This post reviews Thomas Spiegler, “Why State Sanctions Fail to Deter Home Education: An Analysis of Home Education in Germany and its Implications for Home Education Policies” in Theory and Research in Education 7, no. 3 (November 2009): 297-309
This is the last post in a series I’ve devoted to the recent special issue of Theory and Research in Education, which was entirely about homeschooling [I didn't review my own article]. Here Thomas Spiegler, a sociology professor at Friedensau Adventist University in Germany, draws some policy implications from his award-winning 2007 doctoral dissertation, which was the first ever study of homeschooling in Germany.
Spiegler begins with an orientation to homeschooling in Germany. Basically, it’s illegal. Though compulsory schooling has been around in Germany since the 17th century (you could make a good case that it was invented there), there were always exceptions built into the law for private options. But in 1938 (yes, that would be under Hitler) the law was tightened and “criminal consequences in case of contraventions” were initiated (p. 299). Despite this situation, homeschooling has grown in popularity in recent decades, as both conservative Christians and leftist child liberation types have turned to it in protest against a public school system they find inflexible and authoritarian. Currently Spiegler estimates that there are anywhere from 600 to 1000 children being homeschooled in Germany. The number would be larger, but there has lately been a growing trend among German homeschoolers to emigrate to more hospitable countries rather than suffer the consequences of breaking the law, consequences ranging from steep fines to prison time to loss of custody of their children.
Why, given such stringent sanctions, has homeschooling grown in Germany? Partly because those responsible for meting out judgment often soften the blow. Spiegler reports several examples of government officials surreptitiously looking the other way, concluding that there is not much more support for high fines or imprisonment than there is for homeschooling itself. Additionally, many German homeschoolers view their actions not as criminal activity but as civil disobedience, appealing to conscience and to the German Constitution and international law, acting without violence, and sometimes getting sympathetic press coverage. Finally, German homeschoolers have a personal narrative that gives them a sense of personal self-worth. Many see themselves as “freedom fighters or pioneers of an enlightenment.” (p. 304) In their view, it is not homeschoolers who are deviant but the backward German law that is so at odds with the rest of the civilized world on this question.
Given that sanctions have not stopped the movement, Spiegler argues in this article’s last section that Germany should legalize, but regulate, homeschooling. He adopts Rob Reich’s contention that three parties have legitimate interests in the child’s education: the parents, the child, and the broader society. Just as a totally unregulated environment privileges the interests of the parents and prejudices against the interests of the child and society, so Germany’s total prohibition tilts the balance too far away from the parent and child. Moreover, since homeschooling families are forced to go off the grid, prohibition ironically means that the State cannot determine whether the child’s needs are being met at all. Better would be a balanced policy that would allow parents to homeschool but would require them to register with the government, meet academic standards, and submit to testing to ensure progress.
At the end of the paper Spiegler entertains two possible objections. Some Germans may fear that if homeschooling is legalized there will be an explosion of homeschoolers. Spiegler counters that in nearly all European countries where it is legal “the percentage of home educated children is far below 1%.” (p. 307). The second objection is that many parents would likely reject even reasonable state regulations. Here he counters that most homeschoolers would cooperate, and those who don’t would face sanctions that this time, given a more reasonable law, would be enforced with more consistency.
I found this article fascinating to read, largely because its context is so different from what we tend to talk about in the United States. Here any suggestion of government regulation is met with angry anathemas by a vocal, organized, and powerful homeschooling population (as many of the comments posted under my review of Robin West‘s recent article illustrate). Rob Reich in particular has for many years been the whipping boy of many within the homeschooling world. Yet in the German context Reich’s prescriptions seem generous and liberating!
Spiegler writes with a strong voice and is clearly up on the American literature. I wish his dissertation were available in English, for if this article is a good indicator, it’s probably a great piece of work.
is the first scholarly book-length treatment of its theme. It is available for purchase
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Spiegler’s dissertation is excellent. I have the book and I’d love to translate it into English.
One criticism that I have of your blog posting is about the title (or have I misunderstood you?). This is not about the failure of homeschooling regulation in Germany. There is no homeschooling regulation there. There is a very, very tiny number of cases there of homeschoolers who have an agreement with their local school authorities and whose children are monitored by a nearby school. The Neubronner family had such an agreement before it was ended by the state of Bremen, on the basis that they didn’t want to create a precedent by allowing them to continue homeschooling their two sons. The school would have been quite happy to continue this arrangement because they were happy with the standard of the boys’ education.
