A conflicted teacher

 "Death by a thousand cuts"   Form of torture and execution practiced in Imperial China  A new year, a new me. Or well, a new year and the same old me that has issues and feels the need to write about these issues as a form of therapy.  Today I would like to explore some of the ways the Dutch education system screws over children from underprivileged backgrounds. The first, and most important way (to me personally at least) is the insane decision to divide children into educational levels at the age of twelve and to then have these 'levels' decide their entire fricking futures. This process goes against every single thing we know to be pedagogically correct. Because we know that people's brains do not finish developing until the ripe age of twenty six. Fifteen years after the government deems it appropriate for children to be placed on an educational track that will forever decide what kind of opportunities they will be given throughout their lives. We also know t