By Eric Wamanji
Namid’s scintilating little eyes are glued on me expecting an answer. The three-year-old wants to know my name, what I’m doing in her school, and if I have a daughter like her. Her inquisitive eyes stick on me as the teacher translate from English to Dutch and vice versa.
So, since when did children gathered the nerve to engage adults, and strangers at that? I wonder.
Interestingly, for a passive eye, there is nothing unusual about Partou Kindergarten in the outcasts of Amsterdam, where Namid is left as her mother goes to work.
I’m here for an assignment, mandatory in a journalism course I’m taking at the Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC)
Expectedly, giggly and jumpy children welcomes you with coos, smiles and stares. Dolls, toys and rollers are scattered on the surface and the walls are adorned by crooked though flowery sketches, including a few flags from different nationalities– just a kids world.
This scene transports me back in time when I was a little ‘brat.’ But then we didn’t have all the luxury of a childcare centres or dolls. We fashioned our play-things from clay, waste paper, rusty wires or old tins. Similarly, in my time, children were to be seen not to be heard.
Yet, on this chilly Thursday mid-morning, Namid interrogates me with confidence. Frank, 4, engages his teacher in a small argument about who among the three should play with the toy.
This is interesting.
This reminds me a brief discussion I had with Leonteen Peeters, a communications expert at the Benard van Leer Foundation. Holland, she hypothesized, chose to wean her children in the ideals of openness and critical thinking. This was ostensibly to avert a repeat of a World War II catastrophe where many Dutch joined the Nazis because they “blindly obeyed authority.”
Apparently, there is more to chatter and play at Partou. Children are educated into the societal values and moral system that informs democratic practices.
Thus, children learn to speak up their mind, to respect each other, to be peaceful and fair. Also instilled on them is tolerance and a sense of responsibility – elements that define the democaratic enterprise. Most of this is done sublimely, through the daily interactions in play or in class room exercise. I see some of these attributes manifested in little Namid.
Mrs. Irma Snip, is the boss here. She says the centre emphasises on speech development. Speech is critical for self expression, she says thoughtfully in broken English after ushering us to her office.
The motherly boss is of the persuasion that there is a correlation between civic consciousness and a child’s upbringing. She explains that in her school, they listen to children needs and feelings. This attention cultivates confidence which is crucial for a child’s growth. Once the children learn from adults, they are allowed room to develop their cognitive and critical thinking prowess.
There is a sense of mutual respect as Namid and other children interact. Amid the cacophony of chirp and clutter, these children are in fact learning the democratic ropes knot by knot… this is how should have been raised, a thought curtly crosses mind as I walk out of Partou.