Kees Boeke

Cornelis Boeke (September 25, 1884, Alkmaar - July 3, 1966, Abcoude) was a Dutch educator and pacifist.

Boeke tried to renovate education by letting children in on decisions concerning school. He let decisions be made unanimously. He called this process sociocracy. He designated school as a workshop, teachers as employees and pupils as workers. The goal of this form of education was to teach children a sense of democracy. It was also based on Quaker ideas. He founded one such school in 1926 in Bilthoven, which he led until 1954. The later Dutch queen Beatrix enjoyed an early education at this school.

Kees Boeke grew up in a Mennonite family in Alkmaar. He studied at the Delft University of Technology. As a student he spent a year in England where he met the Quakers. He became a Quaker and attended Woodbrooke, the Quaker college near Birmingham. There he was inspired by Bournville, the garden town which the Cadburys, owner of the chocolate factory, had built for their workers. He married Beatrice (Betty) Cadbury. The couple went to Syria in 1912 as Quaker missionaries. In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, they returned to England. They became active in peace work, the Fellowship of Reconciliation having come into being through Henry Hodgkin. In 1915 Kees traveled to Berlin where he met Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze, with whom Hodgkin had been working at the outbreak of war. Kees began to speak publicly in England: "The Germans are our brothers; God did not create man that he might kill; the war will find its quickest end when all soldiers lay down their weapons." He was expelled from England and returned to Holland. His family followed; there they lived in Bilthoven, near Utrecht. Their home became soon a pacifist center.

After the war, Boeke built a larger conference center which he called "Brotherhood House." The first international peace conference took place there October, 4-11, 1919. Henry Hodgkins, Friedrich Siegmund Schultze, Leon Revoyne, Mathilde Wrede, Leonard Ragaz, Pierre Ceresole were present. Kees Boeke and Pierre Ceresole became the secretaries of this movement, which called itself a “Christian International”. Together with Helene Stöcker, Friedrich August Wolf (?) and Wilfred Wellock they founded the Service Civil International.

Kees and Betty Boeke considered capitalism to be the root of war. As Betty was a Cadbury, she received large shares. She transferred this money to various charitable organizations such as the Quaker-Help Organization in Russia in 1920. Later they gave the shares to the workers in the Cadbury factory. For a while the Boekes refused to use money; they wouldn't pay postage, tolls, or taxes. They were imprisoned several times, and one of their seven children was born in prison. On one occasion the Dutch tax authorities auctioned of his estate to collect taxes, and the then Queen, Wilhelmina, bought his favorite violin out of the auction with her own money, and gave it back to him on the spot. Kees supported his family by working in Utrecht in a building association which he had founded; he did not work as an architect (which was his training), but as a simple worker. In the late 1920s Kees Boeke withdrew more and more from the international peace movements. He now believed he could build a better society through educating children, and he started a school, called “De werkplaats” (the working place). His school, which used Maria Montessori's methods, became famous; even the Dutch queen sent her daughters there. The school was hugely influential for its creative way of making the students co-responsible for their own curriculum with the teachers, and many students who failed in regular schools, blossomed at "De werkplaats." One could say that Boeke's notion of sociocracy was in effect a secular implementation of the Quaker ideals, applied to education, in such a way that children were treated as adults, and were on a first name basis with their teachers. The roster of highly creative and successful people from this school is highly impressive.

He died in 1966, surrounded by his family. He had written a large book on education. One of his last works was "Cosmic View" (New York 1957).

The system of sociocracy lives on through today and was expanded upon in the work of a well-known student of the school, Dr. Gerard Endenburg, who in the 60's and 70's developed a governance and decision-making methodology by the same name while directing the Endenburg Electrotechniek company.

Boeke's "Cosmic View" was cited as an early example of a view of the world, from a galactic to a microscopic view, that was mentioned as an inspiration by its creator Will Wright, for a video game, Spore, issued in 2008. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/14/games Cosmic view, inspiration for a video game.] The Guardian, September 14, 2008]

External links

*nl icon [http://www.wpkeesboeke.nl Official Website of the Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap]
*nl icon [http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/b/10729116full.php Archief Kees Boeke]
* [http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/cosmicview/ online copy of the book "Cosmic View"]

Reference