags: religion, science, Dawkins, science and religion, genocide, education, parental rights

I am getting ready to start adding my links back to my template and am toying with the categories I want. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in a link exchange, let me know, either through a comment or an email.

This is just a reminder that the Carnival of Homeschooling is still looking for entries for Tuedsay’s carnival. Use this handy submission form and submit your favorite post. Submit your favorite post off your friends’ blogs.

I’ve enjoyed reading the entries so far. I think I finally got through my backlog of email messages, so if you sent me a link and did not hear from me, please email me again.

Thank you! And don’t forget that entries are due Monday by 6PM PST.

Mississippi has some of the most liberal homeschool laws in the nation, something state Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds would like to change. After all, while homeschoolers may point to famous homeschooled Americans such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Booker T. Washington and others, not every household has a George Washington in their tutelage.

Unfortunately, as state Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds notes, not every home environment is conducive for learning, nor are the motives pure of all those who claim homeschooling to evade compulsory attendance laws. Clarion Ledger

Can I change that a little?

“…not every school environment is conducive for learning, nor are the motives pure of all those who claim public schooling to evade the influence of the parents.”

But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water, or so I’ve been told. Does that go for families that reportedly abuse the homeschooling laws, as well?

Ranking 48th in the nation, Mississippi hardly has room to talk about the qualifications of parents to teach their own children. But then, we are back to the socialization issue.

The question usually asked, after resolving issues of academics, regards socialization. Can home-schooled children cope with social pressures, people skills? More is learned in a classroom and school setting than A-B-Cs.

But that question has been answered, time and again. I suppose if you’ve been public schooled your whole life, you might need the information repeated…again.

And if you really begin to look into the issue of socialization, you might realize that it isn’t quite what you think it is. And you might consider removing your children in order to avoid the effective socialization that public schools provide.

And CraftyMama is talking about the same article. Take a peek at her take.

Related Tags: homeschooling, education, public school, socialization, homeschool law, Hank Bounds

I’ve been going through updates on the situation regarding homeschooling in Germany and most of them are rather depressing. Another family before the courts. A threatening letter from the state officials. A state which previously viewed homeschooling as illegal, but not threatening to the safety of the children, altering course to become one of the states to pursue homeschooling most aggressively. And in between it all, the press reports which continually describe homeschoolers as “truants,” generally siding with the state, and perpetrating the myth that they are all a bunch of isolationist, fundamentalist, nut cases.

This article (link in German) out of Wiesbaden, the capitol of Hessen, is a nice breath of fresh air. It remains factual, and seems to view homeschooling in a generally positive light. At the very end, we have a bit of positive information that might not surprise most homeschoolers around here, but I think probably defies the logic of most of Germany. After all, what do a bunch of uncertified parents know about educating their children?

Enough that one student from Hessen who was educated at home for the entire 12 years just passed the Abitur. And not only that. This student certainly isn’t the first, and from what I’ve read, the homeschooled students who choose to take Germany’s exit exam do pretty well on it. But this particular student earned a “1.” You might translate that as an “A” but in reality it is something a bit higher. The German grade scale, if you work upwards from the failing grade:

6 = F
5 = D
—–
4 = C
3 = B
2 = A
1 = ?

While I was in Germany, I managed one “1.” And that just barely. In English, no less. As a native speaker, I almost got a “2.” I think that gives some indication as to how tough it is to reach the top of the grading scale in a German school.

And officially, this particular student was truant for twelve years.

Interesting fact about Hessen: This is also where the Konrad family is from. Their case came before the constitutional court in Karlsruhe, where the ruling stated that religious conviction could not be used to defy the compulsory attendance laws. This is also the same case that came before the European Court of Human Rights. So it is particularly nice to have a generally positive story come out of Hessen’s capitol city.

Related Tags: homeschooling, Germany, homeschooling in Germany

It started with a dream, dedication, and a lot of hard work. The dream was about birds in the forests: cardinals and blue jays, struggling for freedom. “When I woke up, I just couldn’t help it,” she recalls. “I just had to hatch my bird story.” Nancy Yi Fan set aside a half hour a day to work on her book and took many walks in the woods to watch birds, notebook in hand, to record her ideas and develop her plot. It wasn’t easy. Peace and freedom are large topics for a young girl to wrestle with. Many girls her age are still complaining about five paragraph papers for English class. And Nancy is a recent immigrant to America, having only arrived from her native China six year ago, speaking almost no English.

To prepare herself for writing this book, she studied birds in the wild, researched thoroughly on the internet and at her library, sometimes taking home cart-fulls of books and even enrolled in a Kung Fu class so that she could better describe the sword fights which take place between the birds in her story.

Who would have thought she would have her first publishing contract with an American publisher at the age of twelve? And already working on a prequel, also to be published by Harper Collins?

Her book is called Swordbird and is being published by HarperCollins with a first run of 50,000 books. It is also being released in China.

