"Who shall teach?": a global concern: parents' natural urge to direct the education of their children--and government's urge to nullify that direction--is universal.(Culture War)

Although government-controlled education is the norm in the United States, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere, parents usually want to direct their children's education at least to some extent, and are not willing to completely entrust it to government. This desire is natural, of course, since parents have both a right and a responsibility to educate their children, whether through home schooling or schools they control and support.

As John Locke explained: "God [has] made the parents instruments in His great design of continuing the race of mankind and the occasions of life to their children" and has "laid on them an obligation to nourish, preserve, and bring up their offspring...." And as Pope John Paul II said, "Those in society who are in charge of schools must never forget that the parents have been appointed by God himself as the first and principal educators of their children and that their right is completely inalienable."

In places such as Romania and Germany, where state control is extremely strong, exercising that right and responsibility can require some courage. As long as governments in Europe and around the globe consider themselves the source of all power--and promulgate that power by controlling the education of young citizens--parents can never truly direct their children's education. Yet even in these countries, small but significant numbers of parents are now home-schooling, despite the sacrifices and the risk of a government backlash.

Home Schooling Around the World

In Germany, home schooling is illegal, and authorities have no compunctions about punishing families who choose to home-school. In 2004, seven home schooling fathers in Germany were imprisoned for refusing to send their children to government schools. Despite spending between one and two weeks in a lock-up facility in Augsborg, Bavaria, the fathers are still committed to home-schooling their children. "The prison sentence wasn't easy," said one father, "but it did nothing to change our convictions.... How far have we fallen, if any kind of perverse way of life is being applauded, but a sincere education according to the Bible is being punished?"

In addition to being imprisoned, the families have also been fined heavily by the German authorities. On January 7, 2005, the Paderborn County (Germany) school district ordered police to forcibly take the children to school. Any resistance by the parents would result in the removal of these 13 elementary-age children from their homes and into state custody. Heinz Kohler, the county education director, stated that "you and your children are not living in isolation ... but rather in an environment posing intra- and extracurricular situations where you'll have to accept that your world view will be curtailed."

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) estimates there are about 400 home-schooling families in Germany.