N. F. S. Grundtvig

We at the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Hong Kong are happy to announce the launching of a new online magazine, Asia Folk School Online. The concept of folk schools and the folk school movement were initiated by the 19th century Danish democrat, social reformer, Lutheran bishop and poet N. F. S. Grundtvig. To Grundtvig, all people possess knowledge and are teachers. Thus, his folk schools in Denmark created an equal platform for education. All people-the peasants and the elite-sat down together as equals in expertise to discuss the issues and ideas of their time. It is this spirit which AHRC hopes to foster in Asia today, especially in the arena of human rights.

We thus launch Asia Folk School Online and invite all to participate by sending articles about human rights in Asia to folkschool@ahrchk.net. We also invite people to submit articles to the same e-mail address about folk schools and the folk school movement, especially practitioners from around the world who are actively engaged in this work.

For further information about Grundtvig and folk schools, we would like to direct you to the book Demoralisation and Hope: Creating the Social Foundation for Sustaining Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Ideas of N. F. S. Grundtvig and B. R. Ambedkar of India by Basil Fernando. A brief summary of the book can be found at the web site http://www.ahrchk.net/pub/mainfile.php/demo_and_hope/, which also has a link to the complete contents of the book.

We would also like to recommend the book The Land of the Living: The Danish Folk High Schools and Denmark’s Non-Violent Path to Modernization by Steven M. Borish for additional information about Grundtvig and folk schools. Excerpts from this book are available on this web site at the Background on Folk Schools link. We want to thank the author and publisher, Blue Dolphin Publishing, for permission to use this material. For a copy of the book, you can contact Blue Dolphin Publishing at the following address:

Blue Dolphin Publishing
P.O. Box 1908
Nevada City, California 95959
U.S.A.
Web site: http://www.bluedolphinpublishing.com