Teaching in the Netherlands vs. teaching in Thailand.

In July 2013 I quit my job to travel, it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

I was a primary teacher in the Netherlands. I was teaching 9/10 year old students, I had my own very cute and cozy apartment in the vibrant city Rotterdam. I had a full-time job, a cat, a car… In my weekends I was hanging out with my friends, having fun, I was dating, I was working out and feeling healthy. I had everything a girl wants at 23. I finished my degree in Education and was very lucky to find a full time teaching job in Rotterdam. Even though, I realized this life was not what I expected and wanted it to be.

I was very excited to start my first “real” job as a teacher in my beautiful, modern and multicultural city, Rotterdam. The school was going through a lot of changes when I started working there because it got a score of “very low” based on the test - scores of the students. It was a time of hard work and many meetings. I had some experience teaching during my studies. But this was my first time working a “9 to 5 job” as they call it...

I woke up at 6.30 in the morning to be at work at 7.30 to prepare my lessons and get ready for the day. The students will come in at 8.30 and then you teach whatever is on the schedule for that day. Math, English, Geography, History, Dutch language, Arts.. The students have lunch at 12. In that time I quickly ate my sandwich, drank my coffee and finish a part of my never-ending to do list. My “break” was never longer than 20 min. The students come back at 1 o’clock. Then you teach again till 3.30. After 3.30 it’s time to mark, grade, make individual plans, make group plans, write reports, fill in scores, meetings etc. Most of the time I didn’t even find time to actually plan my lessons for the next day, so I had to be at school early to quickly read through what I’m supposed to teach that day. I never left work with the feeling that I had finished everything that I had to do for the day, there was ALWAYS something else that needed to be done. Often I’d left work at 5 or 5.30 with books and/or tests to mark at home. The part I enjoy most; being creative and making my lessons fun for the students, I didn’t find time to do this. I thought this is something I just need to get used to, it will all get easier after some time.

Rules, rules and more rules

Education is very organized in the Netherlands. There are certain rules we need to follow as teachers. We can’t teach classical, we have to teach in different level groups. These groups are based on their scores in the so-called “CITO” test. This is a national test that grades all students on their knowledge in each subject. Based on those scores we teach the students giving divided attention to “their needs.” It sounds great, but this way of teaching requires a lot of preparation and in the end, it’s based on scores. It doesn’t measure creativity, social interaction, critical thinking, leadership, flexibility, motivation, curiosity, humor, will-power, discipline, empathy and so much more qualities that are definitely something to focus on when we are educating the new generation to real life! It only measures their basic knowledge about these subjects. There is no room for learning about yourself, what compliments you, what makes you happy as an individual.

In the Netherlands we are trying so hard, too hard, we are forgetting the purpose of teaching. I can speak from my own experience that I was focused on “getting it all done on time” instead of really getting to know my students and enjoying all their unique characters. I need to learn about my students to know how to teach them. I didn’t realize until later that I couldn’t, purely because I was too stressed. I was working till late every day and even in the weekends. I was not enjoying my work anymore. In the Netherlands we love to complain. As a teacher it’s hard to get the respect you deserve from parents and/or students. Basically, you are working your ass off and no one will notice or say a thing. When you make a mistake, like we do as human-beings, you bet you’ll hear it! My sleeping patterns were becoming abnormal. It got to the point that I could only sleep 3 hours a night. Not being able to fall asleep, and waking up hours before my alarm clock, thinking about what I still had to do and what a bad day it was at work. I felt that I was failing; I felt that I had made the wrong decision to become a teacher.

When nothing goes right… go left.

So that was me, just graduated, started an incredibly challenging job at a very challenging school, just trying to get it all done and barely sleeping at night. I was so stressed, I started to get a rash on my arms, legs and even in my face and around my eyes. It was a lack of sleep and a lack of happiness getting to me. My body was saying: “no more”. With some thick make up around my eyes, hiding the red rash on my face, I just kept on going.

One day, just after the bell rang, three parents came into my classroom pointing their finger at me, with my students there, saying how their child failed the test and it was my fault. I never felt this disrespected and under-appreciated in my life. I totally broke. I couldn’t do it anymore.

I stayed at home for a week, did a lot of yoga and meditation. I took my well deserved rest and decided that I was not going to continue like this. All through this my co-workers and the school have been very helpful,they never doubted me as a teacher. I'm thankful for that.

I was happy that I had saved some money over the last 6 months of working, purely because I was too tired to go out and spend it. I had enough to travel for at least 4 months. I told the school I was going to leave. It felt so good. I needed time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

I hope it was a good read for you!

In my next blog I will write about my experiences teaching in Thailand.