Summary theme 7: The Future

What do we want?

The first goal that comes to mind talking about the future is:  graduate from this school in about a year, off course with high marks.

Then:

* Frederieke wants to study a combination of economics and law in Rotterdam at the Erasmus University. After that she doesn’t know yet, but perhaps she will become a lawyer or a judge.

* Eva wants to study medicine, but she doesn’t know where yet. Utrecht (she was born there) and Leiden are still in the running for becoming Eva’s next hometown. After her study she wants to work at a hospital as a doctor.

Both of them (Eva and Frederieke) want to travel a lot during their lives. The part of the world that attracts us most is South-America. They both want to learn to speak Spanish.

When they’re older they want a handsome boyfriend and maybe marry him. They both also want children but they’ll think of their careers first.

* Nelleke like’s playing hockey, but she can’t say she’s that ambitious. It’s just fun. She also plays the piano and she really wants get better at it. Spending time with family and friends is also important. After school Nelleke wants to study medicine because she wants to become a doctor.

In Holland, it’s kind of difficult to get in a medicine study. There are too many students, who want to study it, so it’s a drawing of lots who gets in, unless you have finished your secondary school with extremely high marks.

* Frederique likes playing hockey but, just like Nelleke, she hasn’t got any big plans with it for the future. 

* Jenny likes to sing. She wants to take lessons again after graduating, but it’s not her ambition do make a living out of it. Both Frederique and Jenny have plans for studying psychology.

Remo, Bas and Johanna did a very original voicethread, actually speaking to us from out of the future (the year 2084, to be precisely), in which they have already accomplished many of their goals. For example:

* Remo has studied Liberal Arts and Sciences, an all English study in Middelburg involving a wide range of subjects. Apart from studying, he also made loads of fun. He has travelled a lot, seen some great world miracles, has visited a lot of music festivals.

* Bas studied medicine and is now a doctor, and above all: filthy rich.

* Johanna has studied semiology in Leuven (Belgium). She has travelled all over the world and she has met a lot of interesting people.

The three of them have also learned, from experience, that Comenius friends are the best friends you can ever have.

* Willemijn knows she wants to study and in Leiden, Nijmegen or Utrecht. She doesn’t know which study yet, but it has got to be something concerning the human body. Next to the studying, she also hopes for lots of fun during her university period. After 5 or 6 years she hopes she has learned to live on her own, and she wants to become a doctor or she wants to be in research. She would love to travel to South America (the rainforest) and New Zealand. She thinks money is important, when you want to do the things you want to, but it’s not the most important thing in the world.

* Cindy wants to study medicine and become a doctor. She knows she wants to travel to Indonesia, because her parents have lived there for a while and she was born there.

* Joris thinks doctors are important, but also scientists can make your life easier. That’s why he wants to study Electrical Engineering and Practical Physics at the University of Eindhoven. He hopes he can become a genius of the same level as Albert Einstein, Newton, Hawking and his personal favourite, Tesla. After his study, he wants to see the world, to change it and then come home to finally meet his beautiful wife and children.

Conclusions:

Well in fact our students have a lot in common, talking about their future plans. They all want to go to university in about a year. The most of them already know what they want (lots of doctors in the Holland Comenius house!), some of them know where they want to study, but just don’t know yet what to study.

Travelling is also a commonly shared ideal (hey, now I know why they wanted to be in this project!) They want to meet interesting people and to contain the relationships that they have already. An interesting fact is that most of the girls already dare to talk about having a husband and kids and stuff. The guys don’t talk about that. A question of maturity?

After all, they all want to enjoy life. Money is important, because if you don’t have it at all, there’s nothing you can do. And our students have a lot of things they want to do. But it’s not the most important thing.

Our parents had quite the same plans about the future as we do right now.

Have a career, a family and above all: be happy.

Some of our parents had big ideals, like world peace. They walked in protest campaigns and revolted against the government. They often had great plans for the future (becoming a dolphin trainer for example) that didn’t turn out the way they dreamt. But still, despite of a lot of changed plans the parents claim to be happy now after all.

Do we want to become like our parents? Well, not exactly like them off course, but most of our students have nice parents who have nice marriages. They also feel that you become a bit like your parents in a natural way. You will not be aware of that, but it will happen anyhow.

It ‘s not a bad thing, as long as you stick to yourself and remember the things that you find important in life.  

Theme 6 Missing


We skipped theme 6 because we were busy organising the Comenius meeting in the Netherlands at that time. And we could use all the time we had.


So, that's why there's not much shown here. But the meeting was very much worth it, I daresay!

Summary Theme 5:  Environment

At home:

All garbage (including paper, plastic, fruit and vegetables, glass, batteries and metal) used to go in the same bin when our parents were young. Actually, it’s not that long ago since we started separating the garbage.

Nowadays, a lot of people in the Netherlands separate their garbage in many ways. For each of the fore called kinds of garbage there is a place of disposal. For instance, you can separate glass in three different colors: green, brown and white. Also quite unique (we think) is the possibility of separating plastic. However, a lot of people are still too lazy (or they’re lacking time or maybe there are other reasons?) to separate their garbage as much as they are supposed to. Also there are always people who just throw their candy wrappings away in nature, not even caring if there’s a bin around. In the Netherlands you can get a fine for that (70 euros) but off course it doesn’t occur much that people are being caught in the act.

