How far would you go to protect your children?
When we give birth to our child, holding the warm, wrinkled body close to us, the instinct of protecting our child is born into our hearts and our being. It leaves no question how vital and significant this becomes for us mothers.
But to be truthful, we have been bred securely into society, making us feel safe and sound. The real need to protect our child has somehow vanished from our every-day lives. We hear stories from different times, or different places, and it seems so far away from us, unable to reach us in our bubble of security.
So, when things weren’t going according to plan, our lives back in Germany in the year 2000 were somehow thrown off the rail. We had to make a decision – one that was not easy, and would carry along some consequences…
When our oldest child started school, it felt like a piece of my heart had been torn from my flesh. It might appear silly, or strange, but that was how I felt. I was not ready to release her into the big world, and it was very difficult for me. Things became a little easier soon after, once we met her wonderful teacher, a middle-aged Christian lady, her soft-cushioned body reflecting warmth and stability to the children. They all loved her and the whole class atmosphere was incredible. I wish every child could experience a loving teacher like her once in their life-time.
All was well, and my worries slipped off my tense body. Then our second child, our son, started school, and everything changed.
We were met by a modern, young woman on the very first day of school of our son. My gut was trying to speak to me, yet I ignored the gentle voice of foreboding and premonition.
Our son went through first grade without any major complications. He had been held back one year due to some developmental issues, and I was happy to see he was coming along in class. Some years prior to this, one pediatrician had told us bluntly that our son would never be able to make it through school, and my heart fluttered slightly with pride when I saw our little boy reading his first sentences.
Life was falling into balance with two children in school and two small children at home. It’s funny how we can feel the boards slipping underneath our feet when we think all is well. The old feeling of foreboding returned in my gut area when my hands clutched a small book called ‘Stilleuebungen und Fantasiereisen,’ (Fantasy-trips) by Professor Dr. Reinhard Franzke.
Reading the book left us confused and scared. It was like someone had punched me in my gut and I had swallowed a very bitter pill, leaving me sick to my stomach.
My mind was bombarded with new terms and phrases. Words like esoteric, hypnosis, shamanism, yoga and mandalas, out-of-body-experience, trance-inducing circle exercises, and shamanic soul journeys flew towards me from the pages. Then this Professor digs in deeper into occult practices in our schools, and he explains in great detail the various practices teachers today (in the year 1999) use in classrooms.
What are fantasy-trips – or out-of-body-trips? Let me explain:
A child is to picture themselves entering through a hole, a door, or a window to enter a different world. They have to imagine a doorway, in which they have to walk through a long tunnel. To help with visualizing this process, Mandalas are used for this meditation. (Rozman, 1996)
Once on the other side, the child is to quickly travel to another place, by using either a flying carpet, a helicopter, a magical horse or a spaceship.
These trips go either up or down; into the universe or deep into the ocean, a mountain, or the center of the earth.
The child has to return back to its starting point by using the exact same way as it has come. This is crucial. (Preuschoff, 1996, p. 97; Schneider/Schneider, 1994, p. 12/13).
They hear a voice which guides them back to their room. Some even will say boldly that the child should return to his/her body.
One might ask this question. From where should the children return; if they never left their body?
And, why is it so important to return the exact same way? How and why can it come to complications, if one should decide to go another way?
My husband and I were stunned and stupefied when we studied the book over and over. And it was then that I realized we had reason to worry. If this was true what Professor Franzke was explaining in great depth in his book, then our son’s teacher would be the likely candidate to be practising such things.
Meanwhile, our son had made it into grade two, when one day, I took up all my courage and approached our son’s teacher. I meant to ask her if she was practicing fantasy trips with her class. I remember my heart throbbing in my throat as I waited by the door to see her.
Finally, class was over and she stepped out of the large room to see me. I asked her the specific question, when she nodded her head, smiling at me, saying yes, she did those things with her class. I think she probably thought she was doing a wonderful thing with her students.
Taking a deep breath, I asked her to please send our son outside next time when doing fantasy trips. With that same smile pasted on her face she nodded her head, promising me that she would.
Over the next few months, I asked our son every day after school, if he had been sent outside, and he shook his head each day. I was devastated, and getting more and more frustrated with the situation. I didn’t know what to do.
Unfortunately, this was not the only problem my husband and I had to deal with. Our oldest daughter had started German high school, which begins in grade 5. I had learned on the info evening the school offered for new parents that they, the high school, would be offering fantasy trips in all classrooms.
There it was again.
It seemed there was no escaping the occult practices at our schools. I felt overwhelmed and alone.
During our time of despair God reached out in His amazing way. He put people in our paths that homeschooled. I had not met anyone who homeschooled, so this was something totally new to us. The more we thought about this, and talked with people who were homeschooling their children, the more I became convinced and convicted that this was the way to go.
Of course, we knew of the dangers surrounding us. Homeschooling was illegal in Germany. We learned that parents were put into jail. But, because there were more and more families beginning to homeschool, the German government felt overwhelmed and wasn’t quite sure how to deal with this uncomfortable situation. So, instead of throwing parents into jail, they took it a step further. They went deeper – where it hurts.
They took away the children. Send the children off to foster families, far away from the parents.
In other cases, the government went out to destroy families. If they owned a business, they loaded higher and higher fines on the family, knowing full well they would not be able to pay their debt in full.
Despite knowing the danger, we couldn’t turn a blind eye to the things happening in the German school system. Something needed to be done and we needed to protect our children.
It was the most difficult decision we ever had to do. We removed our children from the public school system and kept them at home.
It was only a few months after we began homeschooling that we were ordered to court. It didn’t take long for the German government to learn of our doings. And I believe they had help by a certain young teacher.
What was really nerve-wracking were the constant letters from the authorities. Sometimes several letters would fly into our mailbox weekly. Too much for my taste. I was so very thankful that my husband took it into his hands to answer each one of them, because truth be told, I had absolutely no strength and energy to deal with them.
I had two very young children to look after, while trying to teach school to my grade 5 daughter and grade 2 son. It was a daily challenge, and things never went according to plan.
But for those that homeschool, you know what I’m talking about. You know that things never go as you had planned and your days sometimes appear like a warzone, leaving you at your wits end. But somehow, by evening, things always turn out, and you smile and sigh deeply when your children sleep peacefully in their beds.
That is the moment when we know with deep certainty that everything we mothers do, is worth it in the end.
The risks, the pain, the endurance, the giving – we’ll do it over and over again, and that’s when we realize we would do anything to protect our children.
Nancy Huber is the author of Homeschooling Against All Odds: Our Faith-Walk Experience: Journals from an Audacious Mother, and Days of Fire: Battles for Freedom.
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Current Situation in Germany
2008 – a German family with 2 children wanted to leave for Spain for fear of deprivation of custody.
The Supreme Court in Germany stated: Teaching in your own four walls is abusing parental care. “Welt.de” January 8, 2008.
2009 – A German family with 5 children send an application of asylum due to Christian persecution to the USA.
They now live in Tennessee, USA.
“Handelsblatt” January 27, 2010.
2012 – 2015 – German family with 4 children have to pay a fine of $1,500.
On August 29, 2013, 8 am, twenty cops and social workers came to their house and took the children. The parents were deprived of custody.
The children were in custody by the government for 3 weeks. During that time the parents were allowed to see their children for 2 hours.
In October of 2013, the children were returned shortly to the parents. The family tried to immigrate to France, but German Authorities told them, they (the parents) can go, without the children.
“Die Welt” April 28, 2015.
At this moment there are 800 cases of parents homeschooling their children across Germany (2019).
