Firstly, I want to wish a happy birthday to my wonderful little sister who turns *gasps* 17. I am officially old, though I am only 18. I'm fairly certain that one is officially old when their baby sister is so old. So very, very, very old.
Other Stuff
I just found out last night that it's illegal to homeschool in Germany. I was aghast as I watched the story of a girl who was taken from her parents by a SWAT team and sent to an insane asylum, where the doctors diagnosed her as being afraid to attend school.
It seems everyone is real divided on the subject; the thing we can all agree on, I think, is it's a human rights violation to not be allowed to school. I was homeschooled myself, so perhaps I'm a little biased, but I think that it's wrong for homeschooling to not be allowed. I think that it's the governments job to regulate it, to make sure the parents and/or tutors of the children are actually doing their job. But I think it's a parents right to school their child in a way they see fit, as long as it doesn't contradict any other laws and actually qualifies as schoolwork.
In my opinion, the advantages of homeschooling far outweigh the disadvantages. In homeschool, you do the same sort of coursework as you do at any other school, so that point is moot. However, you can do even more interesting and specialized extracarriculars that the public school in your area is probably too poor to offer. Also there is the advantage of individual attention. Even the largest homeschool families have less children to school than a teacher in a public classroom; therefore, the child gets more attention.
And one of the biggest issues today in our public education is the lack of individual attention; that's why children with not-so-terrible learning disabilities like dyslexia and ADD are sent off (and I know this happens, as it happened to several of my friends) to special education classes, recieving the same education as children with Autism and Downs Syndrome. I have ADD and dyslexia myself; however, I was able to hide it and or move past it while attenting public school. I went on to study English literature, Calculus, and physics in high school. I'm gonna go to college. I couldn't have done any of that if I'd had been placed in Special Ed. just because I was dyslexic. I see kids who are not needy in those classes all the time, kids who are genius who just see letters backwards. They're entire lives are, in effect, ruined by the public education system, who'd rather write them off than take the time to give them the sort of attention they need. Let me lay it out simply: if you're in special ed, it is hard as hell to get into a college. And all these kids who could make it in college are being cheated terribly...and their parents pay their taxes for it.
So a society can't really call itself free if it imposes such an imperfect system on it's citizens, going as far as to call them crazy if they don't do things there way. It's just not right. I mean a SWAT team...wtf?!
Oh and I got this info from the 700 Club, which I don't normally watch. So, my deepest apologies to Germany if I'm somehow mistaken.
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