Tilman and Dagmar Neubronner of Bremen, Germany have a choice to make: pay a €6000 fine Thursday that they can’t afford, send their sons Moritz and Thomas to school against the wishes of the boys, or continue homeschooling and risk jail.
Dagmar Neubronner, the mother and an author who has appeared on several German TV programs, says, “We cannot and do not want to pay this amount, so we will possibly get imprisoned. We are ready to endure this because it could be a strong signal for the public discussion if well-educated, well-integrated, intellectual parents…get imprisoned because of compulsory schooling.”
This CBN News story provides some background on the home schooling situation in Germany.
There is a chance that nothing will happen Thursday, since the Neubronner case is under appeal to the Federal Constitution Court in Germany. It’s uncertain.
The Neubronner boys are said to have disliked public school so much that it made them physically ill.
Mom Dagmar asks “…does the (state) expect us to tell our children that we were convinced it was to their own best to go to school and stay there? But this would mean we are supposed to lie to our own children. No. Before we are able to convince our children that they should attend school, (the) authority will have to convince us. They will have to give us scientific studies showing how much better children learn in schools, how much better they socialize, how much healthier and happier they are, and even more: they will have to convince us that not only the majority of all kids, but OUR kids will be happy, healthy, learning and thriving in school.”
(The Neubronners can be contacted through
bildungsfreiheit@web.de . They are asking for financial help.)
