Unprecedented sentence. How judges resolved the cases of femillas in Oradea who withdrew their children from traditional schools

Two pairs of parents from Oradea were judged with the Romanian state for the right to education of their children.

Estera and Darius Cornean, along with the two children. Photo source: Darius Cornean

After initially the parents were sentenced to prison in the first instance for postponing their children from schools “traditional “ And he educates them from home, as students of educational institutions in America, The Oradea Court of Appeal decided on Thursday to eliminate the prison sentence and, in return, give their parents a warning.

“The judges decided to admit the appeal of the two families, to abolish the initial judgment and to remove the 5 -month prison sentence. Instead, each of the four parents received a warning.

According to the Criminal Code, the warning consists in presenting the factual reasons that have determined the renunciation of the application and warning the defendants on their future conduct and the consequences to which they will commit crimes“According to Ebihorean.

Abandon or not?

According to the Romanian legislation, the compulsory education is carried out, in principle, in the pre -university education institutions. Specifically, in schools, high schools, vocational schools, etc. However, there is the possibility that parents will opt for home education, but only under certain conditions. We are talking about a clear law that should not leave room for interpretations.

In short, parents who want to opt for such a form of education must have extremely well -founded reasons. These include the precarious health of children, religious reasons or special beliefs, reasons for performance artistic or sporting activities. This, unlike “homeschooling” in America, for example, a system that allows any parent to withdraw their child from school or not to register it at all. Provided he would train him at home.

“Throughout the process in which the Cornean and Duma families were accused, they showed that, in the case of their children, the withdrawal from the German High School Friedrich Schiller – where all three minors were learning – did not coincide with the abandonment of learning, because the little ones are enrolled in educational units in America and participate in the lessons.

In order to determine the authorities in Romania to accept that Homeschooling is not school dropout, the two families have also released an online petition, but also a documentary film, which also includes testimonies of Romanians who were at home, and not in schools accredited by the Ministry of Education ”, he writes the Ebihorean.

The story of the Cornean spouses began in 2022, when they decided to withdraw Daria and Dominic from the public education system. “Like all parents, we want our best for our children. We wanted to offer them something else towards the classic education system. So, while they attended the Romanian state school, we started looking for alternatives. The children were then in the second and third class. Now I am in the fourth grade and va ”, He then told Darius Cornean for the “truth”.

“We want for children a system of education that will develop their critical thinking”

The father confessed that he himself is the result of the traditional Romanian school, which does not reproach him in particular. “We are all results in the Romanian educational system. As he is, with good and less good. I know wonderful people who came out of the banks of the traditional school. But time passes, we evolve as people, as a society, as a technology, as education. We wanted nothing but to give our children another variant that would fulfill them, would help them more in life, open them wider horizons. “the parent said.

In the Romanian system, Darius Cornean believes, the idea of ​​accumulating information and reproduction of the accumulated information goes: “In the system we chose we go on the idea of ​​critical thinking. The information you hear must understand, think and find it in your immediate reality. Then, critical thinking helps you become self -taught. The child must learn not to push from the back by his parents, but because he really wants this, he has a real need for knowledge. But for this, this need must be aroused in it. In the Romanian school, unfortunately, the child, when he arrives in the older, 11th, 12th classes, is just waiting to escape the school. “

The father confessed that he does not want his two children to be “double” for information, but not to know what to do with them, not to be able to use them in their interest.

How the Homeschooling model works in America

In America, the situation is totally different. At the opposite pole, we could say. The reason? We are talking, first of all, about a decentralized education system and where this educational model is accepted and allowed in all 50 states. It is an old concept, as controversial and has grown especially in the last 20 years. The reason? More and more American parents invoke children's safety in schools. Specifically, 80% of those who declare Pro Homeschooling accuse drug and bullying problems. Through an education offered to children at home, American parents hope to keep them from the toxic environment existing in traditional schools.

In second place in the top of the reasons why Americans prefer school at home is the wish of parents to provide children with moral training. What at school says, children do not receive or receive to a very small extent.

The emphasis is also placed on family life, dissatisfaction with teaching methods in traditional schools but also on the desire to offer children a more rigorous religious training.