| The Netherlands is a country known for its religious, | | | | reminiscent of its past when it was an integrated part |
| ideological and ethnical tolerance. But what is perhaps | | | | of the monastery still located in the adjacent building. A |
| less known is that it is also a country religiously divided | | | | few monks even taught some classes there until as |
| into a northern part dominated by a culture of | | | | late as the early 80s. I will not draw out all the petty |
| Calvinism and a southern part, which is predominantly | | | | arguments, my naively offending inquiries into the |
| Catholic. Today, when people speak of 'below the | | | | reasons for certain rules and disciplinary |
| rivers' they refer to the Catholic provinces and when | | | | measurements that followed, and the tensions |
| they talk about 'above the rivers' they are pointing to | | | | between me and the school master and head |
| the Calvinist provinces north of the geographical | | | | teachers that arose. Enough to draw out a particular |
| border of the rivers Maas, Waal and Rhine, which | | | | scene, which engrained itself in my precious and |
| roughly run parallel to this historical and cultural | | | | unraveling awareness as a budding teenager. It was |
| border.When the Netherlands declared independence | | | | this experience, which was to become my sobering |
| from Spain in 1579 by the Union of Utrecht and were | | | | 'way of light' while finding my way through the dreary |
| recognized by the peace agreement with Spain by the | | | | labyrinth of the world.Once, we were given back our |
| signing of the Treaty of Munster in 1648, 'the Low | | | | graded Latin exam to review. We could take them |
| Lands' (as the Netherlands is literally translated), did not | | | | home with us, but had to hand them in the very next |
| include the southern provinces. Only with the defeat of | | | | day. Of course, it came to be that I forgot to pack my |
| Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 were | | | | papers and I apologized, pledging I would bring back the |
| these provinces included, and not until 1831 when | | | | exam the next day. But it caused my teacher great |
| Belgium gained independence were the borders | | | | anger and he punished me by ordering me to hand |
| constituted that comprise the Netherlands as we know | | | | copy the school's regulations and hand them in with the |
| it. Culturally though, the southern provinces and | | | | exam the next day. Unfortunately too, I was the only |
| especially the province of Limburg (the hind leg of the | | | | student who had forgotten his exam and I suspected |
| Dutch lion) where I grew up belonged to the Catholic | | | | a personal vendetta in his harsh and unreasonable |
| sphere of influence. Even in present day the | | | | punishment. Now I understand his reaction was a |
| Netherlands, it makes a huge difference in attitude and | | | | typical scholastic pedagogical method that must be |
| perspective on life if you are from above or from | | | | common in the Catholic training of a teacher, but I also |
| below the rivers.As a child I slept in the attic room of | | | | resented his incompetence as a pedagogue who |
| our home, which had 5 windows that looked like | | | | failed to acknowledge the reasonable nature of the |
| embrasures cut out in the rooftop. In the small distance | | | | child I was.At first I didn't, no couldn't, take his response |
| that separated the small town of Papenhoven from | | | | serious and in a calm manner of disbelief I politely |
| adjoining Obbicht to the south, I could see the church | | | | replied: 'I am sorry, I will return my exam tomorrow.' I |
| belfry in the center of town rising high above its | | | | couldn't and still don't see the loss of returning the |
| surrounding, the short line of farms and single family | | | | exam one day later, but it seemed to make a huge |
| houses of red brick stone and tilted tile roofs. Looking | | | | difference for my teacher, who insisted.The next day I |
| out of a 'loophole' in my little fortress in the attic, to the | | | | came to school and handed in my exam without the |
| west I looked over fields of golden grain stalks billowing | | | | composition, which as a result accumulated to a |
| like ocean waves to a slight breeze. From my window | | | | doubling of the writing imposition for each extra day I |
| I could clearly see the river Maas cutting through the | | | | was late. In the following lessons again it was doubled |
| landscape meandering along, and at the other bank of | | | | until finally I was excluded from Latin classes overall |
| the river, Belgium. I lived on the narrowest stroke of | | | | and was called into the principal's office to explain my |
| land in the Netherlands, where Belgium and Germany | | | | behavior.The school principal, Bitsch, had the posture of |
| squeeze the hind leg of the Dutch lion. On the other | | | | a saturated pig, adorned with a friendly neighbor's smile, |
| side of our house was the Juliana canal and only 2 or | | | | in which I hoped to find the insight of reason. Maybe I |
| 3 miles further to the east lay Germany, the old | | | | should have abandoned all hope the moment I entered |
| heartland of Charlemagne, buried in the nearby famous | | | | his office and heard him recite a quote from the Bible. |
| Dom of Aachen. Like in Belgium, most people in | | | | Of course I forgot the quote, as I also did not know the |
| Limburg are Catholic, so are the schools, the soccer | | | | answer to his question of where in the Bible the quote |
| clubs and of course the 'fanfare', the drill band to be | | | | was located. He provided the answer for me, although |
| found in each small town in Limburg. The 'Episcopal | | | | I could not know if he was sincere in answering, more |
| College', my secondary school, was located in Sittard, | | | | than I had been. His 'compromise' was for me to copy |
| a border town with Germany and 5 miles from my | | | | the school regulations ten times by hand, encouraging |
