For the main characters from the acclaimed HUMAN TV documentary Classes ithas been four years since a camera crew began to closely follow their livesfor a year. The series, which made the struggles surrounding inequality ofopportunity in education tangible through the eyes of students, teachers andadministrators in Amsterdam-Noord, became a hit.
About 5 million viewers sympathized with Gianny, the boy who saw the youthprison from the inside at the age of 13, and with master Thijs, who went togreat lengths to get him on the right path. We saw the quiet Esma (11) whofell victim to years of subpar education at her school, the ambitious Vera(12) who wanted to get better than her parents and enrolled in the benefitclass. Younes (15) had to learn to function again in the education systemafter five years of sitting at home, Evy (15) struggled with the high demandsshe imposed on herself at school, while Tama (15) especially her mother’s highdemands like a hot breath. felt her neck – she herself preferred to dance allday.
__ How would all those children be doing now? NRC spoke to three of theseries’ many protagonists: Anyssa, Viggo and Yunuscan. __
Anyssa (14): ‘That period was a low point in my life’
‘I’m doing well,’ says Anyssa from a bench in the auditorium of the Over YCollege. She is fourteen years old now, but in her talking and thinking italready seems like a young woman.
Anyssa, 11 years old at the time, formed in Classes a heartwarming duo withher grandfather. Together they drank a milkshake in his red microcar, or drovearound on his scooter, she wedged between Grandpa and the steering wheel. Andjust chat, all the way from home to school and from school to home. Becausethat’s where Anyssa lived, with her grandfather and grandmother in Amsterdam-Noord. She and her grandfather belonged together ‘like jut and jul’, summed upthe voice-over aptly. “Of all the people on earth, she loves him the most.”
But Anyssa’s story was also that of the food and clothing bank, of sometimesnot bringing food to school, of a child in grade eight who had to take care ofher sick grandfather. The viewer saw a girl who always smiled, but lived inuncertainty at home: did she stay with her grandparents in Noord, or did shego back to her mother in West?
Halfway through the eighth grade, Anyssa no longer finished a piece, saw MissJolanda, who was also Anyssa’s guardian angel. She just failed. Her highschool advice was slipping. According to Miss Jolanda it was “way too much inAnyssa’s head”, while she had so much to offer. “If this also happens nextyear, she won’t make it the first year,” feared her teacher. The further thatimportant final school year progressed, the harder it got for Anyssa. Hergrandfather died, her grandmother kicked her out of the house. “Sooner orlater it will be all right,” she said with that smile again, as she stood inthe street among her things.
Anyssa with her grandfather excerpt from the TV series Classes in 2020.
Three years later, Anyssa looks back on that time with mixed feelings.Fortunately, she’s doing well now. Since she moved back in with her motherthree years ago, her life has moved into calmer waters. Finally it was time torest and make a fresh start at a new school.
She is in 3rd high school and works very hard. She still wants to be a primaryschool teacher, just like in the series. So to the Pabo, and if nothing crazyhappens, she will get it with flying colors. Anyssa dances hip-hop and reads alot, about a book a month, in English. „ I speak English almost fluentlysince I was ten, didn ‘t you know that?”, she says with a neat accent. „ Myaunt is Scottish, she taught me. ” Anyssa is a language person, French is herfavorite subject. She often gets bored with English, although last week shelearned a word that could come in handy: bridge wall an arched bridge over amoat.
Anyssa is glad she’s not in the spotlight as much as she was when the seriesaired. Then people often stared at her, on the street and on the tram. Shehadn’t imagined in advance that her entire private life would suddenly be onthe street and the series would be watched as far as America. “I knew nothingabout all those people, and they knew everything about me.” But looking back,Anyssa’s life in real life was less rosy than it sometimes seemed in theseries.
“I can no longer empathize with that little girl from back then,” she says.“That period was a low point in my life. It was actually quite pathetic, but Icouldn’t see it myself.” In reality, caring for Anyssa was hard. “Everymorning I woke up with the fear that my grandfather might die.” And she wasoften at odds with her grandmother. When the series came out, about a yearafter the last filming, Anyssa was again confronted with that difficultperiod, and with the images of her grandfather that she missed so much. “I didnot expect that the end result would have such an impact on me. But now thatI’m three years older I can look at the series with a different eye. Now Ithink, yes, it was. And now it’s different.”
She still texts regularly with Miss Jolanda.
Viggo (14): ‘My VWO wish was magnified a bit on TV’
Viggo, now 14, was in Classes , to put it bluntly, a symbol for the smartchildren of highly educated parents, for schools where the class photos arelight blond and a pre-university education recommendation is more the rulethan the exception. Viggo’s story was that of high expectations aboutcitoscores and high school advice.
At least, looking back, that is what the makers, according to him and hisparents, “had magnified a lot”. The viewer saw the then 11-year-old Viggo andhis classmates in groups in the classroom, shouting, cheering. “What advice doyou have? vwo? Nice man! Me too!”
