L.F. Groenendijk

Wearing out a pair of fool's shoes: Sexual Advice for Youth in Holland's Golden Age

During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the cities of the Dutch Republic experienced a population explosion. Leiden grew from 26000 inhabitants in 1600 to 60000 in 1647 and Amsterdam swelled from 60000 to 140000 in the same interval. Immigration brought about by the revolt in the southern Netherlands and the Thirty Years’ War in the states of Germany accounts for much of this growth. Although we lack specific data on the ages of these immigrants we can assume that youths comprised the majority for they were best able to pull up roots elsewhere and seek their fortunes in the booming economy of the republic. In speaking of “youths” we follow early modern European usage and refer to males whose ages ranged from the early teens (when they left the parental home to become apprentices or scholars) to the late twenties (when they typically married) and to females from at least twelve to twenty-five. This influx of young people took its toll on the social stability of the Dutch Republic’s cities whose authorities came to believe that large groups of adolescents posed a serious threat to public order. During periods of political upheaval urban youths initiated rioting plundering and stone throwing but their affronts to civic serenity were not limited to those moments. While not at home work or school male youths spent their leisure time gathering in city squares at marketplaces and on street corners. In the evenings servants apprentices students and other young people thronged the many taverns brothels and gaming halls. Especially before the introduction of street lighting (which occurred in Amsterdam in 1669) Dutch cities could be dangerous places at night. (excerpt)

Philippe Ariès’s discovery of childhood after fifty years: the impact of a classic study on educational research

This article looks at the impact of Philippe Ariès’s classic L’Enfant et la vie familiale sous l’ancien regime, published in 1960. His well-known idea of the emergence of ‘Le sentiment de l’enfance’ caused a lively debate among historians and social scientists resulting in fundamental contributions to our knowledge about the early phase of the life cycle and about family life in former times. Moreover, Ariès introduced a new and innovative use of sources and put new topics on the scientific agenda that would dominate the agenda of the history of education and childhood for many years. Ariès’s book perfectly satisfied both the scientific need for historicising the social sciences and the societal need considering the family, childhood, youth, and the relationship between the sexes, as historical instead of structural or even natural phenomena. With conceiving, as Ariès did, the history of the family and of childhood and youth as a story of continuity and change, it became possible to contemplate about making the family more egalitarian, the relationship between children and parents, and between pupils and schoolmasters more communicative, and intersexual relations more based on autonomy. So, Ariès, the ‘anarchist of the right’, became the hero of modernisation.

The art of imitation: Wilhelm Stekel's Lehrjahre.

In the early history of psychoanalysis, the work of Wilhelm Stekel (1868‐1940) was by and large neglected, even though he wrote a considerable number of psychoanalytic studies, some of which should be considered to have had a major influence on Freuds early thought. Freud, in turn, had much greater influence on Stekel than is commonly believed. In this article, the authors aim to uncover some of these mutual influences, in particular in the field of practice, by focusing on the elements of autobiography and self‐analysis. The authors have identified a number of covert autobiographical passages in the work of Stekel, and attempt to link one of these ‘revelations’ to an equally covert response to it by Freud. In the closing section of this article, the authors argue that Stekels attempt to imitate Freuds self‐analysis contributed to the fracture between the two of them.

Moral Panic and Holland’s Libertine Youth of the 1650s and 1660s

During the 1650s and 1660s, the Dutch Republic witnessed a wave of moral panic created by moralists. Every natural disaster, economic setback, and war that the Republic was involved in was considered to be a sign of God’s wrath on Holland’s newly acquired freedom, wealth, and secular society. Much of the finger-pointing was directed toward Holland’s young people, who were accused of being vain, defying the Sabbath, visiting the theater, gambling, drinking, and fornicating. These accusations were, however, misplaced. This article examines the moral crusade of the 1650s and 1660s, and discovers that moralists were more upset that the Dutch Republic became a secular society and did not evolve into a theocratic state or “Dutch Israel,” as they had hoped. Holland’s youth were used as a scapegoat to create moral panic among political leaders, so they would reform Holland’s secular society.

Away with all my pleasant things in the world: model death-bed accounts of two young victims of the plague of 1664 in the Dutch town of Leyden

One of the most successful religious children’s books ever written is James Janeway’s A Token for Children (1671/1672). This book offers 13 examples of “well‐dying” children, including the death‐beds of two Dutch children. Details concerning the background of those children are lacking in the English‐language historiography of children’s literature. Janeway borrowed their stories from a broadsheet, published in English in 1666, describing the “last hours” of Susanna Bickes and her little brother Jacob. They died at the age of 14 and seven, respectively, as victims of the plague that raged in 1664 in the Dutch town of Leyden (Leiden). The account of their pious departures had been published in Holland in 1664 as instructive illustrations (exempla) of the Christian ars moriendi. This paper sheds more light on the historical and biographical backgrounds of the dramatis personae of this little book and on its religious and ecclesiastical context. It then evaluates the pious stories from a pedagogical point of view and finally their international and inter‐confessional reception is traced.

