Homeschooling is not a human right for European parents

European parents do not have a right to homeschool their children and authorities are justified in taking steps to ensure the children’s integration in the public school system. This is in short the essence of the European Court of Human Rights’ today ruling in the case of a German family suing their government for violation of their right to private and family life. Germany is well known for its draconian stance against homeschooling, however today’s ruling is bad news for all EU citizens who remain at the mercy of their local authorities. If the local CPS decides to remove children from a homeschooling family, they can always use the above ruling as a precedent.
The ruling concerns the complaint formulated by a German family, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich, who refused to send their four children to school on religious grounds.

After a lot of legal harassment, in August 2013, two dozen police and social workers stormed the Wunderlich house, taking away all four kids, the youngest of which was just four at the time. The children were returned three weeks later, after the family agreed to send their children to school. And local authorities have made sure the children stay in school, you can bet on that.
The Wunderlich case, which was supported among others by the Home School Legal Defense Association(HSLDA) and the Alliance Defending Freedom, was a test to see if the European Court has softened its stance, following a 2006 ruling in a similar case, when the EU’s highest court decided as well that there is no right to homsechooling. Obviously, it has not.

What is extremely troubling in today’s decision is the fact that the European Court of Human Rights uses almost the exact the same words used by Germany’s Constitutional Court in its ruling against the Wunderlich family.

‘In 2014, Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled that restrictions on homeschooling were justified, explaining that the community at large has a valid interest in preventing the formation of religious or ideological parallel societies.’.

‘Preventing the formation of religious or ideological parallel societies’. To my understanding, this translates as the state does not allow children to grow up with different ideas than the accepted official narrative. Not such a big surprise for those of us who believe the main goal of public education is mass indoctrination.

Then, there is the religious question. Germany is (yet) a Christian country, with freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution. That freedom does not extend, however, to raising your children according to your beliefs. As the Wunderlich are Christians themselves it is hard to understand what sort of ideas so much different from those taught in confessional schools they could transmit to their children to justify the notion of 'parallel religious society’. Some Christians are more observant than others, but they share the same fundamental beliefs. Speaking of ‘parallel religious societies’, the German authorities have nothing against Islamic schools, of course. With integration or rather the non-integration of Muslim immigrants in German society a major problem in recent years, you’d expect authorities in Berlin to take a closer look at what’s going on in the schools those millions of immigrants send their children, too. On the contrary, German authorities have no problem with Islamic schools were girls wear headscarves and children study the Quran four hours a week. Instead, there are numerous calls to increase the classes on Islam in public school. Or German Christian girls to wear headscarves to avoid bullying by Muslim classmates!
Although Islamic schools in Europe are often sponsored by states like Saudi Arabia or Turkey, German authorities are not worried this might lead to the creation of a ‘parallel religious society’. Some Christians raising their kids at home, yes, that’s a definite threat.

The European Court’s decision is a new blow to parents in many European countries, even those where homeschool is legal. As the highest EU court decided it’s not a right, at best it’s a privilege and local authorities can make people jump a lot of hoops if they want to maintain said privilege. The case of @misslasvegas in Ireland is proof to that. And let’s not forget the dramatic escape of @markwhittam and his family from Sweden where homsechooling is illegal, like in Germany.
Today’s decision was highly anticipated in my country, Romania, too, where there are no clear laws on homeschooling and the practice is just tolerated for the moment. Nobody has been in real trouble for homsechooling so far, but many of us would have been happy to have a legal document arguing it is a human right guaranteed by European laws if need be.

Thanks for reading

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