I could not find much personal information about her, other than she “attended American public schools until fifth grade.” The Guardian reports she is now living back in China and PublishersWeekly reports she is living with her parents in Florida, where her father is working on his doctorate. I hope with that kind of talent and dedication that she isn’t wasting her time in public school all day. There’s more for her to learn in researching her next book.

Related Tags: writing, children’s literature, education, Swordbird, Nancy Yi Fan

The holiday season is here again, and other than an awkward moment now and again at the store when I think the cashier isn’t sure how to close the transaction, I haven’t heard too much about appropriate seasonal greetings this year. Perhaps the story was killed last year. Perhaps I just lead a sheltered life. I don’t mind being wished “Happy Holidays.” Or anything else for that matter. I have been wished “Happy Hannukah” and of course “Merry Christmas,” but I generally accept all kindly greetings in the spirit they are intended. It would be nice if those poor cashiers could wish me whatever it was in their heart to wish me (so long as it is civil, I guess).

I’ve gotten used to the commercialization of Christmas. Everything is commercialized these days. I don’t really fault Wal-Mart for having their seasonal displays up months before the holidays begin. It is kind of nice for people like me, because things seem to be going on clearance right about the time I’m thinking about buying them. I do wonder a bit about those millions of other people out there that make it profitable for stores to put out their displays earlier and earlier each year. But that is another story.

What does bother me is Santa. Yes, jolly old “St. Nick.” Consider the following.

Santa is omniscient.

He sees you when you’re sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake.

Santa is omnipresent.

He participates in every parade around the country this time of year. He is in every mall. He is in every other movie or television program. And of course he is at the North Pole getting ready for the Big Night. I don’t know what to make of that, either. In January of 1990, Spy Magazine published an interesting study on this famous seasonal character.

Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each house, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house…(read the rest).

Now, we know from Clement Clarke Moore’s description in his famous poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” that Santa spends considerably more time than 1/1000th of a second at each home. So he must be able to visit more than one at a time.

Santa is omnipotent.

Every year, the kind citizens of North Pole, Alaska receive thousands of letters addressed to Santa from around the world. Santa’s elves answer his letters, delighting children with an answer and the North Pole postal mark. Sometimes they ask for the impossible. Fully expecting Santa to answer their prayers.

In his 10 years as an elf, Gabby Gaborik has seen every kind of request. There are the children who want the latest toys and gizmos they see on TV. There are the children who ask for miracles, orphans wanting their mother back for Christmas or a father back from Iraq, even though he died there. Many letter writers point out how good they’ve been. Some enclose a dollar bill to cover postage.

And then there are those elves. Santa’s benevolent little helpers. Where do they come from? Most Americans think of elves as friendly little beings. After all, they helped the shoemaker in Cologne with his shoemaking duties, didn’t they?

Not exactly. That was a mistranslation. Those good-natured souls were not elves at all, but gnomes. In the Germanic tradition, elves are generally evil. Impish at best. In fact, the German word for “nightmare” (Alptraum) is a compound word using an older form of elf + dream. The most famous elf is the “Erlenkoenig” (Elven King) immortalized by Goethe in his poem by the same name. And his presence is synonymous with death. In the poem, a father is racing through the night to save his young boy when the elf king appears. The king attempts to entice the boy to follow him, showing him earthly treasures and beauty. Finally, near the dramatic ending, the king says, “…and if you aren’t willing, I will use force.” And the boy dies.

To be fair, there is an interesting discussion regarding the origins of the title and whether “Erlenkoening” can properly be translated as elven king. The word has ties to some southern gods, which Goethe may have had in mind. The root words, however, are the same. I’m no expert, but I believe the whole Germanic tradition of the elf may very well have stemmed from these ominous bringers of death. Either way, they aren’t the nicest guys for Santa to be hanging out with.

Have a blessed Christmas. Enjoy the time with family and friends.

Photo credits:

Christmas card, actually the world’s first. Made by John Callcott Horsley (public domain)
Psychic Santa (cc license)
Rocket Santa
The Erlking (public domain)

Related Tags: Christmas, holidays, elves, humor

An interesting conversation looks to be developing between challies.com and Boundless. Tim posted his reasons for NOT homeschooling…well, an introduction, really. Ted responded with some thoughts about why he WILL be homeschooling.

Are homeschoolers too judgmental of those who choose other educational options for their children? This might be a phenomenon of the internet, where it is easy to leave comments one would never say in person. Of course, I’m within the homeschooling movement and therefore a little more sensitive to the constant questions about socialization and other comments directed at homeschoolers, even in line at the grocery store should one be out running errands during school hours. Judgmentalism is not unique to the homeschooling crowd. Nor to Christianity. I do wish, however, that some of our interactions were characterized more by love.

By the way, Ted also has his philosophy of education posted. I love reading these things. I know PrincipledMom has one. Does anyone else out there? Mine is posted in the sidebar, if you are curious. It isn’t laid out as formally as Ted’s, but the main points are there.

Sorry, Ted. I got it right at the end of the sentence. That’s what I get for trying to do an entry after spending hours working at a computer. My brain gets fuzzy. All we need now is a Tom to join the discussion and I can really mess things up!

