The German families crossing borders to homeschool

From Denmark to digital classrooms, a small number of German families are testing alternatives to one of Europe’s strictest school-attendance systems.

Blanketed by golden fields and thatched-roof houses along the Baltic coast, the Danish island of Ærø seems made for a serene summer escape. For Christine Kalis from Flensburg, however, it also became the place where her two children could receive the kind of education they cannot in their own country.

Both, aged 9 and 12, are now homeschooled — permitted in Denmark but effectively banned in most cases in Germany.

“In Germany, you’re treated like a potential offender when it comes to homeschooling — someone who needs to be monitored, who needs to be patronised, who doesn’t know any better,” Kalis, who moved three years ago, told us.

“In Denmark, parents — we’ve experienced this firsthand — are seen as co-creators. From local schools we get books, we get websites. They ask: What do you need? How can we support you?”

Her move reflects a small but visible group of German families testing the limits of the country’s compulsory school-attendance system by leaving it. Their reasons vary: childre…