Pearson
Adult Learning Centre: Teacher Writing
This term, my
students wrote travel article for credit in their English 11 and 12
classes. The following piece was presented three times to demonstrate
the form and to allow students to read and suggest revisions. The final
draft (the fourth) is presented below.
We stood in front of a house where a Jewish man had been sheltered from
the Nazis for four long years. Thousands like him were saved by the
Amsterdamers who considered Jews equals in their city. Joe, our capable
guide, told us of the February 1941 uprising, when many citizens of
Amsterdam stopped work and struck to support Amsterdam’s Jews. The
results were predictable: Germans separated women from men, and then
executed some women, publicly. Amsterdam paid a heavy price.
I decided then I must visit Anne Frank House. We wandered empty rooms,
watching video installations in each room showing the history of Anne
Frank’s family. They hid for over two years before being betrayed and
deported. Only Otto Frank, Anne’s father, survived.
When I listened to a video interview with Miep Gies, an employee of the
Frank family, I began to better understand Amsterdam and her people.
She related the tale of Otto Frank coming to ask her if she could help
them (and others) by obtaining food using counterfeit ration cards (an
act that could have lead to her execution).
Miep’s answer, given without hesitation? “Yes, of course.”
Visiting the city of Amsterdam fills the senses with delightful sights
and sounds but, best of all, introduces one to a uniquely
public-oriented citizenry, people who, like Miep Gies, do many things
that make city living more tolerable for all.
On jam-packed trams, three times Amsterdamers politely tapped on one of
our elbows, handing us something we had dropped—and, more importantly,
spoke to us in Dutch, accepting that we might be fellow Amsterdamers.
Every day we juggled cameras and scarves, tickets and tram passes and every
day we experienced the kindness of Amsterdam’s citizens.
Often, I watched multiple passengers offer help quickly—to the old, to
mothers with bulky strollers—in a way that seemed natural and routine.
Only once did I see slight annoyance— a crew of mothers and strollers
were blocking access to standing room further up the tram. It seemed
that people were upset that the mothers hadn’t thought of moving a bit
to make more space!
Despite being built on sand, Amsterdam has an underground metro, along
with extensive tram lines that make getting around easy. Visitors may
buy a pass (using a radio frequency chip), available in one day
increments (24, 48 hours and so on), to match the duration of a stay.
At seven Euros per 24 hours, the pass is a bargain.
And, that flexibility in the passes (unlike, say, Paris, where you need
to commit to a weekly pass at minimum) typifies the attitude of
Amsterdamers—practical minded and tolerant yet still friendly towards
the hordes of tourists in their midst. Which brings me to something
rare and wonderful about Amsterdamers: their bicycles.
I heard the ring of bicycle bells often, many times because I had again
blundered onto a bicycle pathway, which is very often wider than the
sidewalk. In Amsterdam, the bicycle has the right of way. It fits with
the prevailing attitude: clearly, bikes are the fastest, most
ecological and healthiest way to get around, so they take priority over
all other traffic, including pedestrian.
Bikes are everywhere. Every street has bunches of leaning bikes, mostly
black, single speed and basic. Our Amsterdam guide told us local people
own two bikes: one for everyday use left locked on the street and the
other for weekends, to ride easily into the countryside, since bikes
are allowed on the metro (with hooks for stability and tire guideways
on stairs).
The biking scene seems fantastical to a Vancouverite (not only because
there are no hills to climb in Amsterdam!). No one wears helmets,
adults nor children. Yet everyone rides— white-haired grandmothers,
guys in suits, women in mini skirts and heels. Parents carry children
on bikes with wheelbarrow-like carriers on front or on tiny seats,
perched on the handlebars or behind the rider’s seat. Often, I saw
children strapped in, enjoying the ride, and wondered whether, if we
were in Vancouver, the mom would be arrested for endangering children!
After my five days in the city, I found myself imagining the scene as
it would have been: Miep Gies in the 1940s, on a bicycle packed with
groceries for Anne Frank and her family, riding up a cobblestoned
street beside the canal, matter of fact, helping because it was the
right thing to do. I could still feel her presence, it seemed to me, in
this beautiful city, filled with citizens who demonstrate daily how we
could live, if we had the will to do so.
Welcome to Amsterdam!
—© Brad Hyde; 767 words; fourth draft based on student responses and
suggestions.
Resources for
Adults Completing
High School