Related Tags: homeschooling, homeschool vs public school, education

I don’t think I’ve ever done an “On this day…” post, but there is a first for everything. December 13, 1797 marks the birthday of one of Germany’s most famed literary talents, known for his satirical wit and beautiful poetry. He was ethnically Jewish, which prevented him from obtaining a government position. Because he was so enthralled with Napolean, he converted to Protestantism, but never ended up holding any office, despite his law degree. His ethnicity would affect his reputation as a respectable author in Germany, but his extraordinary talent makes him required reading even today.

One of his most famous (and perhaps prophetic) quotes comes from his play Almansor (1821): “There, where books are burned, humans will also be burned in the end.” On May 10, 1933, his works were burned alongside many others at the Opernplatz in Berlin at the instigation of Germany’s Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. The quote stands as a memorial at the site.

He corresponded with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels translated some of his work into English. Karl Marx published “Germany, A Winter Tale” in full in his newspaper, making Heine one of the most studied German authors in Communist countries. Even in translation, you can see some of his literary talent preserved. This is from his poetic representation of the Silesien weavers, who had assembled in 1844 to protest starvation wages. This was a time of much social upheaval in Germany as traditional trades and crafts were quickly being replaced by the heightened production capabilities of the Industrial Revolution.

Doomed be the fatherland, false name,
Where nothing thrives but disgrace and shame,
Where flowers are crushed before they unfold,
Where the worm is quickened by rot and mold…We weave, we weave.

The repetitive “we weave, we weave” (in German, “wir weben” and the “w” sounds like a “v”) gives force and rhythm to the poem and you can almost hear the the strumming of the loom as the weavers weave.

One of his satirical works which I particularly enjoy is “Die Wahlesel,” or “The Electoral Donkeys.” (Yes, they translated differently, but you don’t have the benefit of knowing that an Esel is a donkey. And while a donkey can also be called an ass in English, the same is not true in German. The word play that inevitably results in the English translation does not exist in German). With or without the wordplay, it perfectly depicts his interpretation of German politics of the time, and you can easily find parallels in American politics. Of course, I wouldn’t be thinking of anything or anyone in particular. And I wouldn’t possibly be thinking of the NEA.

Happy Birthday, Heinrich Heine.

(No, although I’ve quoted Marx twice in a week’s time, I haven’t become a socialist. Remember, my degree is in Germanic Languages and Literatures, a degree I went to great lengths to achieve alongside my degree in Education which I would have willingly forfeited if the double major had not been possible. I own more books by classic German authors and historians than I do homeschooling books, and if you’ve ever seen my collection of homeschooling books, you would know that is not a small number.)

Related Tags: Heine, literature

A while back, the R. family’s dramatic exit from their home in Germany made blogging news here in the US, as well. I talked a little about the case here and here. They were presumed to have fled to Austria, where homeschooling is technically legal, but children must submit to yearly evaluations by the state and are forced into public schools if they do not meet state standards. I’ve been wondering about this family since the story circulated, and finally have an update.
The family is staying at a Christian resort in Austria which has helped homeschooling families fleeing Germany in the past. The article describes an idyllic life:

Joyful girls in flowered dresses taking walks with their parents. An outing in the RV to Bad Ischl to go shopping. A laughing band of children on the way to the farm to pick up milk…a family out of a picture book, but the idyl is deceptive.

The rest is nothing new. The family bases its life on scripture, “The family namely believes in the bible and nothing else.” It is easy to cast them into the fringe of “right wing radical Christian fundamentalists,” and thus have no sympathy with the court’s ruling. After all, the children were “imprisoned” in their own home, allowed only contact with other children through their church and under their parents’ watchful eye. They aren’t “like us.” The article ends questioning whether the children are protected or imprisoned in their family’s “in tact world.” Because we all know that children suffer immensely under such delusions that there is such a thing.

The state’s primary concern in the case was the social development of the children and Article 29 in the Convention on the Rights of the Child referring to a child’s right to develop his or her own personality. But the social workers could not find anything wrong with the children. They were happy, well-adjusted children who did not in anyway seem to be suffering under their parents’ “rule.”

Since the children themselves are obviously not unhappy with the situation, the school administration now has the problem of finding a solution which does more to benefit the daughters than to harm them…

Basically, since that didn’t work, we need to find another reason to take the children.

Interestingly, as “fundamentalist” as this family appears to be, and as easy as it may be to push them into the fringe, an earlier judge in the case did not buy their religious objections. He maintained that the root of their objection was the inferiority of the German school system. He also did not like their method of instruction. When asked to show their formal curriculum, the wagon loads of books the family had read together did not count. The discussions of physics around stew boiling over didn’t count. And the judge seemed to object to the family’s assertion that formal lesson plans are “one of the biggest catastrophes of public education.”

The German state is opposed to homeschooling primarily due to socialization issues. They are concerned with the development of “parallel societies.” It doesn’t matter if these groups pose no threat to anyone. They have to look and think and act like the rest of society.

Related Tags: homeschooling, homeschooling in Germany, Haus Unterricht, unschooling, Familie R.