Flashback: 'You could discuss everything with her'
Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (51) moved to Belgium at a young age. She attended the Municipal Primary School in Beerse, which was then a girls' school. In the third grade she got Miss Aerts. A relief at school and an example for later. Nin Aerts passed away in 2015.
Image:\x3ca href=\"http://fredvandiem.nl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\x3e Fred van Diem\x3c/a\x3e
What has stayed with me the most is her autonomy, her independence. She radiated that incredibly strongly and that appealed to me. Miss Aerts was an example to me in this. I thought: When I grow up, I want to be the way she is. I must say, it also played a role that she had beautiful long hair. Style her again. I had curls, so as a girl you naturally want the exact opposite.
The nicest teacher at school
By the way, she was not only very loved by me. The other girls in the class also thought she was the nicest teacher at school. At that time there was generally an authoritarian approach in education. Rules are rules and if you didn't stick to them you had to be in the corner. Miss Aerts *Nin Aerts (1945-2015) taught at the girls' school in Beerse. Former teacher Jef Michielsen worked with her for a long time: “Nin and I were best friends. She was straightforward, not only towards her colleagues, but also towards her students. I don't think she ever realized she was an example for Ingrid van Engelshoven. She was far too modest for that. ” was very different and not strict at all. You could have an opinion and you could discuss everything with her. We were not used to that at school.
I just popped in to ask her something during the break. Something that did not occur to me with the other teachers.
It was an openness to students that was way ahead of her time. For example, I walked in to her during the break to ask something. That really did not occur to other teachers and masters. And she just sat on the edge of her desk during class, for example. Just chat with the class, have a good conversation, in between the sums and language lessons. With that she broke with the then usual formality in education.
Impressive
There was an incredible amount of laughter at Miss Aerts. But she also had a keen eye for emotional events in children's lives. During the school year, the father of a classmate, who was also my neighbor and best friend, died. It was the first time that death had come this close and it was very impressive. We were all only about eight years old.
I still remember that our teacher immediately discussed it and that she helped us deal with this event at a leisurely pace. For example, she prepared us very well for the funeral that we would attend as a class. She also took the time to make the return of our classmate, who of course had stayed home for a while, as pleasant as possible. She always managed to create a very safe, open and respectful atmosphere in the classroom.
As a result, there was never any unrest or gossip. You didn't want that at all as a student. She showed respect for us no matter how young we were. We gave it back to her automatically. ”
Every month, the Education Magazine publishes an interview with a more or less well-known Dutch person about his or her favorite teacher. This text appeared in the April issue of the Onderwijsblad.
