Everywhere I go and went in the past, I always hear how 'liberal' my country is, when I tell people where I'm from.
Of course, most people refer to our soft-drug laws, while they automatically assume that everyone in Holland smokes weed.
I usually laugh at those remarks and add that we also all live in windmills, wear wooden shoes and grow tulips next to our weed. But other, better informed individuals (or are they?) might refer to our policies when it comes to euthanasia, same-sex marriage, abortion and prostitution.
source: memecenter.com
A second subject I always hear about when referring to my home country is our 'excellent education system', the fact that most Dutch people are at least bi-lingual and our straightforwardness.
True, our education is seen as one of the best in the world. It is by far not as outrageously expensive to attend college and university as it can be in other countries like the US. But how free are really we when it comes to choosing the right education for our children in the Netherlands? The answer might surprise you.
Freedom of education
Not in every country in Europe it is legal to homeschool your children. In Sweden and Germany for instance it is completely illegal. In Ireland, it is in the constitution that parents can choose to homeschool their kids or send them to a non recognized school, even though this might prove to be harder than you think sometimes. There are countries where parents can get an exemption from sending their children to mainstream school, for instance when the child has great problems in school or because of differing life-style choices. The Netherlands is one of those countries.
Parents can apply for exemption as long as they do this at least one month before the child turns 5. After this, it is still possible to pull a child out of school, but it's a lot harder. Once the family is approved for home education, they have to re-apply each year.
Here in Ireland special assessors assigned to monitor homeschooling families are supposed to visit a family once a year to see where this family is at in regards to homeschooling and their children's progress. -This is in theory, because this proves to be less in most cases. However, in Holland there is no such thing. Families get approved or they don't and that's all there is to it.
Two overly ambitious and power hungry politicians
In 2010, Hugo de Jonge was appointed as alderman with the portfolio of Education, Youth and Family in Rotterdam.
Not long after that he showed his aversion for education that was different from mainstream. In 2013 for instance, he worked hard to get an Islamic high-school in the city to close. Something that happened not long after. In 2015 his eye had fallen on the homeschooling community in the city. He argued that homeschooling does not provide quality education for children and that most families had an exemption due to religion. He also notes that a large percentage of homeschoolers in Rotterdam are of strict Islamic religion, something that has been proven to be incorrect. In his opinion homeschooling is an "unwanted way to block children from a healthy social-emotional development." This is especially funny, because one only has to meet a few homeschooled children to know that this can actually be quite the opposite. After all: bullying happens mostly in school, not so much in the homeschool environment. Hugo de Jonge thought it was a good idea to speak with all 15 families (with 39 children) to find out if all these families were justly exempt from sending their kids to mainstream school. This was approved by Sander Dekker (Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science) who had similar ideas about homeschooling.
Sander Dekker source: www.telegraaf.nl
At first, all families received a letter to invite them to city hall to speak with the school attendance officer in order to determine if their exemptions were justified. All but one family did not respond to this letter as they thought it was against their rights to homeschool. They were then threatened with measures that would include a referral to child protection services. It is important to note that this same Hugo de Jonge tried to push forward a new law that would make it compulsory for 'vulnerable' parents to use contraception. In other words: incapable parents, mostly single women with serious addiction, psychiatric problems or intellectual disabilities, or a combination of these.
The issue with this is: where does one draw the line and who gets to decide when a parent is incapable of raising (future) children? Sounds to me like the man would have had aspirations to join the Nazis, if they were still around.
Hugo de Jonge source: www.telegraaf.nl
These threats were enough for three families
Three families left Rotterdam for good. One of those families moved to Spain, two to Ireland. One of those families were my friend J., her husband D and their children. When I spoke to J. and she told me what had been going on in Rotterdam I told her to consider coming to Ireland. They were here not long after. I believe they were just in time.
This was in 2016. In 2017 Hugo de Jonge was celebrating a win in court. The judge ruled that families who didn't attend the meetings would be referred to child protection services and maybe even receive a care order.
He also stated that first steps were taken in the right direction as now only 23 children were homeschooled, instead of the earlier 39. This is quite ironic since my friend J. had 6 children in the school going age and the other family here in Ireland had 5. I am not sure if the family in Spain has 1 or 2 children, but it is quite clear that the 'change' in the homeschooling culture can not be measured by his actions. This shows again that the word of a politician and that of the media can not be trusted and is always distorted.
What happened to these politicians?
In 2017, not long after all this happened, Hugo de Jonge said good-bye to the city of Rotterdam to move on to greener pastures. He is now the vice premier of the Netherlands and received an award for politician of the year.
Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science Sander Dekker is now minister for Privacy Policy, Youth Justice, Copyright Law, and Prevention. Moving up in the world, but over the backs of people who dare to challenge the system. You'd have to wonder if they did all this truly with the welfare of children in mind, or to further their own careers. I could make a guess...
And this is one of the reasons why I am quite happy that I decided to leave the country 7 years ago. OK, my life here hasn't been without hurdles and it is still quite stressful at times. I guess no country is perfect. But here, once you have 'them' off your back, they stay that way for quite a while. In the Netherlands, I am not too sure...
