It has been for years The Golden Egg by Tim Krabbé the most read book in the student reading list. Also The attack in The preserved house are examples of classic Dutch novels that are often singled out.
According to BookTokker Noah de Campos Neto, reading lists with such books are outdated. The books are not about life today and according to him, this has a demotivating effect. “Teachers need to let go of old ideas and be open to change.”
Hoe komt een leeslijst tot stand?
- Op de meeste scholen stellen havo en vwo scholieren zelf een lijst samen van boeken die ze lezen voor hun eindexamen.
- Voorwaarde is dat de boeken door een Nederlandse of Vlaamse auteur zijn geschreven en binnen het genre ‘literatuur’ vallen. De docent Nederlands bepaalt of een boek mag of niet.
- De richtlijn is acht boeken op het havo en twaalf op het vwo. Voor het vmbo is er geen richtlijn.
The reading list doesn’t exist at all
Jeroen Dera, assistant professor of Dutch literature, doesn’t fully understand the turmoil surrounding the reading list. “In the vast majority of schools, there is no required reading list, and final exam students can compile their own list. The books chosen often have to meet certain criteria, but the students have enormous freedom”. According to him, students largely keep the top 20 on their own.
He understands that young people are always looking for the same books. “Research shows that students have a hard time choosing a book. Most of them end up with the classics, because they don’t know what else to choose. In addition, they have to rely on the media library’s range of books, which is often out of date.”
Dera analyzed the reading lists of 1616 HAVO and VWO students at 46 different schools. It contained 1642 different books. “They are very many. So that nothing is allowed is really nonsense. You see some titles come back quite often.
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Mandatory reading time
BookTokker Noah commends his former Dutch teacher who let him read newer books for his final exam. According to Dera, many teachers are open to this and only a few stick to the old jobs.
Babette Mulders, a Dutch teacher at Etty Hillesum Lyceum in Deventer, first lets her students choose a book for themselves. Anything goes, even a translated book. “Then I try to send them to Dutch Literature and they find that there’s actually something they like.”
According to her, many students entering high school have not read for a long time. “You can do them then The dark room of Damocles them to read, but what’s the point if they face it without understanding anything? To stimulate the students, they read a certain number of books (partly) together during the lessons.
University professor Dera would like schools to go much further. “The responsibility schools place on students is too great, they need more structure.” He argues that pupils not only read Dutch during lessons, but that schools introduce more compulsory reading hours.
Young adult leeslijsttips van docent Babette Mulders
- Match, Buddy Tegenbosch
- Zonder titel, Erna Sassen
- Dagen van de bluegrassliefde, Edward van de Vendel
It stands to reason that the books are in Dutch
Many books reviewed on BookTok don’t meet the reading list criteria, for example because they’re in English or a translation. Dera calls it more than logical: “Read English books for the English subject, for Dutch read Dutch literature.”
Young people like to read about characters they recognize themselves in, says the Neerlandicus. And currently, reading lists consist largely of works by white male writers. “It takes a long time to initiate such a change. There are alternative and special LGBTQ+ lists. It is up to the teachers to draw attention to them”.
Let’s go back to the question of which is more important: the pleasure of reading or what you read? According to Dera, you can answer this question in two ways. Underline the difference between reading in your free time and reading in school. “It has a completely different function: at home you read for pleasure, at school you should learn something from it. Critically look at a text, learn to approach literature. Isn’t that crazy?”
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