Back to School

Nowadays, the classroom has an interactive whiteboard and children sit behind ergonomic desks.

That’s quite a change from the wooden benches and abacuses our (grand)parents used. In the National Museum of Education, you can learn all about school life of today and the past.

From type case to arithmetic hand and of course countless lesson books and school prints: all these objects show you how education has changed throughout the years.

With over 390,000 objects, the National Museum of Education has the largest educational collection in the world. The displays have books, prints and other objects that give a good impression of how grammar and arithmetic have changed throughout the years. The museum also has a number of showpieces, such as the dry-land swim trainer and the wooden arithmetic hand of Amsterdam teacher Sara Heijmans.

Hey, did you know?

The Dutch word fröbel means ‘to be creative’. It comes from pedagogue Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782-1852), the founder of kindergartens. He believed that pre-schoolers had to be taught in a playful manner. Therefore, the first kindergartens are also referred to as ‘fröbel schools’. Of course, you’ll encounter the name Fröbel in the museum countless times.