German Morontheists Getting Open About Their Political Goals

[Thurisaz]

...so on Sep 11th (Yes that day out of all the possible ones), the citizens of my native Federal country of Lower Saxony will elect their regional politicos again. Running for office myself this time, naturally I have a closer-than-normal look at the usual propaganda you find at every street corner. As usual, one of the smaller (on the national level) parties tries to grab some seats here again - the "Partei bibeltreuer Christen" (for those who can't figure out the translation, yes, that's "party of babble-believing christians").

 

And this time their message is more than just "we need more (wholly) babble in government". Their stated goal is to "improve" education by taking away the state privilege of mandatory public school and allow homeschooling. Oh they don't use those words directly (or rather, their German equivalents) but their message is clear nonetheless.

 

Now I know that there are those among you who think homeschooling is actually a good thing, and to a degree I do agree with you (what if the public schools are all crappy?). But allowing homeschooling for those morons will lead to... well you know that much better than me.

 

If I weren't running for office myself I guess I'd long have given in to the constant temptation to either tear down their posters or maybe stick something on them... like a printout of the face of the Norvegian monster with the words "babble-believing christian" below it. But aaaaah, the brouhaha that would create if they'd find out who did it!...

 

Oh well it's just 3 weeks until then... I'll survive somehow...

[JadedAtheist]

As the saying goes: If you give 'em an inch..

[Cracked]

Good luck with your adventures in politics &&& religion. Politics are bad enough, but when you throw religion into the mix,,, that's one big clusterfawk.

[Noggy]

Do you actually have a chance at winning? If so, thats pretty cool.

 

And it's sad that people have the right to indoctrinate their children, but if we take that away, it'd be a bad thing. I think perhaps a compromise would be reached that public schooling be mandatory after the primary school? So the kids can still be educated, but if the parents want to brainwash them first, they can.

[Thurisaz]

Do you actually have a chance at winning? If so, thats pretty cool.

 

And it's sad that people have the right to indoctrinate their children, but if we take that away, it'd be a bad thing. I think perhaps a compromise would be reached that public schooling be mandatory after the primary school? So the kids can still be educated, but if the parents want to brainwash them first, they can.

 

Well I'm not running for chancellor (yet? ) and my folks and me should have a chance to get at least into some city councils; the next level (district et al) will be much harder. But even if we don't get any seats anywhere, people will see our names on the ballots and take note that this mysterious "Pirate Party" has arrived in our rural area too

 

As for your school suggestion, that might possibly work. It would depend very much on the details. I'm not an expert on education

[Onyx]

I wish you good luck, Thurisaz! Don't let em get ahold of Germany! The last thing it needs is the USA/Iran redux.

[Discerning]

...taking away the state privilege of mandatory public school and allow homeschooling.

Haben Sie nicht etwas vergessen? (Didn't you forget something?) It was Hitler in '39 who took away the homeschooling privilege. Up to that time, many Germans (mostly non-proletarians and non-peasants) had private tutors for their kids. It wasn't mainly the Christen who homeschooled. So your post is skewed. {thumbsdown}

[DesertBob]

...taking away the state privilege of mandatory public school and allow homeschooling.

Haben Sie nicht etwas vergessen? (Didn't you forget something?) It was Hitler in '39 who took away the homeschooling privilege. Up to that time, many Germans (mostly non-proletarians and non-peasants) had private tutors for their kids. It wasn't mainly the Christen who homeschooled. So your post is skewed. {thumbsdown}

Agreed. Freedom of private education including home schooling is a good thing in and of itself. The thing with home schooling is that like any other form of education it needs to be held to adequate standards. In the case of children beyond about 12 years old or so, that should in my view include the requirement that they can only be taught by properly certificated / degreed teachers, at home or otherwise, and before that, rigorous standardized testing to demonstrate mastery of age-appropriate concepts would be required. I also don't think it'd be inappropriate for a social worker to monitor home schoolers so long as it wasn't overly intrusive. If all of that is too much hassle for home schoolers then they should take advantage of this little thing called "division of labor" and delegate to private or public sector education professionals.

[Thurisaz]

I'm not saying that homeschooling must always be bad, no matter what the circumstances are.

 

However, keeping in mind who exactly used it as campaign slogan, every person with half a brain knows why they used it and what they want.

 

That said, mr christian... the austrian moustache also used knife and fork when eating, does that mean that everyone doing the same is a nazi scumbag? Even the most revulsive monsters can do the right thing every now and then. If my point is skewed, I guess yours is too.

[CatholiKitty]

Good luck on the election! The problem with Christian politicians is that their beliefs put... well, their beliefs above rational and national interests. They can lie and deceive and bend the truth because they think it's for the sake of a higher truth. I can't say much about homeschooling and the right/privileged of private education, but I can tell you from experience in my country that homeschooling produces cookie-cutter Christian children.