Judge Grants Asylum to German Home Schoolers (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01homeschool.html)
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: February 28, 2010
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — On a quiet street in this little town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains lives a family of refugees who were granted asylum in the United States because they feared persecution in their home country.
The family came to the United States in 2008 from Germany, where children are required to attend an officially recognized school, be it public, private or religious.
The reason for that fear has rarely, if ever, been the basis of an asylum case. The parents, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, want to home-school their five children, ranging in age from 2 to 12, a practice illegal in their native land, Germany.
Among European countries, Germany is nearly alone in requiring, and enforcing, attendance of children at an officially recognized school. The school can be private or religious, but it must be a school. Exceptions can be made for health reasons but not for principled objections.
But the Romeikes, who are devout Christians, said they wanted their children to learn in a different environment. Mr. Romeike (pronounced ro-MY-kuh), 38, a soft-spoken piano teacher whose young children greet strangers at the front door with a startlingly grown-up politeness, said the unruly behavior of students that was allowed by many teachers had kept his children from learning. The stories in German readers, in which devils, witches and disobedient children are often portrayed as heroes, set bad examples, he said.
“I don’t expect the school to teach about the Bible,†he said, but “part of education should be character-building.â€
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It keeps getting worse for The Won and his NEA supporters...