after almost eight years of working as a teacher at the gvp school, most people in this community will probably recognize me as a familiar face: my name is jan meijer and i am a teacher of mathematics at the gvp school.

that will come to an end (as of summer 2022) and i would like to tell you that myself before it comes to you through the corridors (although that may not have been entirely successful). i would also like to give you some explanation because compared to the original plan, there is an acceleration and that is not without reason.

to delve deeper into my motivations you will need to understand something of my background. after all, i have only been a teacher since i arrived here almost eight years ago. before that i worked briefly at the museum het mauritshuis in the hague, but most of all i was an officer in the royal netherlands navy for almost forty years. i look back with particular pleasure on my time on board submarines.

contrary to the image that many people may have, (dutch) military personnel are generally not so hierarchically minded. instead, they are reasonably strongly motivated by achieving goals.

the goal i set myself eight years ago was "to ensure that as many candidates as possible pass the havo math exam" and later, of course, the same but for the csec math exam. i saw the goal to be reached as being even broader and more ambitious. i wanted to serve those who could and wanted to do better or faster. at havo i introduced math "d" and at csec i introduced additional math and math at cape level. and there were also students who took the csec exam after only three years instead of five.

the fact that i did this by making agreements primarily with students and their parents and somewhat less by asking permission from the school management is something that was not always appreciated, and there were colleagues who liked to see me fail in this innovational business. you never hear such things directly but they are always said behind your back.

the fact that there are colleagues who would rather see you stumble than succeed and the fact that the management did not take a stand against this development as a matter of course and prepared its measures to keep me in line without hearing both sides of the argument, make me leave. it's not about me: it's about the students! the more and better they are prepared for the future, the better it is for them and for the island. it's costing me more and more trouble and effort to work in an environment where the rules seem to be more important than the spirit of good education. and that's why i'm not extending my contract at the end of this school year.

and although i certainly don't want to make it bigger than it is, i think i see a similar development in life on the island in general. we are simply a part of the netherlands and of course i also see that there are cultural differences between european and caribbean dutch and to both parties i would say: listen to each other and try to make the best of it together. the whole here is certainly more than the sum of the separate parts.

my message to all of you: please allow each other every success and work WITH each other as much as possible instead of AGAINST each other.

all the best to you and we would love to come back and visit the island and its residents. we will cherish our eight years in statia as a fond memory.

but hey, it's not summer vacation as yet ;-)))