In the Netherlands, state and religious schools are equally financed by the government. Parents are free to choose a school that optimally fits their moral values as well as their idea of a good education. As a result, there is a huge variety of schools, which include those orthodox Reformed schools that form part of the so-called Bible Belt culture. We elaborate on the complex relation between this religious culture and liberal, secular society by focusing on education. Occasionally, there is severe criticism of schools based on a strong religious identity (so-called strong religious schools), especially when it comes to their allegedly inadequate contribution to citizenship education. In order to add a historical perspective and a reflection on the arguments to the debate, our central research question is: ‘How can the founding and existence of orthodox Reformed schools in the Dutch liberal and secular society be explained and justified?’ Starting with a historical explanation of why the orthodox Reformed founded their own schools in the 1920s, we elaborate on philosophical arguments that can justify the existence of orthodox Reformed schools in a liberal, secular society.

This study examined the transition of twice-exceptional (2E) individuals from education to employment. Despite a growing focus on inclusive practices, the area of (special) education-to-work transition is still far under-researched, especially on 2E individuals. To identify challenges and success factors in this transition, a scoping review method was used. Our review revealed a paucity of targeted studies on the transition of 2E individuals to work. Four relevant studies, focusing primarily on higher education, emphasized strengths-based approaches and multi-stakeholder support to facilitate transitions. The findings underscore the need for tailored interventions and supportive environments, addressing both individual strengths and (environmental) barriers. Further research is essential in view of effective interventions to bridge the gap between education and employment for 2E individuals.

Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm (1875–1951) was one of the founders of Dutch educational science and a key figure in the New Education movement in the Netherlands. This article has three aims: first, to depict Kohnstamm as an insightful example in the process of sharing and adopting ideas around New Education and the implementation of these ideas in the Dutch context. Second, to demonstrate that the New School ideas Kohnstamm embraced − such as the Dalton Plan (of Helen Parkhurst, 1887−1952) and the Gary Plan (of William Wirt, 1874–1938) − fitted in with his philosophy of personalism; this philosophy also explains why he did not choose Montessori education, which was very popular in the Netherlands during his time. Third, that this philosophy at the same time partly explains the initial limited impact Kohnstamm had on Dutch education.

Based on an ethnographic case study of three recently erected church buildings in the Dutch Bible Belt, this article demonstrates how orthodox Reformed congregations in the Netherlands define church buildings—especially the auditoria—and bibles as simultaneously profane and mediating the sacred. These at first glance ambivalent discourses are informed by a particular semiotic ideology, which maintains that material spaces and objects like these are sacralized if, and only if, individual believers can meaningfully relate them to their personal spiritual experiences. This ideology makes a primary attitude of profanization of material forms indispensable, because any preexistent sacredness of matter would precisely rule out these personal spiritual experiences.

Around 1900, interest in adolescence as a separate and crucial phase in human development increased among psychologists, educators and youth workers in the western world. This paper reviews the relation between adolescence and sexuality in the early twentieth century from a Dutch perspective. In the 1920s pedagogues started to study adolescence. The Amsterdam professor Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm was a pioneer in developing a pedagogical approach (instead of a clinical approximation) to understand adolescence and sexuality. For Kohnstamm, sexual health education had to be part of moral teaching. He stressed the importance of sex education at an early stage, for body and mind are connected to such an extent that a separation will result in the depersonalisation of man. Kohnstamm’s work reflected the ideas of the European intellectual elites of his time regarding the sexual morals and manners of the working class.

One of the most successful religious children’s books ever written is James Janeway’s A Token for Children (1671/1672). This book offers 13 examples of “well‐dying” children, including the death‐beds of two Dutch children. Details concerning the background of those children are lacking in the English‐language historiography of children’s literature. Janeway borrowed their stories from a broadsheet, published in English in 1666, describing the “last hours” of Susanna Bickes and her little brother Jacob. They died at the age of 14 and seven, respectively, as victims of the plague that raged in 1664 in the Dutch town of Leyden (Leiden). The account of their pious departures had been published in Holland in 1664 as instructive illustrations (exempla) of the Christian ars moriendi. This paper sheds more light on the historical and biographical backgrounds of the dramatis personae of this little book and on its religious and ecclesiastical context. It then evaluates the pious stories from a pedagogical point of view and finally their international and inter‐confessional reception is traced.