Dance troupe to show homeschoolers normal

A team of dancers based in Georgia is being dispatched on a European tour in just a few weeks to show that homeschoolers are normal, not fanatics as the government in Germany has preferred to portray them.

The dancers, known as the Highlandlers, are directed by Tina Liedle, who attended school in Europe, later began homeschooling in the United States and became a staunch supporter of homeschoolers, especially in Germany where the activity is illegal.

She told WND she has been working with the Home School Legal Defense Association, a number of organizations in Europe and a long list of homeschool leaders to develop a way to display the accomplishments and dedication of homeschool students.

A video of the team's work has been linked here and has been embedded here:

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The Highländlers - International Folk Dance Competition from Ted Liedle on Vimeo.

The group has performed at cultural festivals, fairs, gardens and schools for several years. The repertoire includes dances and songs from Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Scotland, England and North America, from high-cutting dances to graceful waltzes.

Leidle told WND there's no agenda for the organization except to help European homeschoolers who are under pressure from their governments and raise attention to their plight at the various government levels, a problem on which WND has reported extensively.

Leidle previously worked with the Georgia state House of Representatives, which adopted House Resolution 850 calling on the Federal Republic of Germany to "recognize the basic, fundamental rights of parents and allow their citizens to determine the educational upbringing of their won children."

State Rep. Ed Setzler was among the sponsors.

"We Americans enjoy broad freedom," he said. "As an Army officer, I lived in Germany and appreciated that beneath the idyllic countryside there was a culture that did not respect individual rights as we do here. I wanted to encourage Mrs. Leidle's outreach to Germans who are being treated harshly just because they homeschool."

The resolution formally requested that "the German federal government recognize the rights of parents to homeschool their children. …"

It is parents, the resolution said, who hold the "fundamental responsibility and right to ensure the best quality education for their children," but the state lawmakers said the German government "infringes upon the parental rights of its citizens by forcing children to attend brick and mortar schools."

"Many American statesmen and leaders, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, John Quincy Adams, John Marshall, Robert E. Lee, Booker T. Washington, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Mark Twain, and Andrew Carnegie were home schooled," the statement said.

Mike Donnelly, a lawyer for the HSLDA who has worked on a multitude of homeschooling disputes in Germany, said, "Families have had the state take custody of their children, have been fined tens of thousands of dollars and have even been sentenced to prison. All because they have sought to educate their children at home. Scores of families have fled Germany to surrounding nations where almost universally homeschooling is either tolerated or encouraged by the law."

Leidle said as important as encouraging European homeschoolers is presenting a program through which audiences, told repeatedly by their own media that homeschoolers are "fanatics," can see for themselves the ability, dedication and personalities of homeschooled students.

The group also is working to organize umbrella schools in Europe, through which homeschool students might be registered while maintaining their own educational program integrity, she said.

HSLDA noted that the plight of German homeschoolers continues to get international attention, with a family whose members fled to Tennessee now seeking political asylum. WND reported earlier on the Romeike family when their troubles started in Germany.

"Germany sticks out in the midst of Western Europe for its harsh repression of parents," Donnelly said. "They have this notion that homeschooling creates this parallel society, and they deem that as dangerous."

To the AP, Lutz Gorgens, German consul general for the Southeast United States., defended Germany’s requirements for public education.

"For reasons deeply rooted in history and our belief that only schools properly can ensure the desired level of excellent education, we (Germany) go a little bit beyond that path which other countries have chosen," he said.