Abolishing school bell brings peace to the tent
The school bell will disappear at three secondary schools in Nijmegen. “The teacher decides when the lesson ends. Not the bell. ''
Picture: Nina Maissouradze
Rest, rest and more rest: that is the word that resounds in every conversation with Nijmegen schools that have abolished the school bell or are busy with it. “Wonderful, that tranquility,” says Sil van Vegchel, geography teacher at the Groenewoud school community in Nijmegen.
This school pulled the plug last spring. “Such a hard ringing bell”, rector Hanneke Arpots still remembers all too well. "Very annoying." And it had been going on before and after each lesson for sixty years. So automatic that no one questioned it anymore.
Until a lot of block hours were planned during a renovation in Groenewoud, to save walking and traveling. Then that bell just kept ringing even in the middle of the block hours. “And what happens then: everyone stops,” says Arpots. “Because that's how it should be when the bell rings. And I understand that you take a break in a block hour. But preferably at a time when the teacher decides and not the bell. " From that moment on, a school without a school bell became her ideal.
"Teachers have often been working with the bell for a long time, so they needed a little more time", rector Berni Drop of the Montessori College in Nijmegen
And Arpots is not alone. The school bell no longer rings at Montessori College Nijmegen. Actually, the abolition of that bell was very obvious, says rector Berni Drop. “We are a Montessori school, so we want students to take control of their learning. And not that, conditioned by a bell, they trudge from local to local. ”
That bell first fell at Montessori College in the pre-vocational department, in 2016. Drop: “In pre-vocational education, the students are already very often involved in practical work. That motivates them very much, so we try to make the school look as little like a school as possible and as much as possible with professional practice. And in that practice there is no bubble either. "
Used to
The abolition of the school bell went almost without a hitch in VMBO. At least with the students. “They got used to it faster than the teachers,” Drop chuckles. “Teachers have often been working with the bell for a long time, so they needed a little more time. Logical." But it did not pose any real problems.
At the beginning of this school year, the bell also disappeared from the havo / vwo of Montessori College. And there too it went fairly smoothly. Because the big advantage, as it turned out here, is rest in the tent. Drop: “Not everyone leaves the classrooms or the auditorium for the same second. Sometimes it only saves half a minute, but it makes a huge difference to how busy the hall is. ” And also in the lessons themselves there is more peace now, says Drop. "The relationship between student and teacher is no longer disturbed by a bubble that causes everyone, as a Pavlovian reaction, to drop everything from their hands."
The abolition of the school bell at Montessori College went almost without a struggle. At least with the students.
“A bell promotes conditioning,” says Mariet van de Ven, director of VMBO Het Rijks in Nijmegen. Her school has started with a new educational concept, in which there is room for discovery and cross-subject learning. And a bell no longer really fits with that, they say at Het Rijks. That is why the seventh graders start this school year without a bell in the morning.
The bell will ring later in the day, also because the rest of the school is still used to it. “But I do not rule out that we will continue this experiment next year, especially with these first-year students,” says Van de Ven. "I hope they will continue to work without the terror of the bell."
The relationship between student and teacher is no longer disturbed by a bell that causes everyone, as a Pavlov reaction, to drop everything from their hands.
Super annoying
Wanda Kasbergen, rector of the Karel de Grote College in Nijmegen, follows the discussions with interest. Never before has a bell sounded at this free school in about thirty years. “If a teacher wants to say three more sentences or if there is an interesting discussion going on in class, it doesn't matter: as soon as the bell rings, it's over. We don't want that here. ” Kasbergen is sometimes at a different school for a meeting. "And then I find it super annoying when suddenly a bell rings in the middle of the conversation."
But if the bell is abolished, how do you, as a teacher, determine when a student is late? “When I heard that question here”, says rector Arpots of nsg Groenewoud, “I thought: Now it is really time to get rid of that bell. Because teachers determine when someone is late and not the bell. ”
In practice, this does not pose any problems, says teacher Van Vegchel of Groenewoud. “I am at the door to receive everyone. When class starts I close the door. Whoever comes in after that is too late. Really, there is absolutely no discussion about that. ”
Actually, this is actually easier than it used to be, when a bell rang. Van Vegchel: “When the bell rang and three seconds later students entered quickly, then you had a discussion. But now when I see that students are almost at the door of my classroom, I wait a little longer before I close it. Clear, right? ”
Those in front of the class have a sense of timing. So then you know when to start and finish
Van Vegchel also does not need the bell to stop his lesson. “Whoever is in front of the class has a sense of timing. So then you know when to start and finish. And if you continue with your lesson for too long, your students are articulate enough to say something about it. ”
Resistance
Yet those students at his school were also articulate enough to oppose the abolition of the bell. Because they would have trouble keeping up with the time themselves. 'Without a bell you will be late for class before you know it,' said a student in the newspaper The Gelderlander. "Then you have to be with the janitor at eight in the morning as punishment."
In consultation with the student council, a compromise has therefore now been chosen: the bell will ring again, but only at the start of the day and at the end of the first and second break. And the student council will choose a new bell. Because that annoying ringing, nobody really wants that back.
