I just wish Germany would legalize homeschooling. Then Germans, like the Romeike family, would not have to live as asylum seekers in the United States.

From Time magazine:

In Spain and the Netherlands, homeschooling is allowed only under exceptional circumstances, such as when a child is extremely ill. In Germany, parents can be fined and lose custody of their children for homeschooling them. In Sweden, parents have to get permission to teach at home. In Austria, homeschooled kids have to take annual tests. France regularly monitors homeschooling families, and Britain may adopt a similar system.

Read Time magazine’s full article Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Homeschool.

And now the story continues on our side of the ocean. Political pressure in parts of Germany has tightened regulations even more to keep German students in public school. Not only does it take a special permission to attend a private school (thus saving the German government 8000 euro per student on average), but one also has to give specific reasons in addition now.

Message received from our school on 09 March 2010:

Political Developments Affecting New Students Holding German Passports Entering Grades 1-9

In January, the Ministry of Culture and Education in Wiesbaden issued a new decree that amended guidelines for German students applying to the school in Grades 1-9. Due to the school’s status as a supplementary school (Ergänzungschule) with an international curriculum, new students not only have to apply for a special permit to attend (name of school) as in the past, but must also give specific reasons for doing so. The new guidelines are seen as a reaction by the educational authorities to recent developments at other area supplementary schools. At present we are discussing the implications for (name of school) with educational officials and will keep you abreast of any news from this sector.
Please note that this does not affect current (name of school) students. We will be sending out a separate letter to those Primary School families who could be affected by the decree.

This political development is beginning to look more like a case of shutting doors instead of opening gates to higher education.

A little spark on the horizon – one of my friends is in the midst of writing a Homeschooling Program for Sailing Families. Available for purchase on the internet later on. Obviously, this program is not intended for German students.

Most Germans could not fathom the idea of packing up their kids, selling their beloved home, giving up job security, sailing around the world, and homeschooling the children at the same time. I have to admit, the first time I heard of such endeavor, I was taken aback too. One of my son’s classmates, his sister, and his parents went sailing on a yacht around the world for two years. Between ports, the children were homeschooled via internet and other material. While in port, the children were taught by private teachers on board.

And yes, it was feasible and legal, because one parent was non-German.

could be Tuyuca, of the eastern Amazon,

based on the article Tongue twisters – In Search of the world’s hardest language, published by The Economist.

For some learners of German, this might come as a surprise. The der/die/das phenomenon for genders is hair-raising enough, and just recently, an adult student, close to the brink of giving up, exclaimed: Es ist leichter einen neuen Mann zu finden als Deutsch zu lernen (It is easier to find a new husband than learning German).

Well, she is still married and passed her German proficiency test.

Mark Twain had a lot to say about learning German too – read more at Life is too short to study German.

Well, enjoy reading these articles and be grateful you do not have to study Finnish with its 18 cases.

Or Tuyuca, which has only 1000 speakers left.

From the first time in 1910, when working women gathered for a conference in Copenhagen/Denmark, to today’s 100-year benchmark, women have steadily been able to claim rights and privileges akin to male counterparts.

A short-list of women’s achievements from the past 100 years:

1910 Establishment of the first conference of working women in Copenhagen

1911 First time to celebrate International Women’s Day in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland

1913 Suffragist movement in England draws attention

1913 Norway becomes the second country in the world to grant women the right to vote (after New Zealand, in 1893)

1914 Princess Eugenie Shakhovskaya becomes the first female military pilot

1915 Helen Keller is the first blind and deaf female university graduate

1917 Russia grants its women the right to vote

1920 The U.S.A., Germany, Austria, Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia grant women the right to vote

1927 The Norwegian-born figure skater Sonja Henie wins her first world amateur championship

1930 British pilot Amy Johnson crosses the oceans form England to Australia on her first solo flight

1932 American pilot Amelia Earhart crosses the Atlantic in a solo flight

1944 France grants its women the right to vote

1945 Italy grants its women the right to vote

1950 India grants its women the right to vote

1953 Vijaya Laskhmi Pandit becomes the first woman to be elected president of the United Nations General Assemble

1955 Rosa Parks’s refusal of giving up her seat to a white man planted the seed for the black civil rights movement in the United States

1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes the world’s first female prime minister

1963 The Russian cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, becomes the first woman in space

1975 The Japanese mountaineer, Junko Tabei, is the first woman to reach Mount Everest (in an all female 15-member group)

1975 Maria Estala Martínez de Perón becomes the first female president of Argentina

1980 Vigdis Finnbogadottir is the first woman to become elected president (Iceland)

1981 Sandra Day O’Connor is the first woman to become an U.S. Supreme Court justice

1988 Benazir Bhutto becomes Pakistan’s prime minister and modern history’s first woman to lead a Muslim country

1995 Marie Curie becomes the only woman to be buried at the Panthéon in Paris (among 71 males, France’s national heroes)

2001 Irene Zubaida Khan, from Bangladesh, is the first woman, the first Asian, and the first Muslim to become secretary general of Amnesty International

2003 The Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, is the first Muslim woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

2004 Wangari Muta becomes the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

2005 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes Africa’s first elected leader and the world’s first black female president in Libya

2010 In Europe and the United States, nearly 60% of university degrees are earned by women

With yesterday’s Wintereinbruch (cold spell), there is no need to clear away the rest of the fallen branches from last week’s Orkan (hurricane). On Thursday, our local paper issued a warning for walkers to stay away from the woods as damaged trees still pose a risk.

Wintereinbruch 06 March 2010 around noon

The weather forecast labeled this sudden return of winter  Wintereinbruch, whereas Leo dictionary defined this as onset of winter. In German, Wintereinbruch usually refers to the return of winter. On the other hand, Einbruch also stands for burglary, intrusion, invasion, and a few more.

In any case, most Germans find this cold spell an intrusion, that’s for sure.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed;

if in terms of ten years, plant trees;

if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

- Confucius -

Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West Amazon.com