Personal Log: Rob Versteegt

One more week. Then the play I'm performing in will be performed for the first time. The premiere. I"m nervous already. I have played in other plays before, so I do know a bit about pre-performance jitters... but of course that doesn't make it any less jitter-y.

Still, there are quite some things that need to be done, and I'm worried about that. The chairs on which the audience has to sit, still need to be arranged. (I thought we did that already, but apparently not) Also, several fellow actors still have some trouble remembering their lines.

But despite all the set-backs, the worries, the jitters and the nerves, I do think that the play I'm in will be a great one. It's called 'Huisvrouw', which translates into English as 'housewife'. It's about a woman -a housewife- who has decided long ago that in order to be happy in life, she must desire nothing.

The two men in the play -I'm one of them.. duh ) play the alter-egos of the housewife. (The housewife herself is played by six ladies.) We try to convince the housewife to either chose, or follow what she thinks is best.

For those of you who know Dutch, who are interested to come to this play, and who don't mind paying about 6.50 euros, ( ) feel free to go to this site and order some cards already. ;-) And who knows, maybe I'll see you there.

And don't worry, you won't have to bring your own chairs. We'll get enough chairs, even if we have to get a few chairs from our homes...

Today, I finally watched a movie which I wanted to see for a long time: être et avoir. It is a movie, or actually more like a documentary, about a small French school, which only consists of one class, with children from the ages of 4 through 12. The class is being followed through the school year, making you see the developments here. The teacher there has to make sure all the kids are getting all the education they need to get, at their own level that they can understand. Not an easy job...

Since I finished the 'school for teachers', and I've got a diploma saying I'm allowed to teach classes, I looked at this film at a somewhat professional view. What are the cultural differences between the French educational system and the Dutch one, how does the teacher handle problems, etc.

About the differences: The main difference that I saw was that at the beginning of the day, the children came into the class, and walked to their tables... but didn't sit down! Instead, they all waited for the teacher to enter the classroom, and give permission to sit down. In the Netherlands, the teacher is already in the classroom, while when the children come in, they go play for a little while, or they go sit in one big circle.

Another difference that I saw, was that the children were learning how to write, and do math, at a very young age: from 4 or 5 years old, they have to learn letters, numbers, etc. In Holland, the first few years of the primary school (consisting of children of 4 through 6 years old) are dedicated to develop the children's way of expressing themselves. Art, drama, music... there's a lot of that in these classes. In the movie, I only saw these children sing once, and that was only at the end...

What I also saw (and hopefully that's not a difference,) is the fact that the teacher never became angry. Sure, he was agitated sometimes, about a child who didn't want to finish his drawing, but that was it. Always, there was a feeling of warmth and love for these children. Which was possible, since there were only 13 children here.

In the movie, the director also showed the lives of the children out of school. It gave me an interesting glimpse at the situation at home: a family, not that bright it seemed, was helping the child (12 years old) with his homework. When the child made a mistake, the mother slapped him in the face... hard. Now it made sense why that child was afraid of making mistakes at school...

There is so much more to tell about this movie. It was wonderful to see this teacher react to the children's behaviour... and to see the children's reactions to his behaviour. I think the final scene will forever stick with me: the teacher wishing his children a great vacation, knowing that the next schoolyear, he probably won't see some of those children again. This is familiar to me, since in my workplacementships, the children grew on me... saying goodbye is very difficult when you know you probably won't ever see them again.

All in all, I thought this was a great movie. It was certainly a lot of recognition on my part. If you're looking for action-movies, don't watch this one. If you're wondering what the life of a teacher (or schoolchild) is like, you should definitely watch this.