A group of friends of the Baptist minister Jan Nieuwenhuijzen from Monnickendam and Edam in North Holland decided to found a society that would help underprivileged people gain education by providing them with books written in simple language.

Local branches of the Society were formed in other parts of North Holland, Friesland and Groningen, and then in the rest of the northern Netherlands.

[3] The Society aimed to promote the well-being of the people through higher levels of cultivation and civilization, and specifically through better education.

The Society was not against the church, but aimed to provide education that conformed to general Christian ethical principles and that was not dogmatic about doctrine.

[4] Thus in 1785 the Society awarded the Catholic Peter Schouten first prize in a contest for a treatise on the existence of God and the need to serve him.

It also founded libraries, set up savings banks and insurance funds, and undertook other social development activities.

At the time the state of education was very poor, with under-qualified and underpaid teachers, outdated material, run-down and uncomfortable school buildings and harsh discipline.

[1] The Society held an essay competition for the best answer to the question, "What are the best means of turning children into sociable people while they are still at school."

[9] Local branches of the Society founded schools for design in Deventer (1800), Schiedam (1806), The Hague (1809), Haarlem (1809) and Amsterdam (1814).

[12] In 1907 the Society published a report on the apprenticeship system, and recommended craft schools and practical vocational training on the job.