Kurano Bigiman (37) grew up in a family without a newspaper subscription. His father worked for the facilities department of an insurance company. “And my mother on Leidseplein, in Amsterdam. At the Burger King.”
From work, his father would sometimes bring a newspaper a few days old, usually one Telegraph or General newspaper. Pre-internet it was not so strange to read a newspaper from two days ago. They lived in the Watergraafsmeer, in Amsterdam-East, but Bigiman attended the Vossius Gymnasium, in Amsterdam-South. “In the middle of a residential area, I can imagine that other children would be put off if they don’t come from there. You must enjoy being in such an environment every day.”
In high school, newspaper clippings sometimes had to be used for papers. „I will never forget that a classmate looked at me in surprise: huh, are you reading at home the Telegraph? Until then I didn’t know that a newspaper meant anything, that you could show something about your social class with it. But I immediately understood that it was code, that I should no longer come to this school with clippings from the Telegraaf. So now I read NRC.”
In 2020 Kurano Bigiman was named Amsterdammer of the Year for his work to set up a gymnasium department at the Ir. Lely Lyceum in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, or the Bijlmer. In 2018, gymnasium education was started in a district where it was not offered before.
Kurano Bigiman is the type of person who is modest about such an award. “It is a nice recognition for my work as a teacher and it is nice for the students. It’s not about me. This part of Amsterdam must be put in the spotlight.”
His parents both came from Suriname and belonged to the indigenous peoples, the original inhabitants of the country. In Sranantongo, bigi man literally means: big man. “I have no idea where that name came from. We are not big in size. Maybe I had a big-mouthed ancestor.”
At home they were not well-off, he says, but they were also not part of the bottom line. “We were able to keep up with society, but we remained Surinamese. My father in particular had a strong desire that the children should learn as high as possible. He himself had completed havo, my mother mavo. I think it was a bit wishful thinking. They would have liked to have had more education themselves.”
That was how you ended up in high school?
“Yes. My father had really learned. He knew that with gymnasium you had an extra stick, that it is seen as slightly higher than normal pre-university education. That’s why he had a strong preference for categorical gymnasia, I didn’t have to go to a comprehensive school. I think his thought was that I could hang out with the better students in a gymnasium, or that I could build some kind of network. I never asked. It is also possible that he thought that I would be tempted to think at a school community: pre-university education is also good enough. And afterwards: then havo is also possible.”
Was it natural for someone like you to get the school advice to go to gymnasium?
“In elementary school, I was blessed with teachers who looked good. And I was lucky enough to end up in a small class. By chance many children dropped out or went to another school. In group 8 we had a class with only sixteen students. I was already working a lot with language. There happened to be a book in the room with the Greek alphabet, I wanted to know everything about it. I copied those letters. The teachers had the idea: you can do this, you have to do gymnasium.”
And then?
“My father went with me to the open days. You were given a booklet in which a map stated which schools offered gymnasiums. I remember that I thought the geographical distribution was strange: almost all those schools were in Amsterdam South. There was nothing in Southeast. We visited the three categorical gymnasia that were in existence at the time in Amsterdam. At the Vossius I immediately thought: what a building, what a palace, I want to walk around here for six years. It has become a bit longer, actually I have never left.”
After the gymnasium, he studied classical languages at the University of Amsterdam. “My passion had started with Latin in first grade. The translation, the puzzling, everything you can learn about another culture. I got the feeling that I was really in touch with the people of that time.”
Greek was added in the second grade. “After that I was completely unstoppable. That language is so rich, there is so much feeling in it. The odysseywhat a book. I saw connections with other languages, really had the idea: now I’ve cracked the code. There is a case system in German, which I already knew from Greek. Just like the time determination without a preposition. With French or German I thought: this is simple, with Greek we have already had this. My focus went all the way to such a language system, I wanted to see through that.”
You did two more studies at university.
„Yes, Modern Greek and European studies, but I only passed the propaedeutic phase. At the university I had the same feeling as when I first entered the Vossius: there is a lot to gain here, I can gather all this knowledge – now I am at the university, then I will also use it. I want to know a lot about a lot. In the early years I thought: why not take another study? And then another. But it became too much. I had to focus on classical languages.”
Are you a nerd?
“Yes. It took a while, but I can say that now.”
When he was still at Vossius, it started with a part-time job. “Managing the book fund, during the summer holidays. Ensure that the books were collected and redistributed to the students. During my studies I was asked if I wanted to teach Greek and Latin to the first and second grade.”
A few years later he was called by Jeroen Rijlaarsdam, a former colleague of the Vossius who had become director of the Ir. Lely Lyceum. “Whether I wanted to set up gymnasium education at that school and teach myself. Actually, I didn’t have time for that, at the Vossius I had a full-time job. In the end I said yes, I thought it was important. Now I work part of the week at both schools.”
Why do you think there was no gymnasium in Amsterdam-Zuidoost?
“I only have suspicions. About policymakers who thought: there is little demand for this, the parents probably don’t want it? And if they want it, can they go elsewhere in the city? While you then say to a twelve-year-old child: if you want this, you have to take the metro to another part of the city, travel there and back for 45 minutes. You want children to be able to follow any education in their own neighborhood. And you want them to feel: this is just part of the city, we belong.
“The thought has been around for a long time: let’s not do it to people who are already disadvantaged, all those difficult classical languages. Let’s keep education practical for them. And if they want more, isn’t atheneum good enough?”
Miraculously, he says: “Latin and Greek are the least discriminatory subjects. All students start at zero, their cultural baggage does not count. I work in two schools, in very different parts of the city. You don’t think they pick it up more slowly in the Bijlmer, do you? The ablative absolutus remains complicated for all who have to learn it.”
Do you see a difference between the worldview of the students in those two schools?
“I try to focus on what to teach them, not their lives. It feels different, but I don’t teach differently. My commitment is: I have to guide them towards their diploma. That is my work ethic, I want to commit myself equally for all students.”
He sees, he says, that the children at the Lely Lyceum feel more quickly that they have to make up for a shortfall. “Or that they think they are in a disadvantaged position that they cannot get out of. And they are more likely to have an opinion about the world described in those ancient texts. They get their reactions from the now, they compare that world with their own lives. Then we can contrast it again with the theoretical reality of the lesson. The students at this school have big, passionate dreams. Become a surgeon or lawyer. Subjects where they think they need Greek or Latin.”
Are the parents different?
“They do not differ from South in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. Parents in the Bijlmer also want their child to go to gymnasium. In this part of the city there used to be only flats, now there is a lot of low-rise buildings: beautiful, new houses. That includes the exclusive and elitist taste of a child at the gymnasium.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 6, 2022
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