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* omslag Canon Engels 27-03-2007 11:42 Pagina 1 AK A Key to History Dutch to ey Dutch History report by the committee for the development of the dutch canon Many think they know the legends behind tulipmania A Key to and the legacy of the Dutch East India Company, the cultural canon of the netherlands the cultural but what basic knowledge of Dutch history and culture should be passed on to future generations? A Key to Dutch History and its resulting overview Dutch of historical highlights, assembled by a number of specialists in consultation with the Dutch general public, provides a thought-provoking and timely answer. The democratic process behind the volume is History reminiscent of the way in which the Netherlands has succeeded for centuries at collective craftsmanship, the cultural canon and says as much about the Netherlands as does the outcome of the opinions voiced. of the netherlands 978 90 5356 498 1 Amsterdam University Press www.aup.nl Amsterdam University Press boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 1 A Key to Dutch History boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 2 This iron clock was found on Nova Zembla. On 18 May 1596, two ships left Amsterdam for a reconnoitring expedition in the Arctic. The ship with expedition leader Willem Barentsz and captain Jacob van Heemskerck on board reached the island of Nova Zembla in the northernmost part of Russia and became icebound. The seventeen crew members were forced to spend the winter on the island. They did so in a shelter which they constructed using driftwood, referred to as the Behouden Huys [the Safe House]. It was ten months later before a return trip to civilisation could be undertaken by rowing boat. A lot of the crew’s belongings remained behind on Nova Zembla including cutlery, clothing, weapons, books, tools and this clock. © rijksmuseum, amsterdam boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 3 A key to Dutch History report by the committee for the development of the dutch canon Amsterdam University Press boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 4 cc c CANON VAN Nederland Publication of the Committee for the Development of the Dutch Canon www.entoen.nu © 2007 Frits van Oostrom, the Netherlands isbn 978-90-5356-498-1 nur 688/840 Published by Amsterdam University Press, the Netherlands www.aup.nl Design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Printing: Drukkerij Romer, Schiedam, the Netherlands All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 5 Contents 11 Foreword to the English version 13 Foreword 15 Section A 16 Summary CHAPTER 1 18 Canon – the pros and cons Grounds, assignment, analysis, points of departure 18 1.1 Administrative grounds 19 1.2 The desire for a canon 23 1.3 The canon under fire 25 Intermezzo: Canons in Denmark 27 1.4 The power of the canon CHAPTER 2 32 The canon outlined Basis, content and form 32 2.1 Basis 34 Primary education sector 35 Aside on the local canon 36 Secondary education sector 37 2.2 Content boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 6 39 2.3 Form 39 Wall chart 40 (Virtual) treasure chest (for the time being) 41 Website 44 The canon as a “wiki” CHAPTER 3 46 The canon in practice Implementation in schools and society 46 3.1 The canon in the classroom 49 3.1.1 Primary education sector 49 History 50 Geography 51 Dutch language 53 The arts 53 Man and society 54 The local canon in primary schools 54 3.1.2 Secondary education sector 56 lower forms 56 History 57 Geography 57 Dutch language 59 Art & culture 59 upper forms and second stage 60 Dutch language 62 Culture and the arts (CKV) 62 Social studies 63 3.1.3 Higher education 64 3.2 Teachers and their “baggage” 67 Refresher courses 68 3.3 Cultural institutions 68 Collaboration with schools 71 Cultural institutions and the canon boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 7 75 3.4 Market and society 75 Market 76 Society 77 3.5 Willem van Oranje Fund CHAPTER 4 79 The canon in revision Periodical maintenance of the canon 79 4.1 The ever-changing canon 82 4.2 Concrete procedures CHAPTER 5 84 The canon in position Recommendations and desiderata (including: at what price the canon?) 86 Recommendations 86 With regard to the report 86 With regard to the design 86 The education sector 87 Provinces and municipalities 87 Cultural institutions 88 Market and society 88 With regard to the process 89 Closing remarks 91 Literature boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 8 APPENDICE 1 98 Letter of instruction APPENDICE 2 104 Composition of committee and description of working methods APPENDICE 3 107 Discussion partners and experts 110 Abbreviations 113 Section B 114 Introduction 116 The canon of the Netherlands 218 Main lines of the canon 225 Acknowledgements boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 9 When we, as individuals, pick and mix cultural elements for ourselves, we do not do so indiscriminately, but according to our natures. Societies, too, must retain the ability to discriminate, to reject as well as to accept, to value some things above others, and to insist on the acceptance of those values by all their members. [...] If we are to build a plural society on the foundation of what unites us, we must face up to what divides. But the questions of core freedoms and primary loyalties can’t be ducked. No society, no 9 matter how tolerant, can expect to thrive if its citizens don’t prize what their citizenship means – if, when asked what they stand for as Frenchmen, as Indians, as Britons, they cannot give clear replies. salman rushdie1 Some etymologists speculate that the word ‘canon’ (as in ‘canonical’) is related to the Arabic word qanum, or law in the bind- ing, legalistic sense of the word. But that is only one rather restric- tive meaning. The other is a musical one, canon as a contrapuntal form employing numerous voices in usually strict imitation of each other, a form, in other words, expressing motion, playfulness, dis- covery, and, in the rhetorical sense, invention. Viewed this way, the canonical humanities, far from being a rigid tablet of fixed rules and monuments bullying us from the past [...] will always remain open to changing combinations of sense and signification. edward said2 1 Rushdie 2005. 2 Said 2004, p. 25. boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 10 boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 11 Foreword to the English version What basic knowledge of Dutch history and culture should we pass on to future generations of Dutch citizens? This was the difficult question facing us when the Minister of Education, Culture and Science asked us to design 11 the canon of the Netherlands in mid-2005. This is the result: a report in two sections. In section A, we explain the reasons and principles behind our design. Section B is the canon itself, in fifty windows. A wall chart and the www.entoen.nu website form part of our design. In many ways, it has become a truly Dutch book. Mainly because it is about the Netherlands and is focused on the Netherlands – on the Dutch education system, and on mainly Dutch books and websites. However, on closer examination you can see a third dimension: it has become a true Dutch canon because it was created in a typically Dutch way. It was not decreed by a central authority or a single lofty institution. Neither was it created by a majority vote in a referendum. This canon was created by bringing together a number of specialists and allowing them to consult with one another and with a choice selection of interested individuals and stakeholders for a year. A website with a discussion forum allowed every Dutch citizen the opportunity to voice his or her opinion. The process brings to mind the way in which the Netherlands for centuries has succeeded in keeping its polders dry: collective craftsmanship. The way in which this canon was created, therefore, could easily say as much about the Netherlands as do the fifty windows themselves. 6 January 2007 On behalf of the committee, Frits van Oostrom, Chair boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 12 boek Canon A ENG V3 23-03-2007 13:47 Pagina 13 Foreword Where there is no vision, the people perish. proverbs 29:18 13 This is the report by the Committee for the Development of the Dutch Canon, which, as commissioned by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, worked from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2006 on (recommendations for) the historical and cultural canon of the Netherlands. In that year, there was a huge amount of interest in the committee’s work. Evidently, a lot of people are keen to have a say in how the Netherlands deals with its culture and history. We explicitly wish to emphasise this very satisfying fact, now that this report is being published, partly because we sometimes had the impression that the process we had engaged had become associated all too frequently with complaints.