In future, we expect that there will be more and more to separate (considering garbage disposal off course) and that people will be more obliged to do so.

We have become aware of the fragility of our precious planet and we should do everything that’s in our power to protect it. After all, who wants to destroy his children’s house?

School:

Our school isn’t clean. There are more litterbins in our school than there are together in all three MacDonald’s places in Tilburg. Still the school floors are full of garbage. Especially in de school cantina it’s always a mess. Every 5 meters there is a bin, but still a lot of students are not able to throw their waste in one of them, apparently. Off course, there are teachers who keep an eye on the crowd during breaks and it helps a little, but they don’t have eyes on their backs. We think it’s more a question of mentality of some of the students.

We interviewed one of the teachers who has been in our school for many years. He said that things actually have been worse, that the floors were covered with litter from the early morning till the end of day. Nowadays there is schedule that obliges students to help cleaning up the school. Every class has to clean up the school and its surroundings for one week a year. This means that students are made (a little) responsible for the mess they make. So there must be some progression considering school environment, if you compare past and present. But, like we said, we think still we need some kind of mentality change in our school in this matter.  

The city of Tilburg:

'A clean city means a livable city’. That’s the sentence you can find a lot in Tilburg near litterbins and garbage depots. The city of Tilburg has started a campaign against pollution. People are being warned a lot about the 70 euro fine we’ve mentioned before and there are a lot of litterbins being placed, especially in high polluted areas.

We asked a municipal counselor about what else Tilburg is doing for the environment. He said: ‘We have set up a bunch of restricted areas were particular lorries may not drive. This is something we have done to favor a better quality of air. Every household has two green containers for litter: a small one for wastepaper and a large one which is split in one ‘green garbage’ section and one for other garbage. The large one is to be emptied every week, the paper once a month. Also a good point of the city, and of our country off course: wherever you want to travel, you will be encouraged to go by bike. We have excellent facilities for cycling. And therefore, everyone does it. Cycle on!

Summary Theme 4: Family Roles

Past.

In the past it was the father who used to work. There were a lot of children in each household.

Most of the time more than 6. The mother used to take care of them and take care of the household. So she hardly ever worked. Children were often told to help in the household, or maybe even take care of their little brothers and sisters. And we children had a job, they had to give a certain amount of money to their parents and could only can a part of it themselves.

Kids we’re very polite back then or at least they were told to be. They had to do exactly as their parents told them or they would be punished in some way. Stay in their rooms, go to bed without having eaten anything, or sometimes even being hit.

Nowadays.

The traditional family has 1 or 2 children, preferably at least one boy and one girl.

The mother does not only take care of the children but has a part-time job as well.

So most mothers and fathers work. One girl is raised by her grandmother and there’s no difference with a normal childhood. In other families the mother is the one who earns the money and the father takes care of the household. The children help very little, sometimes they set the table. But when it comes down to cleaning some of them even get a little money.

In other cases there is a cleaning lady to help when for example both parents work.

Kids these days are not all as polite as in the past; the know what they want and how they feel about certain topics. So they will let you know. They are not being punished really anymore. Maybe they have to stay indoors, or something, but that’s it.

Future.

In the future (the ones that are now) kids just want a ‘normal family’, with 1 or 2 children. But certainly not a family in which the dad earns the money and the mom stays at home. So both parents will work and raise their children. The household will do itself because of all the equipment there will be that’s so modern you hardly have to do anything yourself. Children will not have to do a lot, but only be occupied with school, friends, social media and hobbies. 

Summary Theme 3:  Our Media

Our students:

First of all we use Facebook. We all have a Vagab-account, for our project- communication, but we also have a personal account for common use.  Facebook is an international site, so you can communicate with people all over the world. So you can with Twitter, a site where you can post short (max. 140 characters) messages to your followers.  And you can follow the messages of others.

We also have Hyves. Hyves is some sort of Facebook, but only for Dutch people. On Hyves you can ‘krabbel ‘ (Dutch for ‘scribble’) each other.  Which means you can send (short) messages to the profiles of the people you are friends with. Also you can chat with each other, watch photos and  videos and decorate your profile in your own personal way.

For longer, and in many cases more serious communication we use e-mail. Hotmail is a very common e-mail programme, as well as G-mail (we actually use G-mail for the VAGAB-project). The communication for school related things runs via the special Odulphus email account that every student and teacher has.

Our mobile phone is becoming more and more important. When you have internet on your mobile (and most us students have) you can use Pinkchat and Whatsapp. It’s chatting and texting for free. A lot of us have a laptop, a mobile computer you can bring to school or anywhere you like, so you can use it at every time of the day.

We listen to the radio sometimes, mostly by internet. But not for hearing the news, but for listening to music. But most of the time we listen to music that we put on our mp3-player. We watch the news on TV (but not that often), or we read the news on special news sites on the internet like for instance nu.nl (now.nl).  Some of us read the newspaper every morning.

