Policy Plan 2024

The focus of Stichting Denkroutes in the coming years

The next two to three years will be needed to gather people around the following projects, initiate them, further develop them together and implement them:

Peace imagined – inspiration, idealism and identity. A social and educational project in which the understanding of the concept of "peace" is deepened. By stripping it of non-binding sweetness, we strive to translate this concept into action - or at least to impress on our target group the relevance of this and offer a handling perspective.

Part of this project is Peace People at Work. Young people are brought into contact with professional peace builders and interview them about their work, how they define peace, how they build it every day, what they see as their range of action and how they came to such a career. These interviews should lead to a large number of inspiring, written and drawn portraits.

A second part of this project is the pursuit of the graphic novel Jazzy and the footsteps of Bertha von Suttner. We take this 19th-century pacifist and feminist as a source of inspiration. In the time and the Europe in which she lived, militarism was rampant. Her thinking is extremely relevant and illuminating for today. Also important in her legacy: her presence at the Hague peace conferences in 1899 and 1907 brought the realization of the Peace Palace closer and she had a major contribution to the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize. She expressed her analyzes and idealism in an accessible manner in the world-famous novel De Wapens Neer! In turn, we depict these ideals and how they can shape our identity today in a graphic novel. This story takes place in today's The Hague.

A third part of the Vrede Verbeeld project is an exchange between secondary schools in The Hague and Germany and Austria: schools named after Bertha von Suttner. Young people and their teachers explore what it means to live in “The City of Peace and Justice” or to be educated at a school that has Bertha von Suttner as patron.

The above project could possibly be expanded to a series of stories with the (provisional) titles Lot and the Footsteps of Mozart (about fast fashion and child labor), Carl and the Footsteps of Anton de Kom (about resistance and its social context) and Orlando and the footsteps of Tjalie Robinson (about assimilation and integration). Another conceivable sequel to the larger Vrede Verbeeld project is the publication of an illustrated atlas about the many travels of Bertha von Suttner.

Other plans and projects in progress:

Hooray, the Wilhelmus sounds!

A multi-perspectival, richly illustrated scrapbook about how the anthem of the Oranje became the anthem of us all.

The Wilhelmus activity book

A three-day project for schools in secondary Dutch education about solidarity - and especially the ability to work on it yourself and inclusively.

Masamuda Mood

A children's novel about the value and meaning of knowledge about archeology and historical ways of life for young people in the 21st century, based on the educational archaeological site in Broekpolder in Vlaardingen.

Dwellers of Dutch Coasts

A growing series of historical portraits of coastal and delta residents who talk about how proximity to water determines their lives.

Who is your heroine?

Developing educational material to implement the celebration of International Women's Day in secondary education.

That's what I'm going to sing:

A toolkit and coaching program for teachers in group 8 in Primary education to use local history and heritage for a final musical written by the students themselves.

These projects have in common that they assume that increasing knowledge and curiosity go hand in hand, but also that that knowledge cannot be unambiguous.

Polyphony gives participants in thinking routes the space to determine their own direction and interpretation. It nourishes teacher. This results in more insight, overview, control, understanding and empathy - not automatically, but when people are well coached by others who are flexible and innovative in mapping out those thinking routes, but at the same time know how to keep a larger goal in mind. Here: a greater appreciation for each other and the free, safe and inclusive society in which we live and the will and freedom to dare to take responsibility and help build society.

An analysis of the environment

In the domains mentioned there are many opportunities for developing refreshing and unifying initiatives, either using more traditional media (where actual and physical meeting is also appropriate), or with digital means and preferably with a combination of the two, so that a broad audience can be reached intensively.

Which developments are relevant to the organization

The substantive renewal of the curriculum in primary and secondary education, the recalibrated Canon of the Netherlands and the need to move along with cultural institutions such as museums offer an abundance of opportunities for the Foundation. In fact, she thinks there is a need to respond to these developments.

