Too many stimuli, a short fuse or difficulty making contact. Tim*, Greetje* and Jesse* could not attend a regular or special school and ended up on the couch at home. There was no suitable education available for them. At the Krakenburg care farm in Nuenen, they try to get these dropouts back into school or society with special lessons.
No rows of tables and chairs and no digital blackboard on the wall. The day starts together at a table in the kitchen of the care farm. There are eight students on this Wednesday morning. “What makes you happy today?” asks teacher Rob van Os.
The children can choose what they feel good about that day. Today’s program: baking apple pie, feeding the animals, gardening or ‘normal lessons’. Everything with the aim of letting the children develop themselves in a playful way.
“I have been suspended twice.”
Half of the children opt for lessons. “It’s school,” says 9-year-old Jesse firmly. “That just has to happen.” Jesse takes out a drawer with workbooks and a pencil case and starts practicing the letter g.
Jesse is excited about a new school that has been found for him. He gets along particularly well with Master Freek. “Then I feel very calm,” says Jesse. Master Freek turns out to be the school dog. The ideal cuddle buddy for Jesse, who ensures that his days pass peacefully and calmly.
“It was not possible to make contact with other children.”
The cows, donkeys, horses, chickens and pigs, one of which is called Sparerib, are always ready for the children. When Jesse gets angry, he goes to cuddle with the cat in the shed. Jesse gets angry regularly. That led to major problems at school. “I have been suspended twice,” says Jesse. “I got angry very quickly and was very busy in class.” Jesse had a difficult time at home because his parents separated.
Some children, like Jesse, can become very angry at school, while other children withdraw. For example, 19-year-old Tim had problems making contact at school. He has been coming to Krakenburg for five years. He was also homeschooled. “It was not possible to make contact with other children,” he says. “We just had different interests.”
“You can talk about being different here.”
18-year-old Greetje also had problems. Whenever she had to do something new, she became very scared. “I was no longer in school. I just stopped even though I had to. I was very demotivated and also found school very boring.” Tim now runs the farm’s newsletter and is able to interview everyone. Greetje works on a livestock farm where she ensures that the milking robot continues to work.
Tim and Greetje are flourishing on the farm, they think. “Here the children are more like me,” says Greetje. “You can talk about being different here.” These conversations go deeper than at a regular school. Children talk about how to make friends or what to do when you fall in love.” These are also things to learn,” says teacher Rob. “I see less attention for this in regular education.”
* Tim, Greetje and Jesse are not the real names. Their names have been changed for privacy reasons. The real names are known to the editors.