Opportunity to explain US education system vs. homeschool

[Tracey in TX]

German exchange student's family will be in town next week. Sis is doing report on the American educational system and highlighting the legality of homeschooling. She's requested my help...I'm so stoked to discuss the topic!:hurray: They think USA is fabulous, but wonder why I'm not in jail for pulling DCs out of school. Suggestions for the topic?

This will be fun!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

German exchange student's family will be in town next week. Sis is doing report on the American educational system and highlighting the legality of homeschooling. She's requested my help...I'm so stoked to discuss the topic!:hurray: They think USA is fabulous, but wonder why I'm not in jail for pulling DCs out of school. Suggestions for the topic?

This will be fun!

One point you might start with is that the history of US education was for local systems that eventually merged into state regulated systems and that there is no national curriculum or national university entrance exam (like the Abitur).
I've always found that it is difficult for Germans to imagine replicating the Gymnasium experience at home, which is a little more like a junior junior college than an American high school. It may help to explain the US system in general in order to explain how homeschooling fits into the context of American education.
Because of the ultimate weight of the Abitur exam (and earlier placement exams that determine the schooling track) in adult career choices, there is a sense for many Germans that homeschooling would ruin their children's chances in life.
On the other hand, they are the land that gave us Waldorf education and I often had the sense that they long to be more child delight directed than checklist driven. There is definitely a tension between Lyra pencils and wool feltcraft and the rigidity of a German train schedule.

A German/English website on homeschooling is Educating Germany (http://educatinggermany.7doves.com/) I especially like the interview with the Neubronners on Beckmann (http://educatinggermany.7doves.com/2008/04/02/neubronner-22). I think the Neubronners are especially thought provoking in Germany because they chose homeschooling for emotional and academic reasons, not on religious grounds. There are some historical and contemporary reasons why Germans are distrustful of making policy decisions based on religion. This interview also has a lovely line in it that the school rep who had been overseeing them had approved of their homeschooling setup and achievement but had been afraid of setting a precedent of approving homeschooling.

[In The Great White North]

You really need to go back to the origins of our country for them to understand why an individual should be allowed to homeschool. Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln teaching themselves do not appear in German history. The social freedom we take for granted is not a given in Germany. The track you test into in 4th grade determines your place in the system for life. Even the non-university careers aren't open later.

For example, I'm in my 40's and have a masters. In America, if I want to open a bakery, I rent shop space and start baking. In Germany, I have to go back and be an apprentice, journeyman and finally get a "Meisterbrief" before I can open a bakery. It's a 6 - 8 year process. They even have apprenticeships to be a salesman.

I don't think a baker at age 40 even has the option of going back to the university (because he doesn't have the Abitur).

The idea of someone going to college without having an Abitur is so far fetched that they really can't understand anyone intentionally not getting a high school diploma.

I really don't think replicating the Gymnasium experience is the issue; the piece of paper is. Germany is historically and socially a lot more bureacratic than the US