Mathijs Koenraadt

Confusion Mathijs Koenraadt

A child of a dysfunctional household, the eleven-year-old, scraggy boy named Toine confronts a high school education system. Despite feeling shamed into silence, he continues to make a stand for dissident thought. Teachers, shocked, disapprove of their pupil's verbal revolt. The boy's apparent exclusion from civilian society makes him feel depressed. He develops thoughts of suicide. To save himself, he escapes in daydreams. He picks up a writing hobby and starts to blur the lines between dreams and reality. In his mind, the boy has convinced himself he is a military recruit living in a semi-detached bunker. When his general, Bonifacius, and nurse Gertrude take him to a psychologist, his world falls apart. Will Toine survive the school year? This novella is a critique of science education. It questions a society's motive for enforcing political correctness.