The demolition of the former school building on the Horizon in Klazienaveen has started. Wim Trouwborst (86) and Fop ten Hoor (85) were at home there for decades, as teachers of the ulo and later the mavo. They took one more look.
With his hands in his pockets, Wim Trouwborst stands on the former schoolyard at the Horizon. There is a large crane with a grab near the classroom where he used to teach. At primary school and later secondary school, he taught mathematics, chemistry and physics, and sometimes also English and history.
“Just a little while and then the whole thing will be finished,” says Fop ten Hoor. He is a former colleague of Trouwborst. Or rather the former neighbour: for years they worked side by side, Trouwborst in one room, Ten Hoor in the room right next to it. Ten Hoor, born and raised in Klazienaveen, taught German and biology there.
The building that recently served as accommodation for De Planet primary school must make way. At the beginning of this school year, De Planet, together with De Spil and De Viersprong, merged into a large, new public primary school for the whole of Klazienaveen. The building on the Horizon is therefore superfluous. The building, anything but a beautiful and striking structure, arose in the early sixties as an ulo. Trouwborst started working there in 1969.
Less brutal
He came from far away, from Rotterdam. “There I lived with my wife and two children in a four-storey three-room flat. I wanted to get out into the province. Living in a new neighborhood.” That became Emmerhout in Emmen. “I haven’t regretted it for a second. We suddenly had a lot more space and the children could play safely in the residential areas. I still live in the same house. I think that says enough.”
In Rotterdam, Trouwborst taught on a Ulo and after moving to Southeast Drenthe, he ended up at the Ulo in Klazienaveen. “That was also a positive transition for me. The children were less cheeky than in Rotterdam and they also wanted to do their best. I had many children of gardeners and farmers in my class. It was the period before the large comprehensive schools. A good time, because it was small-scale. You knew the whole school.”
In Klazienaveen, Trouwborst became one of Fop ten Hoor’s colleagues. He was first a teacher at the primary school on the Derksweg in Klazienaveen and after a few years had made the transition to secondary education. Ten Hoor was a well-known figure in the region. As a football player, he had caused a furore at the semi-pro football club Zwartemeer, who played the home matches in Klazienaveen. On the Horizon he worked a stone’s throw from his wife, who was head of the kindergarten.
A new school building
Both Trouwborst and Ten Hoor continued to work in secondary education in Klazienaveen until the end of their careers. After Trouwborst stopped working, his affinity with the village quickly diminished. “My social life was in Emmen, not in Klazienaveen.”
It was of course different for Ten Hoor, who was born and raised in Klazienaveen. Yet he also has no problem with the fact that the school building where he worked for so long is being demolished. “I enjoyed teaching there, but it is a chapter that I have closed. And it is not a building that should be spared for Klazienaveen because of its special appearance.”
The site will retain an educational destination. There will be a new building in which two primary schools will be accommodated: De Kap (Protestant-Christian) and the Pastor Middelkoop School (Roman Catholic). Due to the merger of the primary schools De Planet, De Spil and De Viersprong, the buildings of De Spil and De Viersprong have also not been used for education since the summer of 2022.
The Viersprong will be flattened in the foreseeable future and that site is in the picture with the municipality for housing. The old building of De Spil is temporarily rented out to a childcare facility. It is expected that this building will fall prey to the wrecking ball in 2024 or 2025.