What Spiegler is actually discussing in his article is the failure of the ban on homeschooling in Germany. As Spiegler points out, many families have continued to homeschool by leaving Germany. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the authorities are relieved when this occurs, because the problem is out of their hands. However, this seems hypocritical, considering that while these families were still in Germany, these very same officials (as well as the courts) made a big issue out of the much-vaunted endangerment of the children as a result of their being homeschooled. Then some families find ways of remaining under the radar and continuing to homeschool in Germany. I have no idea how many people are still homeschooling there, but I do know of many families who continue to do this without the state being aware of it.
It’s my experience that being subject to such a restrictive regime with regard to homeschooling makes you more likely to accept what would be regarded in other countries as unacceptable regulation. In principle, I agree with those home educating parents in the UK who object to their government’s proposed new law, but when we moved to Ireland last year after home educating illegally in Germany for many years, I was quite eager to register with the National Education Welfare Board in Ireland, filling in a form with a long description of our methods used for each of our four children and our educational philosophy and then welcomed an inspector into our home who talked to my children (while I was present, though) and looked around our house, even though the majority of home educators in Ireland object to this process and have refused to undergo it. Just because Rob Reich and the like seem liberal (in the UK sense of the word) by comparison with a country that completely bans home education doesn’t make them reasonable.
Your description of his point is exactly what I wanted to convey. Spiegler is explaining how Germany’s efforts to curtail homeschooling have not worked. Thanks for sharing these personal experiences too.
I remember talking to Thomas about our illegal homeschooling in Germany. Very smart guy.
We are now in the United States and my children he discussed in the book are now making straight A’s in college.
My children are engagingly enthusiastic about college whereas their peers seem burned out.
Milton, you forgot to say that we homeschoolers do what we do because it is satisfying, enjoyable and productive.
By the way, Thomas Spiegler did his doctorate at another University, Marburg University, which has nothing to do with the 7th Day Adventists. Also, there is no indication that he is a 7th Day Adventist, just because he is employed at the Friedensau University. I translated his description from the foreword of his book of why he decided to research this issue for his doctorate:
“Alongside the many questions that I asked others in the course of such a research project, I, the researcher, was also frequently on the receiving end of questions myself. The question most frequently asked in this regard is: “How did you get interested in this topic?” Often, it can be safely assumed that this question is more than just an attempt to start up a conversation. The people who ask me this question frequently hazard various guesses as to the reason, from my childhood experiences to my own ambitions regarding home education. Neither of these is the case. The actual history of this project is much more mundane, but nonetheless revealing.
Its actual origin lay in my interest in the phenomenon of Christian fundamentalism in Germany. My preoccupation with this topic was awakened by my somewhat rudimentary knowledge of some very religious families who preferred to teach their children themselves instead of sending them to school. The realisation that almost no research had been conducted in Germany made this topic a more attractive prospect. It was not until I started my initial research that I realised that although the link between homeschooling and Christian fundamentalism is not without basis, it is ultimately too simplistic to be sustained in any serious manner. As I immersed myself further in the history and scope of the modern home education movement, my initial departure point, the religious sociological aspect, was augmented by several aspects relating to educational sociology, with pedagogical questions also gaining more significance. At the end of this research process stretching over several years we have the picture of a diverse homeschooling movement that provides starting points for research in various disciplines. This is a movement that is too complex to be characterised by the term fundamentalism, or any other such buzzword.”
Thanks for this Rina. Perhaps German Adventist Universities are different than those over here in the States, but I think of Adventist schools only hiring Adventist teachers. I have an Adventist colleague I’ll ask about this. I’ll update this comment when I find out what he says about it. UPDATE: I spoke with my colleague, who said that sometimes Adventist schools do hire non-Adventists, but only when they can find no Adventist scholar to fill the post. My colleague said it is a very strong bet that Spiegler is indeed Adventist. I tried to find an email or something to contact him myself and ask him, but I couldn’t find one at the University’s web site. If anyone reading this has further information, please share it. FURTHER UPDATE: Spiegler graciously contacted me himself and informed me that he is not, in fact, Adventist. Given that new information, I cut the paragraph of this review that discussed Adventism. Thanks to Dr. Spiegler for his clarification.