At 10:07 last night I read an e-mail that a family I've met was going to be
on TV on a program that was starting at 10:15. I quickly went through a mental
list of whom I could telephone at that hour to ask to record the show (we don't
have a TV), and the friend I called can't record, but invited me over (she lives
less than a mile away), so I popped over and got to see the show. They first
showed several clips from previous programs (a year ago, and in September this
year--that one I'd gotten to see at a friend's house, as well), as well as the
"evaluators" (Gerichtsvollzieher, I think--I don't know what to call them in
English) coming to their house to see what they could confiscate (pfänden) to
pay the €4500 (about US$ 6300) in fines that they have so far, but determined
that there was nothing of value that they were allowed to take. They're not
allowed to take the computer because the parents work from home via the
computer, and there apparently wasn't anything else. (They sure wouldn't find
anything here, either, and can't take our computer, either, since my husband
also works from home!)
After the clips, the family then came onto the stage--I guess it was a sort
of newsshow/talkshow combination. (Stern TV on RTL, for those in Germany reading
this..) Overall, I thought it was very good, mostly positive about homeschoolers
and about this family in particular, and making the authorities look rather
ridiculous, I thought. The one "bad" thing (in that it gave what most people
will see as a negative impression) was that the interviewer asked the boys (12
and 10) "what they had learned today", and the older one could only come up with
adding up the scores in a game they had played, and the younger one said that he
didn't think he had learned anything. Of course, I think it was a totally unfair
question, and I'd like to know what school-kids would answer! And there's also
the fact that in German, the word "lernen" can be understood both as "study" and
"learn" (it's a common mistake that Germans make when speaking English, to say
"learn" when they mean "study", and just to complicate matters, the verb
"studieren" means "to go to university"...), and after the boys' school
experience (they've been home for two years now, I think), they are quite
negative about that particular verb. But of course, none of that was explained
in the show, so they just came off looking a bit stupid, which they most
certainly are not!
This morning I was gone for a couple of hours, so just to see how my
children would react, I asked them afterwards what they had "learned" today.
Neither of them could come up with anything. However, when I asked them what
they had DONE today, they could both give detailed answers about their German,
Marie for example explaining the difference between a report and a narration
(and "learned" those words in English while explaining to me what she'd been
doing), as well as what they had done and were planning to do on their lanterns
(for Martin's Day), what books they'd read, what they were weaving, etc. (I
confess I didn't entirely understand the deal that Marie and Jacob had made
regarding who was weaving what for whom in exchange for which large piece of
cardboard, but I did get out of it that there were peaceful negotiations going
on, and that the parties involved were mutually satisfied...)
The only school-like thing they did was German, which they generally do
Mondays and Thursday when my husband is home in the morning, but I think they
"learned" plenty!
But I'd really, really like to go around to a few school-kids and ask them
"What did you learn today?"
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