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