| home. Diligently for almost 6 years, I bicycled every | | | | me to be the wiser of the two and just swallow my |
| morning through the alternating corn and grain fields, | | | | pride. This halfhearted attempt to reason made an |
| meadows and small villages on my way to school.I | | | | even weaker impression upon me than the complete |
| never liked school very much, not even my Catholic | | | | lack of it in my authoritative Latin teacher Hanssen. |
| primary school, the Saint Joseph school. At first of | | | | The punishment was ridiculous from the start and I |
| course, I didn't think much of it, like small children never | | | | could not submit myself to ridicule. The main conclusion |
| do. The world to small children is simply what exists | | | | I drew from this was that my enthusiasm for formal |
| immediately around them. To the young child's mind, | | | | education definitively cracked and it was not long after |
| there is no other happiness than the one that | | | | this that I would drop out of the 'Episcopal |
| surrounds them. At Catholic school we would say our | | | | curriculum.'Despite dropping out of school, I never lost |
| prayers each morning before lessons started, and on | | | | my enthusiasm for learning. However, I never lost my |
| Friday and Tuesday mornings the local priest would | | | | skepticism for formal education and have become an |
| teach Bible classes. All this constituted my childhood | | | | autodidact by heart. I consider learning a life-long |
| happiness in which I participated wholeheartedly like all | | | | obligation without end in the line of Comenius' thought. I |
| children did, even though my parents were from above | | | | think back of my days at school now with a certain |
| the rivers, and even though now the faithfulness of | | | | bitterness for the professional pedagogues who could |
| Catholicism is a strange entity to me. As a young child I | | | | not recognize a child's nature and instead of stimulating |
| didn't give it much reflection, nor could I. With the | | | | it to find its own path, they attempted to curb and |
| wisdom of hindsight, it might look cruel that it was | | | | bend it to serve their own purpose. Nevertheless, I am |
| always Mohammed, the Moroccan kid whom the | | | | a warmhearted supporter of education for all and the |
| substitute teacher used to pick on, until one day the | | | | principles promoted more than 400 years earlier by the |
| teacher, holding him firmly by his neck, pushing him out | | | | Czech educational reformer Jan Amos Comenius. |
| of the classroom, ended up busting his head through a | | | | Comenius was born in 1592 and brought up in Bohemia |
| glass panel in the door. Yet, I didn't think much of it. | | | | in the present day Czech Republic; and like I did, |
| Now, of course I recognize the scholastic methods of | | | | Comenius suffered from incompetent teachers as a |
| Jesuitism, and the dominance of structured discipline in | | | | child. But despite their incompetence, he grew to love |
| Catholicism at my school over the Protestant's care | | | | learning and proper education as the pillar of societal |
| for nurturing each child's inner nature and the diversity | | | | reform and human progress.In a time of fierce religious |
| of individual personalities. I didn't think much of it, even | | | | conflicts, Comenius was the head of the Union of |
| though my most profound school memory has always | | | | Brethren, the first Reformed Church in Europe, which |
| been boredom and aloofness from the Catholic | | | | followed the principles of the Czech reformer Jan Hus |
| methods of education.My parents of course did not | | | | (1369-1415) and was brutally suppressed by the Jesuit |
| grow up in Limburg, but they moved there when I was | | | | King Ferdinand of Habsburg. Despite the incredible |
| barely a few weeks old. They raised me in the | | | | hardship he would suffer in life, from an early loss of |
| progressive spirit of northern reformers like Comenius, | | | | parents, wife and children, home and experiencing the |
| Rousseau and Froebel, allowing me as a young child to | | | | Habsburgian contra-Reformist suppression and the |
| explore my own needs, drives, feelings and thoughts | | | | cruelties of the 30-Years War between the Catholic |
| and form my own personality freely and | | | | League and the Protestant German princes, Comenius |
| spontaneously. The only limitations I faced were the | | | | was able to find his way out of the 'Labyrinth of the |
| limitations of common reason, which were without | | | | World' and regain the 'Paradise of the Heart'. His book |
| exception explained to me rationally after which it was | | | | of that title would become a classic in European |
| left to me to decide on my actions AND bear the | | | | literature, while Comenius himself grew to become one |
| consequences that resulted from them. This of course | | | | of the most celebrated educational reformers in |
| was the worst preparation for attending a Catholic | | | | history. He advocated reforming the old medieval |
| school one can imagine, with its more rigorous | | | | scholastic method and introducing a more child-friendly |
| perception of social hierarchy and educational method. | | | | method of education, which in our time has become so |
| Yet, alternatives to attend other schools are scarce in | | | | evident.Being a refugee most of his life, Comenius was |
| Limburg unless you are able and willing to travel more | | | | finally settled in tolerant Amsterdam in 1556 until he |
| than an hour daily to reach one of the few Montessori | | | | died in 1570. He now lies buried in the Wallonian Church |
| schools in the south. Thus, my parents being pragmatic | | | | in Naarden, the Netherlands, a place of pilgrimage for |
| and practical people, I completed Saint Joseph's | | | | many Czechs, to whom Comenius is one of their |
| elementary school and entered a Catholic secondary | | | | biggest national heroes. |
| school called the 'Episcopal College', a name | | | | |