Fons de Wolff
Principal of MET in Waalwijk, the Netherlands
Fons de Wolff has been at the MET Waalwijk for four years. He came to a Big Picture Netherlands school because he wasn’t satisfied in schools that keep students at their desks, looking at a blackboard. He passionately believes in learning by doing.
At this school, Fons notes, students are proud of what they are doing. Staff are also more connected to their students and to their work. That pride and connectedness inspires him to do his job as principal better. Since starting at the MET Waalwijk in 2005, he has seen students make more progress because of their ownership over the work, making them more successful in the next phase of their education or in their profession.
Thus far, the MET Waalwijk has built up a staff of fifty people trained in the Big Picture Learning design. He is incredibly proud of this achievement, and looks forward to further growth. Simultaneously, Fons realizes that the MET Waalwijk and other Big Picture Netherlands schools are very different from other schools in Holland. This is both a challenge and a reward, he says. They try to inspire other schools with their success and the success of their students; but it is a challenge to maintain the high quality that they have achieved to date.
Five people who inspire Fons:
- People who stay themselves
- His wife Sigrid
- His children and especially his eight year old son, Rein, who has Down Syndrome
- The team of MET Waalwijk
- All the people involved with BPL in the United States