September 12, 2005--response to questions about German article

 

>> ...."Regular immigration isn't so easy, either. One application to immigrate can mean two years of paperwork, and we need something a lot faster. But we're working on it."....

I just don't understand this statement.

Anyone with an EU passport can live and work in any other EU country. Why would it need two years of paperwork? Or is it only the USA they are wanting to emmigrate to?<<

I think that only had to do with trying to emigrate to the U.S.

>..."Germans who have fled to France and Austria -- where homeschooling is legal -- remain under pressure to send their children to secular schools. Although living in foreign countries, they are still coerced to obey German compulsory schooling laws."...

Again, this is a strange statement to make. Once someone has residency in a country then they must abide by the laws of THAT country. <<

Exactly: once some HAS RESIDENCY. The problem is with the people who have already had custody of their children removed from them, on paper, but still have their children physically. They're not allowed to leave the country, but some have: and then because they're lawbreakers in their own country, their host country (in which they aren't legal residents) is supposed to ensure that they return to Germany or at least obey German laws. In some cases, that makes a lot of sense--I wouldn't want a German murderer to get off free just because he managed to cross the practically non-existant border into Belgium!!

>>If I go to Germany and break its HE'ing laws, or its traffic laws or anything else, I cannot claim, "Well, we do it differently back home." I wonder HOW residents in France and Austria are being "coerced" into obeying German schooling laws. This makes no sense.<<

It's not the legal residents of France and Austria, as far as I understand it, but the ones who have fled there technically illegally.

>>......."I can only assure you that the content of much of the curriculum is of a pornographic nature," Guenther said. "School authorities are encouraging the parents of two- or three-year-olds to sexually stimulate their children and to have the children touch them in a sexual way. They have children touch each other's private parts during nap time in the classroom. .....

So, toddlers having sex is compulsory in german schools now? REALLY? It's actually on the curriculum? Why do I have a hard time accepting the truth of this statement?<<

Perhaps first of all because "sexually stimulate" and "have sex" are not necessarily synonomous, and they didn't say the second. And also maybe because you don't live here. I went through the four-year study program to become a preschool teacher (also qualified to work in after-school programs and children's homes) here, graduating two months before my oldest child was born. The first year and the fourth year were mostly working full-time in preschools, with a few weeks of class time here and there, and the second and third years were mostly full-time at school, with a few weeks here and there working in preschools, after-school daycares, and one children's home. A stated goal in every place I worked was "to encourage the natural development and awareness of personal sexuality." Of course, that doesn't have to mean "sexually stimulate", and I never observed it happening in the places where I worked. But we certainly discussed it in our classroom. On several occasions we had exercises that were meant to "break down the unnatural barriers placed on us by society" and "increase our awareness of our sexuality". In one, we worked with partners giving each other full body massages, first with a tennis ball, and as we got more comfortable, with the hands. I found it extremely uncomfortable when my partner rolled the ball over my bottom (just my bottom), and I was scolded for staying too far from her private parts, not to mention only willing to be massaged while lying face-down--I refused to lie on my back for the massage. I was told over and over again that Americans are just prudish, clammed-up people who don't understand how to release their sexuality. In another, we all sat in a circle and one by one drew a piece of paper out of a bowl and said whatever we wanted to about the word on the paper. I don't remember all the words, but the ones I remember were various types of contraceptives, "bra", "masturbation", and "*****". This was also meant to "break down unnatural barriers that prevent us from being comfortable discussing such things", and we were told that this is a great excercise to do with kids from about the age of eight or nine. We also talked about how every classroom should have a quiet corner, a place where the children can go to be away from the big people and not feel spied on. This led to a discussion about whether it is physically possible for a couple of preschoolers to literally have sexual intercourse, and most thought probably not (I don't know), but the general consensus was that if the children are trying it out, that's fine, just ignore it--it's an important part of their development.

How much is really happening in schools, I don't know. I know that the daughter of a friend of mine had to put a condom on a banana in third or fourth grade, and I know that having the children lie close to each other in a darkened room and close their eyes and "try to sense every part of the children on either side of you" (we also practiced this one in my class) is not uncommon, or at least, I've heard about it from parents of children in several different schools in this area. I know that they do NOT do that (nor talk about either contraceptives or homosexuality, which is defying the state curriculum), at the first- through fourth-grade school my children are attending.

Another example of these kinds of attitudes outside of the public school system happened the Saturday before last. I was at a regional La Leche League meeting, with about 25 other mothers who are either LLL leaders or leader applicants. (For those who don't know, this is a breastfeeding organization.) All of them have children, and most of them had one or two small ones with them. I have been breastfeeding for all but three months of the last eight years (well, it will be eight years on the 22nd of this month), think breastfeeding is wonderful and should be accepted everywhere, breastfed my oldest until she was four and my second until he was 2 3/4, and am still breastfeeding my three-year-old and my seven-week-old. But I do think it can be done fairly discretely, and really should be. Yes, that's what they were made for, but that's not all! So I admit that it was uncomfortable to observe one mother who let her three-year-old come and pull her mother's breast out over the top of her stretchy blouse and help herself whenever she wanted. And there were two women there who have diaper-free toddlers (one was 18 months and I didn't catch the age of the other, but I'd guess also between 1 and 2 years), which in of itself is an interesting concept, but I found it VERY uncomfortable to see the one mother constantly stroking her son's bottom and ***** while he was breastfeeding. She never referred to that, nor did anyone else, but in one discussion about a book called (in German) "The Competent Child", when the topic was self-esteem, she spoke adamently about how important it is to treat all parts of the body as natural so that the children can grow up with a "free sexuality." (Disclaimer about LLL: LLL is about mothers helping mothers breastfeed, and yes, many parenting issues get discussed, but LLL does not take a stand on any of them except breastfeeding!)

This really is what is happening in Germany. I don't know if having been on e-mail lists together for five years and having met me in person once is enough for you to believe me, but this really is what is happening in Germany.