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We had plannned exactly, Marth and I. The Intercity arrived at Central at 5 past eight and Marth drove by in her little Daf at 9 past eight. Usually it went well but sometimes I had to sprint. Then there was already a whole traffic jam honking behind that little red Daf ...

From 1974 to 1980, I was headmaster of the Professor Casimir LOM school in Amsterdam Oud-West, in Marco Polostraat.

That's where I met Marth de Baat. Many people worked at that LOM school. Teachers, the caretaker, a social worker, a psychologist a paediatrician, even a psychiatrist but there was a difference. All those people worked at the Casimir School but Marth WAS the Casimir School.

Soon Marth and I were good friends. After only a few days, she said, ‘you are coming to Central by train anyway. Then I can pick you up because I am passing by’. Together we devised a plan reminiscent of the Normandy landings. Getting off the train at 5 past eight, I had to cross the station square with a firm stride. Opposite the Victoria Hotel, Marth would then arrive exactly at 9 past eight and I could get straight into the little red Daf. Sometimes the train - even in those N.S. days - was a few minutes late. Then Marth's engine happened to stall at the traffic lights. Until I stood in my spot. Then the Daf ‘did it again. Of course, Marth didn't care about the honking behind her. 
The doors of the Daf were always open. On the Binnenkant, where she lived, there would be a note in it; Nothing of value, don't bother. Still, she sometimes found a sleeping junk on the back seat in the morning. This was then quickly talked out of it with the story, that the children at school needed her.

At first, I thought she was only a primary school teacher, then it turned out that she also did evening school two nights a week, and then it became clear to me that her house on the Binnenkant actually belonged to the school as well. There were quite a few teachers who were struggling. They knew how to find their way to the Binnenkant Those who were no longer able to cook due to private problems could always get a tasty and nutritious meal at the Binnenkant. The restaurant there stayed open until late. But Mart also helped if you had other problems. One of the colleagues drank quite a lot. Outside school hours fortunately, on weekends. He could then become very aggressive and provoke fights. Until once he ran into the wrong one. A boy from the underworld, who promised him, that he would get him some time.  That colleague - I won't name names, he later ended up in business - then went into hiding with Marth on the Binnenkant for a few weeks.

As for hiding, Marth had experience, by the way. Only in 2015, she told me that as a young woman she had been involved in the resistance in World War II, helping people in hiding. She had also been a courier. Like, ‘Marth, take that pile of illegal newspapers to Zwolle, oh yes, and the resistance group in Wezep needs that Stengun, bring that along too’. And there went Marth on her bicycle with wooden tyres. A miracle it always went well, because she stood out quite a bit. She was two heads taller than other women of her generation. Fortunately, she sensed in time when things were going wrong. Once, for instance, she slept in a farmer's barn, on her way to yet another assignment but she didn't trust the farmer. In the middle of the night, she got up and cycled on. Later she heard that early in the morning there had been a raid by the Grüne Polizei.

Still during the war, Marth became involved in the work of Wilhelmina Bladergroen, later professor of Orthopedagogy in Groningen. In 1944, Bladergroen had founded the Psychological Pedagogical Institute where children with learning and behavioural problems were educated. Before then, those children were seen as hard-to-learn, as morons and placed in a ‘moron school’ together with truly mentally challenged children. Bladergroen believed, as one of the first in the Netherlands, that you did not have to be ‘moron’ to fail at the classroom primary school of the time. Marth was recruited by her as one of the first teachers to teach at the P.P.I. Bladergroen developed the theory, which Marth was allowed to try out in practice. Consequently, the future professor often sat in the back of the classroom with Marth to observe what worked and what did not. There was no money so often Marth received a few kilos of potatoes or a bag of sugar beet as payment.

Apart from her work at Bladergroen's Psychological Pedagogical Institute, Marth was also involved in De Werkschuit just after the war. One of the first places in the country where children could develop their creativity and free expression. She worked there together with her good friend Brecht van de Muijzenberg, whom she had already met in the resistance. Together, they tried to improve the world over the left-wing. They didn't really succeed, but with the Werkschuit, Brecht and Mart managed to give creativity a bigger place in education.
When the Professor Casimir School was founded in 1955 as the first school for children with learning and educational difficulties in the Netherlands, Marth was involved from the start. Fortunately, she was paid a normal salary, because the care for her three daughters Eva, Adinda and Ruth and for her son Wouter came down to her after her divorce from the sculptor Jan de Baat, as Jan had no regular income as a performing artist.

In the forty years , that I have worked in education, I have come across only one colleague like Marth de Baat. With so much commitment to pupils and parents. The work never stopped for Marth. When the mother of one of her pupils fell ill, Marth would of course visit regularly. I remember that one of the mothers, who, like Marth, was on her own, was terminally ill and that Marth visited her late into the night after evening school. Then I did say a couple of times, Marth now hand that over to the social worker because this is just getting too heavy for you ...
But yes, we were living in the 1970s, so Marth's reaction was ‘Peet, you are right but I have to do this. Visiting a social worker like that is way too impersonal. And visits until late at night just went on.

The parties at school were unthinkable without Marth. First and foremost, the  Sinterklaasfeest (St Nicholas party). According to tradition, St Nicholas came by a different means of transport every year and it was Marth who managed to arrange a cargo bicycle, a tandem or an electric market cart from the Vespucci market. Catering was also in good hands with her. There were always mothers, who, under Marth's guidance, provided salads and tasty snacks. Whether it was Sinterklaas, Christmas or any other school party, Marth was on standby with her mothers. How popular she was proved during her farewell party in 1982, organised by colleagues and former colleagues. The gymnasium of the Casimir was packed with all colleagues since 1944, - as far as still alive - as well as generations of pupils and their parents. For the first time with snacks and salads for Marth but not by Marth ...

Marth was rejected from teaching in 1982, at the age of 60, due to heart disease, but fortunately she still had many happy years with her children, Eva, Adinda, Ruth and Wouter, their partners and grandchildren. First still in her old home on the Binnenkant and later in her downstairs home on Jozef Israelskade. She died in 2016 at the age of ninety-four.

A lot can be found about Professor Wilhelmina Bladergroen in libraries and on the internet. A biography about her was also published last year. Many Wilhelmina Bladergroen schools have also been founded from Haaren to Valkenburg. But you find little about the workers in practice , who tried out her ideas, the real builders of LOM education. People like Marth did not write articles and books. They were far too busy for that because every day there sat those children, who depended on good, individually focused education.

So there is no Marth de Baat-van der Veen School for Special Education in Amsterdam West or anywhere else in the Netherlands but for me and for all those pupils, Marth de Baat was one of the ‘inventors’ of education for children with learning and educational difficulties. That term, learning and parenting difficulties is outdated, by the way. We now prefer to speak of vulnerable children, who need extra support. The LOM school is now called school for special primary education.

On behalf of all those children and on behalf of all those colleagues, who not only enjoyed your snacks at all those parties but also learned a lot from you, I say ‘Marth, thank you’. There may not be a school named after you, but now you still have your own little digital monument!

Also read this story on the Memory of West (in Dutch)