By Fred Jackson
October 4, 2006

(AgapePress) - A U.S.-based home-school group says home-schooling families in Germany are facing increasing persecution from their government and need help from concerned Americans.

In the latest incident, the European Human Rights Court upheld a German court decision against the parents who wanted to home-school their children. The Human Rights Court states that public schools represent society, and that it is in the best interests of the children "to become part of that society."

"[I]ntegration into and first experience with society are important goals in primary school education," stated the Human Rights Court, noting that the German courts "found that those objectives cannot be equally met by home education even if it allowed children to acquire the same standard of knowledge as provided for by primary school education."

It also said that society has a significant interest in preventing the development of dissent through what it called "separate philosophical convictions."

Both the German court and the human rights panel rejected the parents' argument that compulsory school attendance endangered their children's religious upbringing and promotes teaching inconsistent with the family's Christian faith. Of particular concern to the parents was the secular content of the sex education material their children would be exposed to under the state's program.

The U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association says almost 40 home-schooling families in Germany are involved in such legal battles. According to WorldNetDaily, the group is calling on people to contact the German embassy in Washington to protest such laws, which they say began when Adolf Hitler was in power.

Fred Jackson, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is news director for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

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