Boeke was born on 25 September 1884 to a
Mennonite family in
Alkmaar, Netherlands, where he grew up. After the First World War, Boeke erected a large conference centre in Bilthoven, which he called "Brotherhood House." The first international peace conference took place there between 4 and 11 October 1919. Present at the conference were
Leon Revoyne,
Mathilda Wrede,
Leonard Ragaz,
Pierre Ceresole, as well as Hodgkin and Schultze. Boeke and Ceresole became the secretaries of this movement, which initially called itself "Christian International", later the
International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Together with
Helene Stöcker, and
Wilfred Wellock, they founded the
Service Civil International and in 1921 "Paco" (the
Esperanto word for peace), which in 1923 became
War Resisters' International (WRI). The school has been hugely influential for its creative way of making the students co-responsible for their own curriculum, together with the teachers; many students who failed in regular schools have blossomed at "De werkplaats", but on the other hand many talented children could not reach a high level in this school. Co-responsibility in school did not mean a freewheeling life at "the Werkplaats". Children had to perform tasks such as cleaning the school, growing vegetables and fruits, and helping with lunch cooking. Boeke's notion of sociocracy was, in effect, a secular implementation of the Quaker ideals applied to education in such a way that children were treated as adults, and were on first-name terms with their teachers. In WWII, Kees and Betty sheltered Jews at their own peril, saving several lives. For this work, they were enshrined in Yad Vashem () in 1992. Boeke wrote a major book on education. One of his last works was
Cosmic View (New York 1957). On 3 July 1966, Boeke died in the company of his family in
Abcoude, Netherlands. ==Legacy==