Former vice president of court of appeal (74) graduates ILO: “Teaching gives me satisfaction”
Herman Hermans, the 74-year-old former vice president of the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden and Amsterdam, received his diploma from the Interfaculty Teacher Training Programmes (ILO) on Thursday and still teaches three days a week at a Frisian gymnasium. “When I had to say goodbye to Homer, I truly felt sad.”
You chose to teach classical languages after age 70. Why?
“I had a career as a lawyer and judge, but languages have always attracted me. After I retired, I studied Classical Languages and got my doctorate in that subject at Oxford University. Afterwards I thought: I want to transfer this knowledge to others, so the obvious thing to do was to do a teacher training program. I always tend to study. I find it an adventure to master new subjects. So I also started to study Italian with the idea that I could then express myself a little better in Italy, and that culminated in an entire study that I completed in Groningen. It's also a bit of a hobby. I would still like to study history, philosophy, or theology. In terms of memory, things are going pretty well, I don't notice a strong decline yet, maybe because it's routine now. My mental and physical condition allows it. Not everyone is so lucky.”
What interests you most about the classics?
“The poetry. This may sound pompous, but as a boy, I sensed from the texts of Homer [Greek poet who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, among others, ed.] how much depth lies in them. They are beautiful sounds, of course, a beautiful rhythm, but the meaning remained. The description of human fates, the reflections on what happens to people in life, that which they attribute to outside influences or to fate. These are things that every human being must deal with in life. When I had to say goodbye to that after my own grammar school days, I truly felt sad.”
Do you manage to convey that deeper layer to students?
“I now have first and second graders, so you shouldn't set the bar too high. But I regularly try to address some of it, for example, in special assignments for outstanding students. For example, Caesar says something about peoples who do not have as much contact with the outside world, and are therefore not subject to feminization, or softening. They are still heroic and martial. That term feminization is now very politically incorrect. The language says something about the cultural attitudes of the time. In such a text there is a world in itself. That those aspects stick, I think that is ultimately more important than having all students remember the perfect grammatical constructions forever.”
What do the students actually think of you as a teacher?
“Fortunately I only get friendly responses, such as: ‘If you like that, and you can do that well, why not?’”
1967-1972 Dutch law, UvA
1986-1986 Doctorate in law, UvA
1985-1993 Associate professor, Tilburg University
1986-1993 Judge, Arnhem District Court
1993-2002 Vice-president, Amsterdam Court of Appeal
2002-2013 Vice-president of the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal
1998-1999 Italian language course at the University of Amsterdam
2004-2008 Extraordinary Professor of Justice, Erasmus University Rotterdam
2009-2014 Bachelor and master's degree in Italian, University of Groningen
2014-2015 Master's degree in classical languages, University of Liverpool
2016-2020 PhD in classical languages, University of Oxford
2021-2023 Master ILO - Latin language and culture, UvA
2022-now Lecturer in Latin language and culture, Christian Gymnasium in Leeuwarden
In France, the government recently raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, resulting in fierce protests and riots. In the Netherlands, too, people like to stick to the retirement age - not without reason.
“Some people indeed have a profession that is so grueling that they cannot continue it in later life. Heavy physical labor is no longer possible at my age. I didn't have it easy as a judge either: a lot of overtime, sitting in the judge's chair all day. I also have friends who say: I've seen it, I can now sit and read every day - I can vividly imagine that. You also have to see a challenge in being a teacher and dealing with young people, which is not always easy.”
The Association of Secondary Schools estimates the teacher shortage at 2,500 in 2023. One of the subjects with a shortage is classical languages. Should more older people like you go into the classroom, do you think?
“If you have to make a career choice at a young age, all kinds of factors can come into play. That doesn't necessarily mean a lifelong rejection of being a teacher. I chose law at the time because of the professional perspective, because you can choose other things after that. I do think it's a shame that not more people are in the classroom at an older age because you have more life experience. I get a lot of energy out of it, teaching students something about the profession but also conveying something of more general meaning. I can also put a lot of myself into it. As a judge, you have a more formal role where the person stays in the background. As a teacher, you build a relationship with students, which is only possible through the commitment of your own person. I find this satisfying.”
