{"id":437,"date":"2012-11-27T13:01:01","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T13:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=437"},"modified":"2014-02-12T19:27:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T19:27:20","slug":"education-on-the-home-front-the-european-union-and-home-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=437","title":{"rendered":"EDUCATION ON THE HOME FRONT: The European Union and Home Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record: <\/strong>Colin Koons, \u201cEducation on the Home Front: Home Education in the European Union and the Need for Unified European Policy.\u201d Indiana International and Comparative Law Review<\/em>, 20, no. 1 (2010): 145-174.<\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>Koons, a recent graduate from Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, here explains the diversity of home education law in various European countries and tries to figure out what the European Union\u2019s legal parameters would be for the practice.<\/p>\n

He begins by laying out Amanda Petrie\u2019s three categories of home education law in Europe.\u00a0 First are the countries that have always accommodated home education, though with some regulation.\u00a0 England, Ireland, and France are examples.\u00a0 Second are countries that historically have not allowed it but have in recent times become more accepting, though they have very heavy regulation.\u00a0 Hungary is an example.\u00a0 Finally are countries where home education is generally not permitted.\u00a0 Germany is the example given here.<\/p>\n

Koons explains how German law doesn\u2019t absolutely require that home education is illegal, but it is effectively banned.\u00a0 Koons gives several examples of home educating families being fined or having their children removed for doing it.<\/p>\n

England, on the other hand, has a vibrant and growing home education population, though there are forces in British government seeking to restrict the practice.\u00a0 He describes how large percentages of British home educators do so out of frustration with industrial schooling, and how, according to Paula Rothermel, only about 4% do so for religious reasons.<\/p>\n

So how could a Europe-wide policy harmonize these disparate views of state vs. parent rights?\u00a0 Koons explains how it all hangs on the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, the treaty describing the fundamental freedoms and rights respected by the 47 member states of of the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n

Article 2 of the Convention\u2019s First Protocol reads,<\/p>\n

No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several German parents have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that Germany\u2019s policy violates this statute.\u00a0 In 2006 the Court ruled in Konrad and Others v. Germany<\/em> against some of these families, citing a worry that home education would lead to the creation of separatist, parallel societies.\u00a0 Koons notes that in this decision the Court equated \u201ceducation\u201d with \u201cschooling.\u201d\u00a0 He worries that this line of reasoning could threaten the freedoms home educators currently enjoy in home education-friendly countries.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948.\u00a0 It mandates compulsory education, but also specifies that \u201cParents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their child.\u201d\u00a0 This language has recently been interpreted to allow for home education.<\/p>\n

Since 1993 when the European Union was formed, all the countries that are part of it are supposed to have been abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\u00a0 Thus we have a fundamental inconsistency.\u00a0 Furthermore, the European Union\u2019s treaties guarantee that all European citizens have economic rights, rights which Koons claims have been violated in Germany when their home education policies forced several German citizens to flee at great financial cost.<\/p>\n

Koons concludes by recommending that the European Union would do well to be friendly to home education.\u00a0 He makes a case for the positive political and social benefits home education would bring.\u00a0 Here his text sounds many of the same notes Americans have been playing for decades, arguing that home education does not equal bad socialization, and that there\u2019s plenty of negative socialization going on in government schools.\u00a0 His discussion here draws on much of the best normative literature to come out of Europe of late and as such would be a great primer for those interested in such issues.<\/p>\n

Appraisal: <\/strong>What I just said of this last section applies to the entire article.\u00a0 It\u2019s a clear, expert summary of most of the key issues and the important literature pertaining to home education law in Europe.\u00a0 There are a couple of themes I wish Koons had discussed that didn\u2019t show up, however:<\/p>\n

First, does the growing Islamic presence in Europe play a role in any of this?\u00a0 Could this be at least one reason why so many Europeans worry that home education threatens social cohesion?\u00a0 Second, as I understand it the European Union is currently under severe strain as countries with successful economies grow increasingly restless about propping up those whose economies are on the verge of collapse.\u00a0 Koons writes as if the European Union\u2019s future is certain and that Europe is moving inexorably toward social unity.\u00a0 What if it\u2019s not?\u00a0 What if the EU doesn\u2019t make it?<\/p>\n

Might Germany or England, either of whose current positions on homeschooling would potentially be threatened were some EU law to supersede national laws, see EU efforts to bring their national laws into conformity with the pan-European standard as just another excuse to secede from the EU rather than have their national sovereignty challenged in this domain?\u00a0 Koons is essentially arguing for<\/em> a one-size-fits all approach.\u00a0 He just wants that approach to make space for home education.<\/p>\n

Milton Gaither, Messiah College, author of Homeschool: An American History<\/a>\"\"<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/strong>:\u00a0 The views expressed in reviews are not the official views of ICHER or of its members.\u00a0 For more information about ICHER\u2019s Reviews, please see the \u00ab\u00a0About these Reviews \u00bb Section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record: Colin Koons, \u201cEducation on the Home Front: Home Education in the European Union and the Need for Unified European Policy.\u201d Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, 20, no. 1 (2010): 145-174. Summary: Koons, a recent graduate from Indiana University … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[380,377,381,382,386,378,379,383,385,384],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-legal","tag-amanda-petrie","tag-colin-koons","tag-european-convention-on-human-rights","tag-european-court-of-human-rights","tag-european-union","tag-indiana-international-and-comparative-law-review","tag-indiana-university-school-of-law","tag-konrad-and-others-v-germany","tag-united-nations","tag-universal-declaration-of-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1133,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/1133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}