Child rearing and the neuroticization of parenting: the case of the Netherlands

Introduction In 1953 one of the ®rst child psychiatrists to be appointed at a university in The Netherlands, Theo Hart de Ruyter, proclaimed the necessity for all child therapists to have `eaten from the analytic manger’ in order to understand children’s expressions. 1 In retrospect one can say that this was proof of visionary understanding. Throughout the third quarter of the twentieth century psychoanalysis dominated the emerging academic discipline as well as child psychiatric treatment. The same is true, though to a much lesser extent, of child-rearing literature. Unlike in the AngloSaxon world, 2 this one-sided `diet’ for children and their parents has not yet been analysed from a critical perspective. Dutch historiography of psychoanalysis as theory and therapy has only very recently begun to outgrow the hagiographic phase, in which its benevolence was simply taken for granted. 3 The story of the social and cultural drawbacks of the successful movement, as against its widely known and generally appreciated clinical achievements, remains to be told. In this essay we discuss the in uence of dynamic psychology and psychiatry, particularly psychoanalysis and to a lesser extent individual psychology, on childrearing theory and practice in The Netherlands between c. 1925 and the 1970s. That is, from the beginning of a rapidly growing stream of psychoanalyti c publications on children and their problems to what is commonly considered the turning point of the movement’s conquest of the minds of those who treat and work with children professionally: paediatricians, child psychiatrists, child psychologists, and pedagogues. First, the outlines of a broader process of professionalization of child rearing are given. Gradually, children’s mental health became a major concern and medical

On the Use and Abuse of Great Educators: The Case of Comenius in the Low Countries

This article presents an overview of four centuries of Dutch reactions to the seventeenth‐century educationalist and philosopher J. A. Comenius. Threephases in this reception history are proposed: disregard, denouncement and deification. After this summary account, the article goes into more detail with a review of two examples of what may be considered as abuses of Comenius’ ideas. Firstly, it reports on the misinterpretation of Comenius by Dutch Pietist Protestants since the seventeenth century. Secondly, it discusses a very recent example of promoting Comenius as a prophet for postmodern times. In this respect, the article may also be read as a plea for the professional academic study of Comenius, in stead of calling him in for some ideological purpose.

Die reformierte Kirche und die Jugend im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: eine Untersuchung von Predigten und anderer erbaulicher Literatur

During the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch Reformed Church was very much concerned with youth, as appears from sermons and other works of edification and moral guidance. In this paper we present the results of an investigation of the ideas about youth and especially adolescence, recorded in the works of pietistic pedagogues, moderate Calvinists and more enlightened preachers. In this way continuities and changes over time as well as similarities and differences between denominations with regard to their attitude towards youngsters could be determined. All agreed that the educational task of the Church was a supportive and supplementary one: the main responsibility for the well‐being of the young, and thus for the future of Church and society, belonged to the Christian families.

Learning from Seneca: A Stoic perspective on the art of living and education

There is an increasing interest in publications about the sources of meaning in life; books about the art of living are immensely popular. This article discusses whether one of the ancient predecessors of current ‘art of living’ theories, the Stoa and more particularly Seneca, can be of interest to educators today. Senecas explicit writings on education are relatively few, but in his letters to his friend Lucilius we find several ideas as to how educators can assist students to become wise and virtuous adults. The main characteristic of the virtuous sage is his ability to maintain tranquillity of mind. While we disagree with the radicalism of Senecas view on the extirpation of emotions, we have discovered insights that we believe can be a valuable source for educators and students in their reflections on the meaning of education for the business of life.

Gender Education and the Transformation of Calvinism in the Netherlands, 1870-1970

Abstract Examining from a gender perspective religious education within a prominent branch of Dutch Protestantism, this article investigates the interplay between oppressive and emancipating educational forces. The so‐called Neo‐Calvinists‐‐progressively minded, yet orthodox‐‐sought successfully to update traditional Calvinism and keep it abreast with modern developments from circa 1870 onwards, notably by reforming school, family and youth culture. Notwithstanding Calvinism being traditionally sexist biased, the role of women and girls was becoming more important. Firstly, the article sketches both the influence of Calvinism in the history of the Netherlands and Dutch ‘pillarized’ culture and society between 1880 and 1970, Neo‐Calvinism being one of the main ‘pillars’ within this religiously compartmentalized society. Secondly, it focuses on Neo‐Calvinist gender education and its paradoxical effects.