The activity is part of a school vegetable garden programme, in which the children will work in the garden throughout the year to learn more about flowers, plants and soil life. Through the handkerchief experiment, the children learn why soil organisms such as worms are important and help maintain healthy soil. Healthy soil is crucial for growing good food, for example in your own school garden.
The children received help and explanations while burying it from Monique Pas, project leader at IVN Noord. “Children nowadays have no idea where food comes from or how it grows,” Pas explains. She notes that the children find it interesting to delve deeper into soil life: “They learn more here than in the classroom; that has been scientifically proven.”
A month and a half later
On 2 July 2026, the owner of the handkerchief, Mayor Eric van Oosterhout, came to see what was left of it. It turned out to be very little. “I didn’t expect that,” one of the pupils says. Pas was also surprised: “I didn’t expect the handkerchief to decompose so completely. It’s astonishing that the handkerchief has been entirely digested.”
Mayor Eric van Oosterhout asked the children whether they would bring a new handkerchief after the summer holidays. “The handkerchief is quite a bit in pieces. This is so sad.” Nevertheless, Van Oosterhout believes it is important for projects like this to be part of the curriculum: “This is how you can learn about everything that happens in nature.”
The remains of the handkerchief...