MBO

Dutch teacher delivers books on racing bike

Dutch teacher Conrad Berghoef cycles past his MBO students at home almost every week to lend them young-adult books. "Everything for reading pleasure."

Tekst Joëlle Poortvliet - redactie Onderwijsblad - - 2 Minuten om te lezen

conrad-berghoof-at-the-door

Picture: Conrad Berghoef

Conrad Berghoef was allowed eighty from a pot for broad education at ROC Friesland in Drachten young adultpurchase books. The boxes were delivered to his home through the lockdown.

So you thought: I will get on a bike?

"Yes, cycling is my hobby. An additional advantage is that I see the students again. But the message is especially important: This teacher apparently finds reading so important that he brings the books to your home. Even if that is thirty or forty miles away."

And, does it work?

"I loaned out some books in December, but haven't returned them yet. Other students read very quickly. Or make a vlog about the book. I don't force them to do anything. Everything for the pleasure of reading."

Don't even let them read it?

"Nothing to the detriment of my colleagues in secondary education, but in my opinion the worst thing you can do is ask for reading reports directly, do a book review and analyze the literary movement. For me it's purely about reading. Hopefully there will be a light, moral compulsion: when I arrive at them with my tongue on the steering wheel. Some students post on Instagram half an hour later that they have started the book."

What was the last book you delivered?

"Anything but okay, about cyberbullying, with a student in Oosternijkerk. That is all the way in the north of Friesland. Well, then you almost fall off the map."

Is it what, those young-adult books?

"Yes. This sounds like 'grandpa tells', but in my time the genre did not exist. I went from Kameleon to Willem Frederik Hermans. It is very nice that there is now something in between. Monica from the local bookstore knows a lot about young adult books and picked them out all eighty in one afternoon. The titles, the prizes, but also the themes: LGBT, loneliness, you name it."

And if the lockdown ends?

"I almost fear the day the lockdown will be lifted. What will I do with my trips then? I really don't know. The books will be fine. They will then be placed in the bookcase at school, in the hallway near my classroom. "

Conrad Berghoef reports on his loan book route Strava en Instagram.

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