We're in Costa Rica at the moment, enjoying being with my family here,
enjoying the relaxing and the freedom from worry about what the authorities
might do next back home. The children don't officially live in Germany at the
moment, so almost the best thing that could happen would be that if during the
time we're gone, they try to prove otherwise!
What we're doing next, we still don't know...however, there have been some
interesting developments, and all I can really say is "watch this space". It
looks very much like we might be disolving our household by the end of the
year--selling or giving away everything we think we can live without, putting in
storage the rest of the things that we could live without but don't think we
can, and taking off with what we can carry for about six to eight months.
:-)
Interestingly, even if homeschooling were to become fully legal in Germany
tomorrow, the plans for being out of the country from January to July next year
would probably still be the best ones for us. But our potential plans for
leaving Germany permanently as of August or September next year would be less
likely to take place. We'll see.
As far as the likelihood of homeschooling becoming legal in Germany in the
near future...I would continue to say that that's anybody's guess, and in all
honesty, I don't think that anyone who claims that they think they know is being
realistic, one way or another.
In the news recently, another mother (from our state) was imprisoned a
couple of weeks ago (and gave a really cool testimony after being released,
too), not for homeschooling, per se, but for refusing to pay the fine for not
sending her children to school. (Incidentally, her children ARE now in school,
but that's irrelevant.) And another family (in another state) that was taken to
court last week by Social Services (the Jugendamt) received a very positive
response: the judge determined that the children are not in any danger and
should not be removed from their family, and that the school situation should be
considered completely separately from the living situation. In other words,
Social Services should not have any say in determining whether a child should
attend school or not. He also scolded the social workers for failing to access
the situation correctly, more or less telling them that they had no case!
So, what's next in Germany? I don't know. Of the three homeschooling families
I know who live near us (one of whom which was forced to place their children in
school last August), two of them are leaving Germany within the next couple of
weeks, the other family moved a year ago (so now lives a bit further from us)
and appears to be being completely ignored.
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