At the gymnasium through your football buddy's aunt. Accessibility of classical education in the Netherlands

Abstract

How accessible is the field of Latin and ancient Ancient Greek languages in the Dutch education system? In recent years this discussion has resurfaced in the light of societal developments which focus on equality of opportunities.1 Moreover, our field faces the challenge to explain in both international and national discussions what makes its study so relevant in the current times, both in secondary and tertiary education.2 This article provides a short overview of the current situation of Latin and ancient Ancient Greek education within the Dutch secondary education system before looking in more detail at its impact on Dutch students. It ends with directions for improving the accessibility of the field of Classics education. In order to illustrate the functioning and consequences of the current situation, in June 2021 a large-scale survey among 1,700 Dutch students of the gymnasium (secondary education with Latin and ancient Greek) provides us with interesting experiences, biases and thoughts about the accessibility of classical education. If we believe that knowledge of the ancient languages and literatures is a valuable resource for the younger generations of our modern society and in addition we see that our field, as any field, would profit from a more diverse group of researchers and teachers, the direction for future improvements is clear; but concrete steps in that direction should be taken at various levels. With this article, I hope to contribute to such improvements to the educational system and contemporaneously to our field.

Keywords

• gymnasium
• Classics education
• inequality
• Dutch school system