Page 11 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction: once upon a time in the outskirts of Friesland 1
All parents are invited to attend this special gathering. They are parents of the children at a public school and of a confessional school, both situated in a village in the border region of Friesland, a province in the north of the Netherlands. Most of them have shown up. Teachers from both schools are there. The two principals are going to talk about their motivations and ideas. It’s an important moment for the parents and the teachers, all of whom take the children’s upbringing seriously.
It has been two years since the topic was first addressed. A group of parents from the public school expressed their concern about the small number of students that attended their school. They asked the teachers and the principal: Wouldn’t it be better for their children to attend school with more classmates of their own age? It was one the teachers who raised a radical follow-up question: What if we get together with the students of the Christian school? In one new school?
That day, two years before the gathering, the dialogue between both schools started. The Christian school and the public school, two schools in one small village: could they merge to become a new school that could stay open? What topics had to be discussed? What would education look like? What pedagogical approach would do justice to the history of both schools? And what about religious education? Both schools had their own specific identity, their inspiration for educating children, and both had their own practices of religious education. What would be the identity of the new school? Public, Christian, or something in between, something unifying?
The answers to these questions are the main focus of this gathering. Parents and teachers assemble in small groups to discuss the plans that are communicated. These plans are about the identity of the new, merged school, the cooperation school, and about religious education in the new context. The principal of the school describes some background factors and aims of the plans. He ends his speech with a statement: ‘It is not a question of whether the wine will have to be watered down, but whether we make new wine.’
One year later, all the students of the former public school and Christian school visit the new school. Parents, students and teachers are enthusiastic. One of the students has made up a new name for the school: The Bridge. A ceremony is held to open the school in the new building. A cooperation school has been launched.
9