Tag: school
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Grade School Years: 1934-1941
Read More: Grade School Years: 1934-1941When I was six years old I started school on May 1, 1934. There were nine of us children in our family. The youngest was 1 ½ years old and my oldest brother was 12 and started grade 7. There were seven grades at that time so one of us was in every class except…
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The Slingerland Farm
Read More: The Slingerland FarmI don’t know when Opa and Oma married. It must have been around 1895. [March 15, 1895] They farmed in Berkenwoude on the Jacobshoeve. [Benedenkerkseweg, where the de Jong’s lived, is one leg of the road running between Stolwijk and Berkenwoude] We went there often when we went to school since it was not so…
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The First Few Years: 1928-1931
Read More: The First Few Years: 1928-1931I was born on April 9 in the year 1928, on an Easter Monday morning. Easter Monday is celebrated in the old country about the same as Sunday or Christmas day. I was born at home as was the custom then. My brother, Adam, who was the oldest at 6 years old would start school…
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Religion and Faith
Read More: Religion and FaithOne can talk about religion in generalities and about churches being staunchly Reformed and very orthodox, but what was my personal experience as a child? I can’t remember that my mother often told Bible stories, but she must have done so. At table Dad read from Anne De Vries’ Bible Story Book and when I…
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Organ Playing
Read More: Organ PlayingI have no recollection that I played much with my siblings, Kees, Truus and Sense. I imagine they had their own friends as I had mine. Of course, they were 5 and 4 years older. All of us had organ lessons, but I was the only one who took lessons for over one year. My…
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Elementary School – Final Years
Read More: Elementary School – Final YearsIn 1944 I became twelve years old and almost finished elementary school. In Holland you went to High school after grade 6. There were three types of high schools. The ULO was the easiest, The HBS prepared for university education, especially for engineers and business jobs, while the Gymnasium was the hardest, because you had…
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Health Problems
Read More: Health ProblemsDuring the last years of the war my mother began to suffer from Meniere’s Disease, which affected the balancing components in the middle ear. She was always terribly dizzy and would sometimes keel over unexpectedly. As children we had to be very quiet, because noise upset her terribly. Now, as I am sixty years old,…
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Incidents
Read More: IncidentsMy nickname was ‘Jeude’ (Jew). My brother Kees was called by that name because he had black hair, and when he finished elementary school, that nickname was loaded on me. One Saturday morning I was walking downtown, close to our church. Onno Bolhuis passed by on his bike and waved at me. “Ah, die Jeude!”…
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The War Years
Read More: The War YearsChildren usually are not interested in world politics. When I was 8 years old I didn’t know Hitler was planning to conquer all of Europe. Of course, I had seen pictures of this beastly man, but only thought he was funny with his mustache and straight hair. On May 5, early in the morning our…
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Pedagogy
Read More: PedagogySchools during my childhood were places where quietness in classrooms, disciplined order, and endless drilling were paramount. When you didn’t hold a pen in your hand, your arms were crossed across your chest. To make an impression on a teacher, you sat up as straight as possible, crossed your arms as high as you possibly…