{"id":150625,"date":"2023-02-22T14:02:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T13:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=150625"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:59:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:59:37","slug":"it-was-not-until-studying-medicine-that-baasnne-felt-at-home-at-a-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/02\/22\/it-was-not-until-studying-medicine-that-baasnne-felt-at-home-at-a-school\/","title":{"rendered":"It was not until studying Medicine that Baasnne felt at home at a school"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baasnne Saeed (21) was very anxious when she started studying Medicine. In secondary school, she had been told for years that she was dumb. Wouldn\u2019t her new lecturers feel the same way? One conversation changed everything. \u201cThe conversation brought me back to my time in Kurdistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cI feel great, valued and seen here at the Erasmus MC. I hadn\u2019t experienced that before in Dutch education. What will always stay with me is what it was like after I did the Cito exam in year 8 of primary school. I can\u2019t recall experiencing much in the way of racism before that time, but I do remember that my parents often went to the school to discuss things. Such as why I wasn\u2019t allowed to skip a grade while others who performed less well were. In year 8, we all had to walk to the front of the class one at a time to see our Cito score. I was nervous because I really wanted to do well. I had worked hard, but that week my concentration wasn\u2019t optimal. My grandma had just died. But my score was 550! The maximum score. Then the teacher said: \u2018Shh, don\u2019t tell the other children. That would be cruel.\u2019 A year before, everyone in school had been told when a boy got a score of 549.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat same teacher later asked me: \u2018Are you sure about studying at a gymnasium? I\u2019m not sure you would be able to cope.\u2019 I didn\u2019t get where that was coming from. We had done an IQ test in school, and I got the highest score out of twenty schools; I was already taking maths at secondary-school level. It felt so unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that summer, I didn\u2019t go to school in the Netherlands but in Slemani, in the north-east of Iraq. My parents missed their families. My father studied engineering and he was offered a good job there. The international school my younger brothers and I went to is incomparable to my Dutch school. In Kurdistan everyone is more open than in the Netherlands and the education is more supportive. I felt at home there. I was no longer the best in class, but I felt more encouraged than ever before. The teachers never called me dumb. They spoke to the class, saying: \u2018Baasnne has come all the way from the Netherlands, and look at all the things she can already do.\u2019 I developed fast in those four years. I learned how sociable I am. I really became a people person there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018My tutor told my parents: \u2018Your child is just too dumb to study Medicine.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cThen I returned to the Netherlands and it was a real shock. My friends in that secondary school were great, but the atmosphere wasn\u2019t. I started in year 5 of VWO at a school in Voorburg, at the same time as a blonde girl who had been living in France for a few years. No one asked her why her Dutch was \u2018fluent without an accent\u2019. But they asked me, even though the teacher had told them I was born here. My tutor told my parents: \u2018Your child is just too dumb to study Medicine.\u2019 I often cried with frustration because no one in school was helping me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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