Volunteering at Guus Kieft School
Tags:amsterdam evolution guus kieft school study abroad volunteeringI’ve done a lot of amazing things while living in Europe, and I feel that I’ve matured emotionally and grown as a person. I’ve already written about how to volunteer in Amsterdam, but I haven’t discussed what may be my favorite study abroad experience. With the school year coming to a close, I recently gave my last evolution lesson at the Guus Kieft School. I’ve always loved volunteering, but I never imagined how much fun and pleasure I would take from volunteering with Dutch children.
It is a so-called sociocratic school, where the children are treated as adults and choose what they want to learn. A mixed-age semi-private elementary school, it’s the most chaotic school I’ve ever attended, but it’s definitely somewhere I could imagine sending my own child one day. The children are surprisingly mature, sociable, and knowledgeable about whatever interests them. Although I sometimes harbor doubts of how they will cope with gaps in their knowledge and adapt to the more rigid format of secondary school, I think that in general the students will emerge with the skills to succeed and with a more open worldview.
One day, I was climbing trees with a few children when the head teacher, Eliane, called them inside. They instantly ran inside with as much energy as they had been playing, sat around on some couches, and started calmly planning a theatre production with their teachers.
Initially, I came to teach English and just socialize with the children. Although the children are all 5-12 years old, I quickly realized that nearly all of them already spoke passable English, either from an English-speaking parent or just having picked it up. I was amazed, and decided to plan weekly lessons in evolution, a subject that I think many students of all ages fail to be taught in depth, if ever. Several students were interested, and I often had Eliane or another volunteer translate as I gave miniature, hopefully fun PowerPoint presentations of biology topics… heredity, Charles Darwin, artificial selection, natural selection, variation. One day we played evolution games on the computer, where boys vs. girls tried to make whatever shaped animal I told them to.
The bloemen (pictured at right) that I received as a surprise goodbye gift from Eliane are bittersweet. As they’ve started to wither over the past days, it’s hitting me that I will be moving away in a scarce three weeks.