All's well that ends well

 "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 that a person's intelligence is not correctly represented by standardized tests nor do tests in any way shape or form give a hundred percent accurate view on a student's ability to learn. However, what we do know is that underprivileged kids, i.e. children born to parents with lower intelligence, lower income or lower social class, have less opportunities to develop themselves before high school. Which means that they have more to catch up on once they are actually placed in a situation that could possibly provide them with these opportunities. However.. high schools don't do this! Because underprivileged students are often labelled vmbo students. And from the moment that they get this label? Well... the game's pretty much over. 

This because the levels in our educational system, namely vmbo, havo and vwo, come with certain stigmas attached that students, no matter how hard they try, cannot outrun. In the past decades we have managed to create an actual self fulfilling prophecy when it comes to education. Students that are considered to be 'vmbo' students are deemed less intelligent, less able to learn and therefore (by many) seen as inferior. Our plumbers, construction workers, hairstylists, wood workers, gardeners; useful yes, but not as worthy as lets say our doctors, laywers or politicians. a.k.a. our vwo students. And then ofcourse there are our havo students, a lovely group in the middle that can pretty much go either way depending on their 'academic attitude'. No matter which label they receive, all children suffer from it, one way or another. Unfortunately, it is the underprivileged students that suffer most, since they lack the support and tools to combat the preconceived notions they are faced with. 

Even worse than the preassigned stigmas that children have to deal with from the moment they enter high school is the little fact that even if their environment does recognize they do not fit the mold. There is absolutely no way to meet their needs. Our educational system is so rigid that a student's worth is determined by their grades and more specifically their lowest grade. If a student performs at 'vmbo level' for math, yet excells in every other subject? That student will still be put into a vmbo class. Because it's not possible to do an exam on a lower level for one single subject. You could, if your school facilitates this, do an exam for a subject on a higher level. Let's say you are a vmbo student but are good at English, you could potentially do a havo English exam. But! You can only do the exam one level above your own. So, as a vmbo student you could never do an English exam at a vwo level, not even if you were, let's say a native speaker. Isn't that just grand? Such a lovely way to embrace and nurture our future generation's chances. By systematically valuing children on the subjects they least excel at, we take away any chance of them ever reaching their full potential. 

Now, I would love to solely blame schools for this but essentially it is outside of the school's control. It's our government that has come up with the insane way of dividing students into artificially designed levels, and it's our government that punishes schools whenever students don't pass their exams. It's also the government that makes it impossible for schools to provide their students with better opportunities to grow to their full potential. However! This is not to say that schools and educators are not to blame. Because we are. We are to blame because we have started to buy in to this bullcrap of an idea that a 'vmbo' student is different from a 'vwo' one. And that teaching one is nothing like teaching the other. That in order to teach a vmbo student we need to dumb things down, only keep them practical and god forbid we ever challenge them. Because no, vmbo students cannot do that. And for that matter don't ever think of teaching vwo students practical life skills! God no. We will teach them Latin, or Greek. We will teach them about circular economics but never ever think we will teach them how to cook a goddamn meal. Since as we know, vwo students will never have to cook for themselves. They either have enough money to order in, or their parents will do it for them until they die. And let's not forget the havo students! Who, are certainly capable of more than vmbo students, but their attitudes! Those are definitely vmbo, so brazen, and loud and uninterested in learning. Because as we all know, 'smart' teenagers simply love school. And 'dumb' teenagers just hate it. 

With every preconceived notion, every action we take that supports this insane system, we undermine the very future of our children. And we are systematically destroying not only their current, but their future possibilities. Even worse, we are making them believe that that is simply what they deserve. That this is how the whole world works. It's not though. In every other country in the world the educational system does not determine a student's 'level' at the age of twelve. Other countries in the world have adapted a more flexible system where students can take subjects on the level that fits them best instead of having to do every subject at the exact same level. It's a sad day if even the freaking USA, known for their huge discrepancy between privileged and underprivileged students, does a better job at fixing that discrepancy than a country like the Netherlands that prides itself on the equality of its citizens. 

So, how do we as educators change this? That's a hard one. I would very much like to refer back to my earlier, "let's all stop giving exams and listening to the government until the actually listen to us" idea, that I posed a few posts ago. But until this very needed revolution, ask yourself the following questions: Do you really think a child's educational level means that they require a completely different approach, and if so why? Are you really providing your students with all the opportunities that you can give them and do you fight for them within the system that you work in? Do you ever think to yourself, 'ugh I would/could never ever teach (insert level here) students, that's just not for me'. And if you think that, why? 

And while you ask yourselves these questions and teach your students to the best of your abilities and to the best of theirs just remember this: Every time we deem a child less, or we deny them an opportunity based on their so called educational level, we are delivering a cut to their very being. And one cut, well one cut doesn't kill. But death by a thousands cuts? That's an ugly way to go.