Summer Changes and Governmental Tangles
I'm emptying out my cupboards of school supplies, craft boxes, puzzles, science kits-- and there is now a huge mess on our table, and multiple piles of donation/trash items by our door.
We're getting the Museum Card this year, and train passes for July. I'm beyond excited at the upcoming adventures. More time out learning and exploring, less time dealing with vacation boredom. The kids are older and have longer attention spans, and loved Leiden's Boerhaave museum and the Prinsenhof in Delft. I'm hoping to revisit those, plus add in famous new places like Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, Leiden's Museum of Antiquities, Rotterdam's Maritime Museum, and a whole list of others. History and art and science win over boredom and paperwork any time.
Besides these motivations, there's another reason I'm focusing on the tidying up and the going out.
The Dutch government is zeroing in on the homeschool question. Or, more specifically, the freedom of religion in education question. If, as politicians have stated, public schools are capable of pluralistic and neutral education, there is no need for any other school option. Catholic? Reformed? Muslim? Jewish? Messianic? Hindu? Unnecessary, some politicians say. And because the only current legal way to homeschool is through a moral and conscientious objection to the orientation of all schools in a given area, homeschooling is under threat as well.
The councilor for education in Den Haag said flat-out that the city is cancelling all exemptions after this summer and homeschoolers will have to go to school. An Utrecht councilor said all children in Utrecht who currently have an exemption from school will be attending school starting in a year (2027-2028). Are these standpoints legal? No. The right to religious freedom in education is currently guaranteed by the Dutch laws. To change this, motions would have to make it through the correct levels of Dutch legal system. The cities and regions have no right to judge situations and enforce their opinions of what is best for the education system. They are responsible to carry out their duties under specific laws, not attack protected subgroups, like homeschoolers, who are conscientiously submitting exemptions according to those same laws. At current estimates, there are 2,500 homeschooled children.
Also interesting; at current estimates, there are 70,000+ thuiszitters, or 'homesitting' children and youth in the Netherlands. This refers to individuals who cannot go to school because of behavioral, psychological, or physical limitations. Recently, a parents' group started a lawsuit against the government because they say that the rights of these thuiszitters are being violated, because they are not being supported in education.
Also interesting: the educational system here is suffering. Schools are understaffed, teachers are overworked and underpaid. Test scores have dropped to unhealthy, abnormal levels. Bullying and harassment are common problems. The schools are already overloaded by caring for the existing students, not to mention trying to support the 70,000 homesitting children who are unable to cope in their current academic options. With their focus on supporting the current students, why expect them to welcome an influx of new students? I seriously doubt that they can offer support for homeschooled children transitioning from a small-scale, home environment, and a focus on individual learning, to a large-scale institutional environment with a focus on mass learning.
In the news, the terms homeschoolers and homesitters are often mixed up. Criticism and concern are mingled - doesn't every child have a right to education? Is there enough supervision to make sure children are being well taken care of? Valid questions. But the media is going wild with headlines about homeschoolers, which is 1/28th the size of the homesitting group. Conveniently, attention is being focused on whether homeschooling should be banned, instead of on issues like homesitting, immigration, the economy, or the climate. Issues that are much harder to control. And since the attention is on the homeschooling itself- a tangible situation - it's easy to miss the intangible issue, which is religious freedom in education. It's possible that in the next few years a small section of the law could be changed, nearly unnoticed, until it's too late.
Homeschool legal groups are in discussion with the government at different levels, homeschoolers are giving interviews and countering incorrect information. Erna Stelma has been on the news and explained clearly that homeschoolers are not "requesting exemption" but "claiming exemption" (among other issues). Claiming exemption depends on very specific communication to the city of residence; there are rules for this. If the communication is turned in accurately and on time, the exemption exists on the base of the law. However, many cities understand it as a 'request' which the educational board can examine, request more information on, and approve or deny. My own family, like multiple others in the country, received letters this year that the city could not process our exemption because of the current political uncertainty on whether homeschooling would be allowed for the next school year or not. I read the reply another homeschool parent sent back to their own city council, to the point of, "Respectfully, there is nothing for you to process. I am claiming exemption based on the law. The law has not yet changed. I have therefore fulfilled my duty to the law and now have exemption for my children."
There's a possible good outcome to all of this political uproar. One would be legalization of homeschool, while adding supervision. If the lack of supervision on the quality of education is the issue, many say, why not just add more rules to ensure that? In Belgium, for example, homeschooling is legalized, but there are standards and safeguards.
And, of course, there's the possible negative outcome. Like being told by the Dutch government this year - or next year, or the next year after that - that I no longer have the freedom to teach my children at home. That it doesn't matter what my moral or religious principles are for raising my children, because politicians have decided that the government has more power over children than their parents. And that their views on education win over my views.
"I'm not anti-school, I'm for freedom," I've repeated to my friends who have kids in school. Ideally, I'd be able to decide, per year and per child, what's best for their development. In the USA, that's allowed. But here? I homeschool based on my beliefs -- or I tell the government that my beliefs do not shut out all schools in our area. And if I would sign up one child for school, I would forfeit all right to homeschool in the future. Unless, of course, I'm willing to move. And there are homeschool parents already booking flights to other countries and discussing immigration because they refuse to give up homeschooling as a way of life. The connection with their children, the chance to pass along belief, the chance to give the children tailor-made education and support. If the government outlaws homeschooling here, these families will leave.
I don't know yet what the future holds. I'm praying and waiting. And I'm cleaning our cupboards, so that I'll be ready for whatever comes. Whether that's science slime on the kitchen table, paint in the sink, lego on the floor, and books on every couch... or a quiet house while my children are shoved into already overloaded schools because that's what some politicians think is best for the country.
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