Furthermore, she expects to be able to play a positive role in:

Making education more future-proof by responding to 'decompartmentalization' or cross-curricular approaches;

At the same time, not downplaying the differences in professional attitudes, skills, methods, insights and knowledge that are necessary to provide depth to different disciplines - the different perspectives this produces is precisely the added value of inter-, intra-, multi- and meta-disciplinary approaches ;

An increase in international exchanges due to greater demand for integration at European level;

Increased accessibility of archives (for example through digitization);

And the expected demand for retaining the value of 'difficult' knowledge and insight in an environment where the focus will increasingly be on skills in the coming years.

Do these developments pose a threat or an opportunity for the organization?

Naturally, one may wonder what the unique contribution of the Denkroutes Foundation is and will be. There are many providers of educational services. An answer to this is that it is precisely the synthesis of domains and expertise that brings added value.

To build up expertise and keep it up to date, the board members and officials all work in culture and/or education. As is known, these are fields in which asking employees too much is the order of the day. A threat to the effectiveness of this foundation is therefore mainly the lack of time. This also means that setting up well-timed information campaigns and fundraising is a challenge.

The positive side of this coin is that initiatives are developed from the field that better guarantee demand-orientedness and realistic expectations.

Our core values and definitions

Education

Important tasks of education are qualification, socialization and initiation into an adult society. This is done in an authentic and efficient manner by working together in groups of people with similar learning needs.

Education

Education has a slightly different connotation than education. The 'knowing partner' and the person who wants to learn may both already be fully grown, but may not yet be mature in the sense of daring to take responsibility. It can also be understood as learning partial aspects. Education, even more than education, is based on the 'acceleration idea', namely that not everything has to be learned through investigative learning, trial and error, with coaching or Socratic questions, but that questions from the learner should be short and clear. may receive an answer from the educator. This gives the learner the opportunity to acquire knowledge, insights, skills and attitudes more quickly.

Culture

A convergence of values. Expressions of those values are a set of rules and responsibilities that are jointly recognized. Expressions are also about visualizing and making tangible what is considered beautiful and valuable. Expressions also include reflective, critical and practical thinking. This can take the form of traditions, human intervention in nature (cultural landscape) and disciplines such as visual arts, architecture, film, music, theater, dance, literature, photography, etc.

Heritage

Places and objects that are recognized but also discussed as carriers of what unites us. Heritage often also provides a link between us and a past and therefore previous generations. Heritage is preserved and cherished because it is considered of value to future residents and users of those places and objects.

Nature

Nature seems practically absent in the Netherlands and at the same time it is all around us. Landscape, biodiversity, climate, water, air, food and freedom of movement, all determine our culture. The miracle of the human body is also nature (human intervention such as medication or tattoos can then be regarded as culture). The realization that humanity is dependent on nature provides refreshing self-reflection and appreciation of our environment, both leading to a necessary open, inclusive attitude. Recently, research has once again proven that the appreciation of nature is increased by spending time there often.

Teacher

We are not talking about 'a teacher' in the sense of a teacher or lecturer, but as a power that lies within all of us. Call it inventiveness, curiosity, the felt sense and need to learn or thirst for knowledge and insights. A direct extension is the experience of satisfaction and success and the observation that nature, culture, society and ways to develop one's own initiatives, share and find supporters are 'learnable'.

Pedagogical assignment

We argue here, following Gert Biesta, that an important pedagogical task is to initiate newcomers into a mature culture - mature in the sense of taking responsibility, seeing responsibilities, daring to be involved with fellow human beings and society, and taking action. take action and face the consequences of those actions.

Newcomers

Anyone who needs and wants to be introduced into a society in which inclusivity and democratic culture are guiding principles. These are, for example, children, young adults and often also (still) adults and not only immigrants, international students and expats who strive for integration.

Society

In this text society and society are used interchangeably. The term 'citizenship' also needs further elaboration. And because this term is currently a much debated term, we reserve the option to further define this term later.

Organizations we feel connected to or are inspired by:

Euroclio (for an open, international exchange where an apolitical but professional attitude is paramount, the ability to reflect our national preoccupations on other perspectives) Nivoz (for making the pedagogical assignment visible, discussable, researchable and evolveable )IBO (for the full development of educational views into the classroom, including education elaborated down to the finest fibers)Education is done together (for the example of education in citizenship and cross-curricular, inclusive, activating didactics)VGN (for substantive discussions, concern about the direction of history education)Council of Europe (for a broad and more sustainable view of democratic culture)