Flashback: 'I wish every student such a teacher'
Education minister Arie Slob (57) learned the ideas of Groen van Pinsteren from history teacher Jaap Schaeffer (75). For example, the history teacher contributed to Slob's choice of study: history teacher training.
Picture: Fred van Diem
History has always fascinated me, but the teacher in the lower years made that the subject was not a party in the first years. Terrible! Jaap Schaeffer knew how to stoke the fire of my interest. Thanks to him I was able to go for it.
Mister 'Sjeefer' -his first name was unknown to us- gave me lessons in havo-4 and -5. His wife taught social studies at the Reformed School Community in Rotterdam, and his cousin taught biology, we called him Bio-Sjeef.
Lips
In the XNUMXs, the school was housed in a wooden building close to Erasmus University. Education was still mainly frontal. Teachers talked a lot.
He captured the class and brought history closer in a fascinating way
With retroactive effect, this only increases my appreciation for Schaeffer. He captivated the class and brought history closer in a fascinating way. I looked forward to his lessons. But not just me; the whole class hung on his every word. He usually sat down on an empty table in the front of the class and then started to tell. He chose his words carefully and spoke with a certain diction. His appearance was neat: always in a suit and his hair parted.
He introduced Groen van Prinsterer, the founder of Christian politics, and let us read from his book disbelief and revolution. The class screening of a documentary about this anti-revolutionary historian was spectacular. Nowadays it is easy to watch a movie with a smartboard, but then it was quite a hassle to drag such a device and a white cloth into a room. Schaeffer arranged that for us.
Trainers
After high school and military service, I opted for a history and social studies teacher training course and taught for eleven years. Schaeffer encouraged me to continue with history.
Schaeffer thought in deeper layers and stimulated us to think through too
Groen van Prinsterer's ideas fascinated me to such an extent that I eventually even graduated from them. Many relevant issues that arose in the past are reflected in the present. Schaeffer thought in deeper layers and stimulated us to think through it as well. For example about the ideas of Karl Marx and about God's hand in history. He also thought it important that dissenters treat each other with respect.
Only later did I recognize in this teacher a gifted scientific thinker who had consciously chosen to work in secondary education. I wish every student a teacher like Jaap Schaeffer who combines a love for students with a genuine interest in the times in which we live. That is a golden combination.”
Jaap Schaeffer (75):
Arie was a calm boy with a clear eye and a stable character who found his place in the group flawlessly. In my opinion he fitted - with a wink - within the portrait idealized by Abraham Kuyper of the Reformed 'little people', who, in his view, formed the backbone of Dutch society.
