Kees Boeke (1884-1966)

Kees tried to reform education by allowing children contribute their ideas - a process he called sociocracy. He regarded schools as workshops with the pupils as workers and teachers as co-workers.

While in England he became a Quaker. He married Beatrice (Betty) Cadbury.

In 1912 the couple went as missionaries to Lebanon where Kees was headmaster at the Brummana School.

He was a pacifist- he was against war.
During WW1 he went to Germany and came back to UK and publicly said we should see Germans as our friends -for this he was deported back to the Netherlands.
After WW1 he erected a large conference centre in Bilthoven- the Brotherhood House. Queen Beatrix as a child attended his school.

In the late 1920s he started a school- in 1926 he founded De wekplaats (the workshop). He used Maria Montessori’s methods combined with Quaker ideals, plus his own ideas. He wanted the children to respect democracy. The children were treated as adults and on first name terms with their teachers.

Kees died on 3rd July 1966

During WW11 he joined the Dutch resistance movement against the Germans.

They sheltered Jews during WW11 and for this work they were later enshrined in Yad Vashem in 1992.

Source used Wikipedia