Monthly Archives: January 2019

“Was haben Eltern gegen den Schulbesuch?”

Deutsche Welle: Homeschooling und Freilernen: Eltern gegen Schulpflicht. “”Wunderlich gegen Deutschland” – Eine Familie aus Hessen klagte vor dem Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte, weil die Polizei ihre Kinder abholte. Auch andere Eltern sind gegen die Schulpflicht für alle.”

“Die Verletzung der Schulpflicht gilt in den meisten Bundesländern als Ordnungswidrigkeit, die mit einem Bußgeld geahndet wird. In Hessen können Haftstrafen bis zu sechs Monaten verhängt werden. Deutsche Behörden und Gerichte betonen, dass die Schulpflicht dazu diene, allen die demokratischen Werte des Grundgesetzes zu vermitteln. Sie sorge dafür, dass sich niemand in Parallelgesellschaften absondere oder dem Dialog mit Andersdenkenden verschließe. Dirk Wunderlich weist den Verdacht der Abschottung zurück: Kinder von Heimschuleltern seien oft in Vereinen aktiv, seine Kinder seien im ganzen Ort und darüber hinaus mit unterschiedlichsten Menschen vernetzt, dafür habe er dem Familiengericht viele Zeugen präsentiert.”

Was ich als Lehrer von Homeschooling halte, dürfte klar sein. Es gibt sicher Dinge, die Kinder und Jugendliche sich selbst beibringen können, sei es mit Hilfe von Büchern, Baukästen oder dem allgegenwärtigen Internet. Es gibt aber auch Dinge, die können sie nur in der Schule lernen, z. B. in naturwissenschaftlichen Fächern, wo die Schule eine ganz andere Ausstattung zum Experimentieren bieten kann als das traute Heim. Nicht umsonst studieren Lehrer jahrelang.
Auch die Tatsachen, dass der Besuch einer Schule demokratische Werte vermittelt, zum kritischen Denken und zum Hinterfragen ermutigt und unter Umtänden einen wichtigen Kontrast zur Einstellung des Elternhauses bietet, sind nicht zu unterschätzen.

“That is the sick and slick vendetta of America’s reality-TV President.”

The Globe and Mail: Forget the wall. Trump is the national security crisis. By Sarah Kendzior.

“The speech was akin to a hostage video, and American viewers were his captive audience. We watched because the stakes felt too high to turn away. We watched because Mr. Trump has taunted us with talk of declaring a “national emergency“ – an act which gives him the power to do things like kill the internet, freeze bank accounts, and turn military troops into a domestic police force. We watched because Mr. Trump has long applauded death through his praise of dictators and criminals. We watched because the path to American autocracy was laid out upon his election, and we wanted to know which victims were next.”

Link via MetaFilter.

“The president,“ he said, “would like a Diet Coke.“

The Atlantic: Why Mike Pence Couldn’t End the Shutdown. “The vice president has led negotiations to reopen the government. But even after the White House’s state-of-emergency threat, he doesn’t appear to have the authority to do much about it.”

“White House allies on the Hill and former administration officials acknowledged privately that the vice president may be more hamstrung than ever, unable to capitalize on many of the strengths he was originally chosen for. But crucially, those sources said, Pence has never expressed any displeasure with his circumstances, and would never suggest, even privately they say, that Trump’s whims have made shuttle diplomacy difficult. “There’s a reason Pence has avoided the fate of so many others,“ another former senior White House official told me. “He acquiesces entirely to the will of Trump 100 percent of the time.“ “

Link via MetaFilter.

“[D]eeply troubling” indeed

The Washington Post: A woman in a vegetative state for years gave birth. Police are investigating..

“A near-drowning had left the woman in a persistent vegetative state for nearly a decade. […] None of the staff were aware that she was pregnant until she was pretty much giving birth. […] The birth — and the sexual assault of a vulnerable individual that must have preceded it — has cast a harsh glare on conditions at a nonprofit organization that bills itself as a leading provider of health care for Phoenix’s medically fragile.”

I had a friend who was in a persistent vegetative state after a car accident – for fifteen years. She passed away almost two years ago. I hope that the case above is investigated thoroughly so that mistreatment like this cannot happen again. This must be horrible for her family and friends – and for the new baby, once it grows up and learns about its origin.

“[H]aving to make a choice, when no good options exist”

NPR: To Get Mental Health Help For A Child, Desperate Parents Relinquish Custody.

“The family had private insurance through Jim’s job, and Daniel also had Medicaid coverage because he was adopted. But neither insurance would pay for that treatment. Exhausted and desperate, the Hoys decided to relinquish custody to the state. If they sent Daniel back into the foster care system, the child welfare agency would be obligated to pay for the services he needed.

“To this day, it’s the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” Jim says.”

This reminded me of an episode of This American Life that aired in the spring of 2018:

This American Life: 643: Damned If You Do…

“And then she heard about another option, a radical one, a last resort. Eileen talked to a mom who had been in a similar situation to hers, Toni Hoy.

And what Toni had done to get her kid treatment was give up custody of him, hand him over to the state. Once the state takes custody of a child, they have to provide mental health care. It’s a perverse legal loophole that exists in a bunch of states. It’s called a psychiatric lockout. It’s meant to ensure that kids who are abandoned by their parents end up with the care that they need.

But instead, desperate parents like Eileen are using it as a last-ditch effort of making sure their kids get treatment. It’s called a lockout because it’s as if the kid has been locked out of their house. Some child welfare workers even tell parents to do it. It’s called lockout coaching.

The way it would work is the next time Noah was hospitalized, Eileen would refuse to pick him up and bring him home. Eventually, the state would take custody of him and pay for him to live in a residential facility. And that was it. Technically, it was easy. Emotionally, of course, it was much harder.”

Turns out Eileen spoke to the family from the NPR article above about how to get help for her son.