'I believe in our free society'
Dutch teachers speak out about the brutal murder of their French colleague Samuel Paty. The fact that online lessons can be saved and distributed raises questions.
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“A cartoon is a didactic instrument such as few: it raises questions, activates prior knowledge, makes pupils think, form a (moral) judgment and finally substantiate it. And now, after the horrific murder of Paty, I should actually get to work with a holy fire to again make topical teaching materials, in which the cartoon plays a major role. I just don't know if I still dare to. ” Jasper Rijk, former social studies teacher and nowadays teacher educator and subject didactician, wrote this in yesterday de Volkskrant.
Professional
The news of the history teacher who was murdered on Friday afternoon in a quiet suburb of Paris for showing a Charlie Hebdo cartoon in class hit many teachers hard. Because it concerns a colleague, Ton van der Schans, chairman of the association of history and political education teachers, also said in de Volkskrant this week. "A colleague of ours." But also because it raises a question to which he himself has no satisfactory answer. Could something like this happen in the Netherlands?
Beatrice de Graaf made an attempt last night for an answer in the NPO current affairs program News hour. About the Chechen who beheaded the French teacher, she said: "This kind of radical loners adrift, driven by IS ideology, looking for a target - you see that everywhere. (…) IS-like organizations operating in the Middle East have lost but are now ideally trying to catch young people.” The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security emphasized mid-October that the threat of jihadism also still exists in the Netherlands. The NCTV especially underlines the "imaginable" danger of attacks by loners.
Solid
The shock among teachers in the Netherlands is therefore understandable, says Hessel Nieuwelink, professor of Citizenship Education; on the website of RTL news he says: "If you see how this French teacher approached his lessons, it was very solid. Teachers in our country will identify with him." In the same article, social studies teacher Rob Molenkamp from Amersfoort speaks: “My wife said: you do the same job. I also show cartoons in my classes and movies like Fitna. Yes, this could happen to me too. Although I'm not afraid of that. I believe in our free society."
The teacher is a helpless victim when images fall into the wrong hands
Teacher educator Jasper Rijk foresees a new restraint - about which he writes: "The thought of self-censorship is shameful and dangerous, but real and impossible to imagine" - and links it mainly to hybrid education that is currently taking flight due to corona. become lessons live given, but also often streamed and recorded. Rijk: “What happens to the recordings? Whose hands do they end up in? The teacher has to wait and see, but is a willless victim if the images fall into the wrong hands. Bee blended education "its powerful lessons on controversial themes are one of the first casualties", he thinks.
Black Pete
While those lessons are desperately needed, Samira Bouchibti fervently argued yesterday with the NPO current affairs program Dutch news program EenVandaag. She was a Member of Parliament for the PvdA, is now a publicist and provides workshops in schools to combat extremism. According to her, it is certainly not only radical Islam that is difficult to discuss in the classroom. Black Pete, the Holocaust and homosexuality, for example, also sometimes provoke fierce reactions. In the broadcast, she says about the teacher: “Then you have to be strong in your shoes to enter into that discussion, even though it is very important.
We must stand for our democratic values. Our students are entitled to that
In the same excerpt, Kai Pattipilohy, director of social issues agency Diversion, says: "We see schools where teachers are actively discouraged from having these kinds of conversations with students for fear of unrest. Of course we can't. We have to stand up for our democratic values Our students are entitled to that."
Parliamentary debate
The bill 'Clarification of citizenship in primary education' will come as just a call for both ladies. In the week of November 2, there is one here House of Representatives debate over planned. Even though the agenda for that week is so full that there is a chance that the topic will be passed on.
The new law, which should come into effect in August 2021, is much less non-committal about citizenship education. Schools will soon be obliged to teach pupils knowledge and respect about the basic values of the democratic constitutional state, in a program with concrete learning objectives. In the Education magazine of October, professor of citizenship education Nieuwelink says: "However you look at it, as an educator you do not want someone with ties to IS or another extremist organization near your students. Democracy is a great good and does not exist automatically."
De AOb responded to the murder early this week, read the statement here. If you want to go deeper into the matter: check below this post a dispute between two anonymous Dutch teachers about the use of cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed in the classroom.
Ordered before AObmembers: Hessel Nieuwelink also speaks in the Education magazine that appeared at the beginning of this month. Together with Marcel Mooijman, chairman of the association of social teachers NVLM and Jeroen Bron, project leader for citizenship education at the Curriculum Development Foundation (SLO). The article is called 'Struggle with Citizenship'.
