Why are all those little princesses going to the gym?

Did you have that too? That you saw that cheerful Alexia cycling with her new bike to her first day of high school and thought: why are all those girls going to the gymnasium so happily? Very nice, hats off, but not every family has all the kids smoothly heading towards the highest achievable. Our queen has braces, how nice would it be for the role model if one of the princesses went to havo or VMBO?

Of course, I totally understand that if you have given birth to a little genius, you wouldn't send them to a lower level just to show the public that this is also permissible in royal circles. But still. Is there something in the royal water? Do teachers turn a blind eye? Do they get tutoring until they reach the desired level?

Fortunately, I found the answer in magazine Quest. Here's the thing. Your intelligence is 50% genetically determined. So if your parents are smart, there is a significant chance that you also have a decent IQ. Furthermore, you can earn 20 IQ points. This has to do with whether you are stimulated for development. Lots of reading aloud, visiting museums, an environment that encourages you, a good school... That is certainly well taken care of with the Oranjes.

Interestingly, despite nature and nurture, there can still be significant differences in intelligence within a family. For example, the late Prince Friso completed three university degrees with a laugh, while our king took six years to finish his history degree. But well, I think that's really strong for the image. Thank you, King Willem-Alexander. You turned out to be just a regular person with a healthy thirst for a beer and an old Dutch 'that-exam-can-wait-a-year' mentality. We feel wonderfully normal again.

source image: pinterest