Cults take advantage of state failure

The German state school system is failing. Everyone seems to know that. According to Der Spiegel: “Every third German child is swotting up with a tutor or at one of approximately 3,000 after-school centers.” That’s a lot of extra schooling to replace what government is failing to deliver.

Now one of the problems they are finding is that cults like the wacko Scientologists are setting up “tutoring” programs which apparently do more than just tutor but promote the cult. The magazine says: “German experts on sects are now warning that the organization, which spans the globe, is currently making a big effort to infiltrate the German education market.”

It is claimed that the cult has established 20 such “learning centres” which are filled by students who have no idea what they are getting involved with. “Most of the customers of these centers have no idea who they are entrusting their kids to. There is rarely a mention of the word ‘Scientology’ in the brochures, at most the name L. Ron Hubbard appears and there...”

This is routine practice for cults. And the Scientologists, who have some of the most bizarre theories around, are among the most deceptive. They use various fronts to push their agenda and draw people in.

Of course the educational bureaucracy is now complaining that they aren’t in control of these alternative learning institutions. But if they were why would they be better run than the schools that are already failing? The solution here is what Der Spiegel has done. Expose the bastards. Warn parents which “learning centers” are cult centers and leave it up to the parents to decide.

So far the learning centers, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with the nuts in Scientology, do what the schools fail to do -- teach well. And parents are better equiped to decide what is best for their children than are bureaucrats. Letting the Scientologist be the excuse for state control will only turn the “alternatives” into smaller versions of the state system with all the same problems. It is better to encourage more private alternatives that are not involved with the cult.