The flip side of this also became visible: a group of friends on a rainy dayin the dugout of the football field. Havo-vwo advice is also okay, his friendstried to reassure Viggo. He didn’t seem convinced himself. The highestattainable, that was always the best, wasn’t it? He wanted to be apathologist, like his father, or an architect. Had he already squandered hisfuture at age 11?
Three years later, that tension is hardly noticeable anymore. Viggo is arelaxed teenager and reached the third grade of the havo unscathed. When askedwhat he wants to be when he grows up, he now no longer has a direct answer, hecan still see it; and he seems to like that attitude.
Viggo (center) with classmates in the series.
He’s sitting at the same kitchen table in the same bright living room inDurgerdam where we put him in Classes often saw. His mother pours tea andhis father pulls up in his tracksuit. It is Sunday afternoon and the hockeygames are already over. Viggo, his two brothers and his father all play at thesame club.
The tense eighth grade boy seems to have disappeared, or perhaps only existedin the reality of Classes. He can’t stay awake from the hockey game henarrowly lost that morning. If only he could move. Gym is his favorite subjectat school, all his maths and German are also doable.
Viggo likes high school life. He seems to be sailing through it calmly: doinga little homework and especially meeting a lot with friends. Now and then hebabysits his brothers or children in the neighbourhood, but he doesn’t have tofill serious shelves yet. Viggo would rather whistle a hockey match for thatmoney.
In Classes we heard Viggo shout that he “didn’t want to go to a cultureschool”, but deep down he is quite creative. Before he takes his electricVanMoof bicycle out of the shed to race to his babysitting address, he wantsto play a little tune on the piano in the living room. A piano teacher visitsevery weekend. Viggo first practices for half an hour, then his brother andthen the teacher continues to the neighbors. Previously, Viggo had classicalpiano lessons, which he didn’t like. But his current teacher is a singer-songwriter and now he’s learning to play chords. “I think that’s fat.” __
viggo with his family.
Yunuscan (14): ‘I have become stronger, mentally and physically’
Whoever thinks of Yunuscan, melts after two years Classes still a little.The then 11-year-old student of teacher Astrid was the apple of the series’eye. For him, group eight would be a defining year: could he maintain theupward trend that he unexpectedly started in group seven and be able to go tosecondary school, or was his language deficit too great? No matter how hard hetried, coming from a Turkish family where hardly any Dutch was spoken at thetime, he was immediately 2-0 behind in school. At home it was often too busyto do homework, with all the uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews on the floor.
In a touching scene in Classes we saw Yunuscan brush up on his vocabulary onthe internet late at night. On the rare occasions when it was quiet in thehouse, he crawled behind the computer for his homework. For example, when thewhole family went to a Turkish wedding, or when they went to pray. “You onlylive once,” he said then, Miss Astrid’s stern words fresh in his mind. “So youhave to do it right now.”
Three years later, Yunuscan is a few heads taller, his voice an octave lower,but his motivation to develop himself remains as strong as ever. He wears agray flat cap, inspired by his favorite series, Peaky Blinders. If it’s upto him, there will soon be a shirt, suspenders, squeak and long black coat.His mother nods in approval, in the background his sister laughs at him.
Yunuscan with his mother and teacher talking at school.
“I have become stronger, mentally and physically,” Yunuscan says as his motherserves an extensive lunch. He refers to a scene in Classes in which a policeofficer and an ex-con come to school to give the children resilience training.There, Yunuscan bursts into tears in front of all his classmates when he saysthat he and his friends are sometimes harassed by other boys. “That’s when Irealized I had to get stronger. Later in high school there would be no oneleft to help me.” Yunuscan left his “bad” friends behind and left for highschool alone with his best friend. He does outside pull ups inside he isworking hard on his future.
Yunuscan did a two-year first grade and is now in the third grade of the mavo.His favorite subjects are gym and mathematics (“I have a Turkish teacher, heunderstands me”). He is resolute about his future dream: to earn as much moneyas possible as soon as possible, so that his mother can retire. She has had aclothing repair shop in Zaandam for a year and a half and beams when she talksabout it. Her Dutch has improved by leaps and bounds since she talks to mostlyDutch clients all day long. But she works hard, six days a week, ten hours aday. “Sometimes I think: if only I were the eldest,” says Yunuscan, as thesmallest brother of two sisters and the only man in the house. “Then I wouldbe even better in life” – he thinks it’s sad for his mother that she has towork so hard.
Instead, his sister takes care of him. She will soon start training to becomea BOA and inspired Yunuscan to join the police as well. „But as a backup planI want a e-commerce start a business,” he says. “You don’t need any trainingfor that. You can take an online course for 2,000 euros.”
The series has done Yunuscan well: a homework supervisor who saw him on TV sawpotential in the boy and offered his help. Since then, this ‘coach’ hasvisited every Tuesday. He helps Yunuscan with his homework, prepares him foradult life and together they have “man talk”. „He makes me ready for thenext step to adulthood,” says Yunuscan, “like a big brother.”