While the building was originally slated to be demolished, it has now been ten years since Dik Trom’s School was opened in Etersheim. The small museum, consisting of a school classroom and an outbuilding, shows what educational life must have been like around 1900. Today, the tenth anniversary was extensively discussed, including an anniversary book.
The author of the children’s books about Dik Trom was teacher Johan Kieviet. Museum volunteer Eef de Hilster says that the books are actually set in Hoofddorp and that people are sometimes surprised that a museum about the children’s hero has been set up in Etersheim. “Many people don’t have the idea that the story originated here, but Kieviet really wrote his first Dik Trom book here.”
“He also lived here,” adds his wife and fellow volunteer Thea. “I think he was a friendly man. Strict, but not heavy-handed. He let the children read the things he wrote to see how they reacted. And that is how Dik Trom was born.”
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Eef de Hilster still enjoys working as a volunteer. The work is fun, but he is also proud of what you can see here in the small museum. “You can still write on a slate here as it used to be. You don’t find the blackboards from back then anymore. These are all digital things. Many people can’t imagine what it was like back then.”