The Netherlands and Schools!

As I begin this adventure, I am both excited and nervous.  I guess anyone would be, traveling to a dozen countries in as many months.  But I know that everyone I have encountered for the planning has been supportive, given the topic:  trust in schools among students, teachers, administrators and families.  The topic is a universal one, I think, but my hunch is that it is interpreted and manifested in different ways, depending on the school, the culture, the history, and politics.  We shall see!

My first stop has been the Netherlands.  I started there because it is known to me with people in schools who are friends and patient with my fumbling with tape recorders, stammering out questions, and figuring out Dutch words and phrases (although English is a chosen second language for the majority of Dutch people).  We stayed in Haarlem, a wonderfully well laid-out city north of Amsterdam (it was cheaper there; Amsterdam is as expensive as New York now).

It took 20 hours to get here from Philadelphia and New York with delayed trains and flights.  And within another 8 hours of landing, I was due in my first school, a Montessori secondary school outside of Amsterdam.  Unlike the United States, the Dutch embrace Maria Montessori's philosophy through the adolescent years.  I wonder if that's partly because she ended up living in the Netherlands at the end of her life.  But they take it quite seriously (there are 16 Montessori secondary schools in the country):  the independent learning, responsibility, and trust (there's that word!) in the student to learn.  I got to interview students and teachers there and then gave a workshop in the afternoon:  my first to an international audience and with a power point in Dutch!

 

Scary!  I guess it went well enough...they didn't throw tomatoes, at least!  And they gave me two books to thank me for the presentation/workshop:  "The Book of Joy" and "The Happiest Kids in the World (about a study of Dutch children)."  

The next day was another school in Amsterdam, an arts school for high school students.  

The students were opinionated and outspoken--very forthcoming about trust!  So were the teachers, who were able to make connections among trust, school policies and national efforts to revise the curriculum in the country.  The Netherlands is undergoing a similar struggle around standards (they call them "aims") as the United States and it affects the public education system in terms of curriculum (for example, pushing for integration of subject areas).  

I also learned more about the "levels" in high school, where students are "tracked" into vocations, technical schools or college.  About 10% of the students can get to the next level, if they want, but the majority I spoke to were happy to be with their level of peers.  A very different system from our own system of merit--at least on the surface.  Students in both schools were not racially diverse, although there were a few students of color in the group.  There was some discussion about the topic of race in the country, which appears to be grappling with this a great deal recently.  And everyone was very curious about President Trump!

The weekend has involved meetings with educators and writers who are friends.  The country's economy is improving and there is excitement about the directions that education is taking.  They are extremely interested in ways to provide professional development to teachers, who now must have a Masters (this is new) in order to teach.  There are some high need subjects that will will hire Bachelors-level people.  And unlike the U.S., a lot of teachers work part-time and remain at that level, doing quite well in the Dutch economy (supplementing income in other ways, as needed).  There are no unions in the Netherlands but there has been significant outreach among teachers to strengthen their solidarity and professional status.

The weather has been cool, gray and we got caught in a typical thunderstorm--a torrent that filled our shoes as we trudged through parks and streets headed towards a dinner in our honor.  The Netherlands at its best!

It's been a great few days and I hope to be back with some students from the University someday!  Tomorrow:  Bordeaux, France!  More to come!