November 2, 2006--Controversy about research paper

I had an interesting comment on my previous post (Dear Anonymous), by Dave. (I'm still curious who "Anonymous" is and what his/her agenda is, and of course wonder if Dave IS "Anonymous", but that's not necessarily relevant to the rest of this post...) So thank you for this information, Dave.



Apparently, the author of the research paper from whom I quoted most of my information about the history of compulsory education in Germany does not approve of homeschoolers quoting his information for their purposes. I am totally aware that his paper was NOT about homeschooling, but about the long history of public education in Germany, and I'm sorry if I implied something else. The fact, however, remains, that compulsory, bottom-on-chair-in-public-school-classroom, school attendance laws were NOT universally enforced in Germany until 1938. What I would like to know is whether Professor Doctor Kraft disagrees with what he himself wrote, or just never noticed that what he wrote, if true (I guess I can't know if it was, without researching myself, for which I don't have time), DOES contradict the oft-repeated statement that Germany has had universal, universally enforced, compulsory school attendance laws for hundreds of years. I'm sorry that Dr. Kraft is not willing to discuss the issue, and am also sorry if homeschoolers have truly caused problems for his career. My opinion is that a statement from him about what he actually did mean, if not what was quoted, would be more useful than simply claiming that he's been "misquoted".



Whether Dr. Kraft approves of being quoted or not, my question remains: was his research accurate and his report truthful? If so, why does he wish to hide those parts of his report which he doesn't like? This reminds me far too much of far too many other things in Germany's history. And the fact that his career could suffer (which I'm perfectly willing to believe) because of the truth he wrote is also alarming, and unfortunately, not atypical of this "free" country.



So, here is the information Dave posted (as posted, but translation into English mine, which I'm open to having corrected):



Posted by Dave (134.68.38.198)

Kraft has a comment on one cached page of his site where he explicitly states that he does not approve of this use of his report:

ACHTUNG ATTENTIONDa mich Vertreter des "Homeschoolings" trotz meiner mehrfachen (auch hier veröffentlichten) Einsprüche gegenüber einer Vereinnahmung für ihre Zwecke weiterhin falsch zitieren und mir eine Tendenz unterstellen, die sich für mich berufs- und existenzschädigend auszuwirken beginnt, muß ich die freie Verfügbarkeit dieses Textes beenden. As representatives of "homeschooling" continue to quote me incorrectly for their purposes and misrepresent my intentions, despite repeated objections to this use on my part (also publically stated here), which is beginning to damage my career and livelihood, I must discontinue the open availability of this text.
Prof.Dr.Peter Kraft. Münster, dem 2.3.2005 Professor Doctor Peter Kraft, Münster, March 2, 2005

Nachtrag am 14.April 2005: Addition on April 14, 2005
Es macht keinen Sinn, mich mit e-mails zu bombardieren: Der Text steht nicht mehr zur Verfügung und ab heute werde ich auch keine mails mehr beantworten. It makes no sense to bombard me with e-mails: the text is no longer available, and as of today, I will not answer any more e-mails.