Education
Jannes offers three educational programmes: one focusing on the Middle Ages, one exploring history more broadly (both designed for children), and a lecture on the history of magic, usually aimed at adults.
Through years of research and performing, Jannes has built up a wealth of knowledge, along with the ability to make it accessible and engaging. And he doesn't approach the past from a distance — in a way, he's part of it himself.
If required, Jannes can also put you in touch with experienced rope-makers, musicians, archers and ladies of the nobility. It's even possible to set up a whole historical encampment in the school playground.
Jannes accepts the (Dutch) CJP Culture Card.
Medieval Education
Jannes has developed a special one-hour lesson about the Middle Ages for secondary school pupils and older primary school children.
Staying in character, and with a little help from magic, Jannes enthusiastically tells them about the lives of medieval joculaers (entertainers). What did people enjoy back then? Where did these performers appear? How did ordinary people view magicians — as practitioners of witchcraft, perhaps? What was the legal status of a joculaer, and what did the Church think of them?
Sometimes, it turns out, not much has changed. At other times, the difference is worlds apart.
The combination of entertainment, magic and education, interspersed with short workshops and plenty of humour, makes this a lesson the pupils won't forget in a hurry. It even includes a hilarious — but entirely authentic — medieval corporal punishment, carried out on one of the pupils!
The Time Journey
Jannes offers The Time Journey for older primary school pupils. The journey begins at school or at another location, such as a museum, church or castle. The children meet Jannes and are introduced to the past. How do we know what life was like long ago? What can we find buried in the ground, and can we work out what it is? The pupils get to examine some genuinely old fragments and objects and have a guess at what they might be. Then it's time to head outside and travel through time! What has survived from the past? How can you recognise an old house? How did people put out fires in the old days, and how could you find someone's house before street numbers existed?
Jannes has a broad knowledge of everyday life, houses and household objects from the Middle Ages through to the 17th century. Earlier and later periods aren't ruled out, either. Above all, the aim is to get the pupils excited about history.
The lesson is always adapted to the location, whether that's a historic village or town centre, an old farmhouse, a castle or a church.
Lectures
For over twenty years, Jannes has been researching medieval magicians. Few people know as much as he does about what magicians did in the Middle Ages, what they looked like and how they were regarded by society. But where does all this knowledge come from?
In this lecture, Jannes takes his audience on a magical journey through time. From King Khufu to Brother Betson, from Persian priests to medieval magicians. The journey is illustrated with images displayed on canvas screens, so there's no need for a projector and nothing intrusive to spoil the atmosphere of a historic setting.
The lecture ends with a demonstration of genuine medieval magic — the kind used to expose magicians and their secrets!
The lecture can also be booked alongside one of Jannes' regular performances, for example at a medieval event.