‘I still don’t feel at home here,’ says Milio van de Kamp (31) in an office at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). “In conversations with colleagues, I notice that they sometimes use terms I don’t know, or that they talk about books or programs that I can’t relate to.” In the beginning, he tried to bridge that gap. “Now I think: this is just not who I am. I talk with a flat Amsterdam accent, I don’t have such an extensive vocabulary, but I can also take advantage of it. Because it means that I can explain things more easily and that my background gives me insights that others do not have.”
Van de Kamp – track pants, sporty T-shirt – is an assistant professor of sociology at the UvA. Last year he was named teacher of the year at the faculty. He founded ‘Baanbrekers’, a program for students who are the first in their family to follow academic education. At the beginning of June, Van de Kamp received a teaching grant of 50,000 euros to expand his program to other universities in the country. All this while he has come a long way, as he describes in his recently published book Maybe you should aim a little lower.
Children from lower classes speak a different ‘language’ than those who go to university, for example
Van de Kamp grew up in poverty in an underprivileged neighborhood in Amsterdam-West, plagued by squatters, addicts and drug dealers. At home, dinner was prepared on a camping gas stove and electricity was ‘borrowed’ from the upstairs neighbors via an extension cord through the window. One power strip for the whole family. There was no money for carpet either, so in the morning he walked over the icy concrete to the bathroom. “If you have to wash yourself every morning at the tap with cold water,” writes Van de Kamp, “you start the day angry and defeated.”
Despite serious heart problems, the UWV did not want to reject his mother. So she worked behind the bar six days a week late into the night. Father was involved in crime, beat his wife and humiliated Van de Kamp and his younger brother. Violence was the order of the day, both physical and psychological. In the attic he found a baseball bat with teeth marks in it. He regularly had to comfort his mother, who had been beaten to blood.
There was also violence in the streets. Four acquaintances of his were murdered: two of his friends, two of his father. He also often felt unsafe and inferior at school. His teacher, Mrs. Pinas, asked one day if the children wanted to make a plan for the future. Young Milio wanted to become a psychologist, mainly because of the status of the profession and the good salary. He had already figured out the shortest route to university: first vmbo-k, from mbo-3 to 4, then get a propaedeutic certificate at the university of applied sciences and then on to university. When Mrs. Pinas heard it, she was silent for a moment. “Perhaps,” she said, “you should aim a little lower.”
Inequality of opportunity is often buried under a blanket of good intentions
“When I started the book, I immediately knew that this should be the title,” says Van de Kamp. He realizes that Mrs. Pinas meant well. But that is also the problem, he says: “Inequality of opportunity is often buried under a blanket of good intentions.”
It is important to “always have high expectations of all children,” he says. “That is what we have to work with, because what we are doing now is to divide education into winners and losers. And then we blame the children if they don’t make it, while the role of education remains underexposed. I may have managed to go to university, but many people around me did not, even though they were at least as smart.”
In the book you use the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. What Do You Mean By That?
“Symbolic violence is a form of oppression. According to Bourdieu, the dominant group in a society, in this case the ruling middle class and elite who maintain the education system, impose certain implicit norms on people from the submissive group. For example, having a computer and your own room, a stable home situation. If you do not comply with this, it is supposedly your own fault.”
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You also talk about cultural capital in your book. Why is that so important?
“It has everything to do with inequality of opportunity, because children from the lower social class often lack cultural capital. For example, they don’t go to museums with their parents and don’t speak the same ‘language’ as people who go to university. Personally, I prefer to say that I have a different cultural capital, no more or less. Because I can tell a whole story about the history of all kinds of hip-hop tracks, but that is just not valued at the same level as when you know Chopin’s entire oeuvre.”
What would you change first in education?
“Children from the lower social class systematically receive lower advice. The same applies to children with a migration background. Despite having the same IQ or Cito scores. This is mainly due to the prejudices of the teachers. That’s the crux of the problem for me. This already starts with teacher training. That is why we must ensure that teachers become aware of their own biases.
“We need to shake up education. No more selecting so early, no final test in group 8, but much later.”
You end your book with “Class never lets you go… Class is who you are.” Why is class such an important concept?
“The public debate should be about class again. We have come to see the Netherlands as a country of equality and we really believe in that. But with that you make an entire group invisible.”
You make a clear distinction between the lower social class and the working class. What is the difference?
“People from the working class are often not well off, but can generally live well. They have a job and they often live in a stable environment. People from the lower social class do not have that. These people are looked down upon. The Participation Act is an example of this.
“Incidentally, a lot of poverty policy is aimed at incidental poverty, for example when people lose their jobs. The policy is far too little focused on structural poverty, poverty that has sometimes persisted for generations. Like with my parents.”
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Are you still in contact with your parents today?
“Hardly with my father, the contact has always been difficult. But I still see my mother.”
Are your parents still together?
“Yes, to this day.” Van de Kamp swallows. “I think they don’t really know what to do without each other.”
And the violence, will it continue?
“I honestly don’t know. I think it has decreased. Or… I hope so anyway.”
Have they read your book?
“My father doesn’t want to read it, but my mother does. She found it difficult at first, but I explained to her why it’s important and she understands that. Especially since there are now many positive reactions. She is very proud of me.”
Maybe you should aim a little lower, Milio van de Kamp. Publisher: Atlas Contact 216 pages, € 20,-