A Dutch teacher does not need to know Multatuli
Max Havelaar, Woutertje Pieterse… from next academic year, second grade teachers of Dutch will no longer need to know the works of Multatuli. Literature from before 1880 has disappeared from the 'knowledge base' of their education.
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After a higher vocational education to become a second-degree teacher of Dutch, you can teach in VMBO, the lower years of HAVO and VWO and in vocational education. The teachers must know something about Dutch literature, but only literature from 1880 onwards.
This is evident from the new knowledge base that was drawn up for these courses and came online last month. This knowledge base states what students must at least learn during their education. It will start next academic year.
Literature website tzum turned on the stove with it: 'Graduated second-degree teachers in secondary education know less about literary history than students in the upper years of pre-university education', sneered editor-in-chief Coen Peppelenbos, also a teacher at NHL Steden Hogeschool.
Shakespeare and Goethe
The disappearance of old literature is not self-evident. Every English teacher has read Shakespeare, according to the knowledge base of the second-grade English teacher training courses. And colleagues from the German department know Goethe.
It also offended Marc van Oostendorp, a Nijmegen professor of Dutch. "Now I've had enough," he writes on his weblog. "There are too many cynics trying to tear everything down, driving education into the abyss."
Not only Multatuli is missing. 'Karel ende Elegast, Sara Burgerhart, Piet Paaltjens – of course you don't need to know who they are when you have young people in your class,' Van Oostendorp sighs.
'Too many cynics are busy breaking everything down, driving education into the abyss', professor of Dutch Marc van Oostendorp on his weblog.
Many people on Twitter are surprised to the news. But the criticism is not justified, says Mariette van Dam-Helmig, teacher at the Fontys teacher training college and chair of the National Professional Consultation for Dutch. Most courses continue to teach Multatuli as usual, she says. Only they are not obliged to.
The literature from before 1880 does not belong to the material that a second-grade teacher discusses in class, she explains. At VMBO, children do not read Multatuli and it is not discussed in the lower years of HAVO and VWO. And if students specialize in VMBO and MBO, the program may want to offer a different level of depth than if they specialize in HAVO and VWO. "This discussion took place last year," she says, "and the knowledge base was established in September."
In fact, that older literature was previously not included in the knowledge base. It did contain an example question about Multatuli at the time, but she thought that was one of the reasons for reassessing the knowledge base. "This was one of the uncertainties."
Sharpened
According to Van Dam-Helmig, it is now a nice, sharpened knowledge base. “What a teacher of Dutch should know: think of language proficiency or teaching children with a language deficiency… it is so extensive. I think it is a shame that one thing is now being highlighted, as if our students are no longer learning anything nowadays. ”
The decision was ultimately taken during a national consultation of the study programs. The knowledge bases have been developed over the past ten years to allay concerns that teacher training courses were becoming too light and that teachers would have too little subject knowledge. There are national tests for the material in the knowledge base. The literature from before 1880 is included in the first grade teacher training.