We watch a lot of TV. Up to three or four hours a day.  Programmes we like are C.S.I., Desperate Housewifes, My Super Sweet Sixteen and Family Guy (international TV-programmes)and De Wereld Draait Door (famous Dutch television show).
We use the computer for about 2 hours a day.

Our parents:

Our parents did not have any of the High Tech communication stuff we use a lot nowadays. No computers, no mobile phones and no mp3-players. How on earth could they survive???

Well, they say they read books, they read the paper and some of them had a TV. They listened to the radio a lot. It was an important source for information. Just like books. When you wanted to know something, you read a book.
They communicated by phone, not mobile phones, but by old fashioned private lines.  It wasn’t very easy to make an appointment with a friend. It was quite common to just  go to a friend's place to see if he/she was home. Nowadays, such has become quite unthinkable.

Nowadays, a lot of fathers still stick to the 8 o’ clock news on TV. But our parents also use mobile phones and all the other modern ways of communication. For our grandparents that’s mostly a little different. They are often too old (so they say) to keep up with the technical developments.

Summary Theme 2: Leisure.

Nowadays.

These day’s there are lots of opportunity’s for kids to enjoy themselves in their free time. Not only because there are more clubs and activities they can join, but also because there probably  is more money to spent it on. It seems kids these days have lots of hobby’s sometimes three or more, which all take up much time. Some of the students are pretty serious about their hobby’s and study quiet a lot of hours  for example on the piano.

They play sports such as hockey, volleyball, horse riding, sailing, fencing  and dancing. They have musical hobbies like playing an instrument, for example the piano, guitar, the saxophone. And also they like being creative: singing, reading, drawing, acting, ballet and going to the theatre are popular.

And of course there are activities such as shopping, going to the cinema, meeting friends, watching TV, and using the computer for games, or being on internet. These days kids are going out in the weekends. At the age of 15/16 most of them are aloud to do so.

When their parents were young.

Some of them parents had a lot of hobby’s such as playing the cello, reading and drawing.  And feel that not a lot has changed.

On the other hand there was a  mother that spent her free time  working on a farm, playing the piano but also helping her mother. When she was 16 she could go to a disco in a little village nearby. One of the mothers was already very creative as a kid: she spent her time painting, drawing, writing stories. Nowadays she is an artist. She made a living out of her hobby.
Also sports were popular, as football, volleyball. Scouting clubs we’re joined, and singing in clubs.

Grandparents.

There seems to be a big difference between what their grandparents used to do in their free time. When the grandparents were young they used to go ice-skating, and play outdoors with their friends. In these days there wasn’t a lot of money to spent and children had to help their parents  more than they have to these days.

Conclusion.

There are more possibilities these days, almost anything can be done for a hobby. There is more money to be spent and more time is being spent on hobbies. Sports have always been popular and also playing an instrument and drawing/painting. And there is the possibility to make a living out of your hobby when you grow up. Being a professional musician, or sportsman is not out of the question. This was also the case with the parents, but a lot more difficult for the grandparents.

Summary Theme 1 'School'

School: through the eyes of our students:

The St. Odulphuslyceum in Tilburg  has about 1400 students and 150 teachers. Our school (and the building) is quite old, it exists for 113 years in september 2012! Your school career goes from the 1^st grade (you’re about 12 years old when you enter) till the 5^th or 6^th  grade (depends on which route you follow, and you’re about 18 when you graduate).

                                                                The schoolyard

Lessons start at 8.30 a.m. each day, and the last lessons end at 4.50 p.m.  But that doesn’t mean that everybody has lessons  from 8.30 till late in the afternoon  every day. It depends on your schedule and the subjects you have. From the 4th grade on you get to make a selection of subjects which suits you best. For instance: some people are better at subjects like maths and chemistry and some are more language-orientated. Your future career-plans (in case you have those already) are also important for the kind of subjects you choose.

Here’s an example of a timetable of one of our 4th grade students :

A lesson lasts 50 minutes and after the first two lessons in the morning there is a short break of 20 minutes. Then  after two more lessons the 1st, 2nd, and 3d graders have their 30 minutes lunch-break. The older students have their lunch break later, after the 5th lesson. Therefore the school is not too crowded during lunch break. The students involved in the project mostly have a lot of homework, so they say. At least about two hours a day.

Things our students like about our school are: the cosy environment, nice teachers (in general), two gym halls and a gym field outside and also a lot of activities besides school lessons, like the trips abroad in the fourth grade.

Things our students like less about our school are: the timetables and the school building (old, quite beautiful, though too small)

School: through the eyes of our students parents:

The parents think school nowadays is less  about reproducing knowledge and discipline compared to their own schooldays. In some ways that’s a negative thing, in some ways it can also be explained positively (who need to reproduce knowledge when it has become so easy to look things up?). Nowadays there is more interaction and more freedom at school. So students learn how to communicate and to stand up for themselves. Also a big difference between then and now is the computer.  Communication, learning, writing, everything is nowadays connected to the use of computers.