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. . . Both its nineteenth-century origins and its present-day
functioning provide excellent illustrations of the Danish concern
for "development with a human face." The school is
popularly referred to as a folk high school (the Danish term is folkehøjskole,
or more simply højskole). Although such schools or
closely related ones are found in the neighboring countries of
Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, the first folk
high school was created in Denmark in the mid-nineteenth century
(1844). The schools are thus a particularly Danish innovation, an
original and authentic contribution made by Denmark to the field
of education. Interestingly enough, their present function in
Danish society differs strikingly from the function they
performed from the time of their origin until shortly after the
Second World War, that is, for over a century. Once set up to
serve almost exclusively the children of farmers, the schools
have been subjected to far-reaching change in the past four
decades. In its wake they have found themselves serving the needs
of a different clientele, challenged by the demands of a new
cultural context, and coping with the implications of an altered
social role. This forced redefinition of their original social
function has been neither an easy nor a comfortable process. Yet
these schools continue to be a vital and important part of Danish
society, as even a brief look at their present number and pattern
of distribution suggests.
The folk high schools in the 1980s are distributed throughout
the Danish countryside, all the way from the predominantly rural
west coast of Jutland, the large peninsula that shares a land
border with West Germany, to the urban milieu of Copenhagen and
the far-off island of Bornholm in the North Baltic. The 1988
catalogue of the folk high school secretariat in Copenhagen lists
106 such schools. Close to fifty thousand students (in a nation
of just over 5 million people) will pass through them this year.
Many Danes choose to spend at least a part of their summer
vacation taking a folk high school course. Some return year after
year to the same school. Prospective students in 1987, for
example, can choose among the 809 different short courses of one,
two, or three weeks' duration, or one of the long
courses (which typically take from three to ten months).
What type of person is one likely to encounter at a folk high
school today? A middle-aged Danish farmer, spending a month with
easel and canvas, finally surrenders to his lifelong desire to
paint. A woman with a six-year-old son comes to shape clay on a
potter's wheel. While she molds clay on long afternoons, the
boy plays soccer, tries his hand with waterpainting, finds other
children with whom to explore a friendly rural environment. Here
is a man of thirty who has been unemployed for the past two
years; there is a young woman taking a year off from her
veterinary studies at the university. There are some who have
just finished gymnasium, and others who never finished
the eighth grade. Some come in hopes of finding a girlfriend or a
boyfriend. Some are trying to kick a drug habit or control a
problem with alcohol. Some come only because a social worker has
urged them to do so and perhaps conveniently arranged their stay.
Some want to see a different part of the country than the one
they have always known or have come to escape the devastation of
a recent and traumatic divorce. Some don't know what they
want or why they have come here. Some will meet a future. wife or
husband. Some charm everybody and leave without paying all their
bills. In truth, all kinds of people come to a Danish folk high
school, and they come for all kinds of reasons.
What in the world is this thing called a folk high school? The
concept behind it is not easy to explain. Furthermore, an easy,
word-to-word translation only confuses the issue. A Danish folkehøjskole
is not really what the literal English equivalent suggests: a
"folk high school." The translation is not entirely
incorrect because these schools are for the "folk," for
the people. Yet it is also misleading. The term "high
school" means a secondary school for most Americans. It is
commonly understood to refer to the school that handles the tasks
of learning and socialization after primary and middle (or junior
high) school and before university education. As such, it is (a)
geared to those in a limited and specific age-group; (b) avowedly
competence-giving, in the sense of intending to prepare students
for vocational or professional employment; (c) competitive, with
examinations and grading; and (d) an integral part of
universalistic mainstream education; that is, it is felt that all
citizens should complete their high school education.
A Danish folkehøjskole, in contrast to an American
secondary school, is (a) open to all those above eighteen years
of age; (b) avowedly and by law not competence-giving; (c) not
academically competitive, with no grades or marks at all given;
and (d) outside of the mainstream Danish educational system. Two
further features will astonish outside observers. First, in spite
of their officially marginal status, these schools presently
receive approximately 85% of their expenses from the state.
Second, in spite of this high degree of state support, the point
of view and philosophical framework adopted by an individual
school are entirely free from state control. It is true that a
certain amount of mumbling is heard from time to time, usually by
local officials unhappy with something they believe to be taking
place at one of the more radical and experimental schools. But
even such officials do not publicly challenge the right of the
school to exist. Their maneuvering is usually limited to
attempting to deny local subsidies to students who wish to attend
such schools. And it should be added that this type of conflict
is quite rare, almost certainly the exception rather than the
rule.
The diversity of the Danish folk high schools in the 1980s and
early 1990's is quite extraordinary. There are perhaps half
a dozen schools with a radical communist or feminist orientation.
There are, on the other hand, at least the same number of schools
that teach some particular brand of ultraconservative Christian
theology. Side by side with these can be found folk high schools
that specialize in ecology and biodynamic agriculture, folk high
schools for athletic instruction, folk high schools for
instruction in music, and folk high schools for various kinds of
travel abroad. There are folk high schools for the study of
foreign languages, folk high schools for retired people, and at
least one folk high school for teenagers under the age of
eighteen. There are several "folk high schools for
consciousness development," one of which teaches the
Maharishi's transcendental meditation techniques and
philosophy. In addition to these, there are many schools that
call themselves by the perplexing (to the outsider) label of
general "Grundtvigian" folk high schools. Use of this
label entails a claim that a school is following in the footsteps
of the tradition set by N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783 - 1872), who
first proposed establishing such a school form in 1830.
Grundtvig's original vision of the folk high school was
couched in both clear and compelling terms; yet his specific
mandate concerning how this vision was to be realized has left
many of the particulars open to debate and interpretation. And
ever since the first folk high school came into existence in
1844, precisely what these schools should be doing and how they
should go about doing it have been matters for continual debate,
interpretation, and reinterpretation. It is not a static
tradition. The very least one can say is this: a broader range of
diversity than presently exists could scarcely be imagined, and
all of this diversity is essentially state supported [1]
[1] Steven M. Borish, The Land of the
Living: The Danish Folk High Schools and Denmark's Non-Violent
Path to Modernization (Nevada City, Calif.: Blue Dolphin,
1991), pp. 7-9.
Posted on 2002-01-11
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