Folk high schools play a central role in the formation of young adults
By Dorthe Kirkgaard Nielsen – link to LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorthe-kirkgaard-nielsen-b491366/ – for EPALE Denmark
With a history that dates back 178 years, one might think that Danish folk high schools would by now be obsolete, but N.F.S. Grundtvig's ideas about democratic education and life enlightenment retain a firm grip on young people in Denmark. Each year, students flock to the country’s folk high schools in order to pursue special interests in subjects such as sports, natural sciences, politics, food, music, history and much more – within a non-formal and social boarding-school setting.
In addition to subject knowledge, students also benefit from democratic education and life/popular enlightenment. These three elements are namely the main purpose of the Danish folk high schools as set out in section one of the objects clause in the Danish Act on Folk High Schools.
Lisbeth Trinskjær, Chair of the Association of Folk High Schools in Denmark, is in no doubt: Danish folk high schools play a crucial role in the formation of young adults in Denmark. On the one hand, they cultivate a positive approach towards learning through an interest and curiosity-driven form of schooling on the part of both the students and the educators. On the other hand, they also support the personal, social and professional development of young people, providing them with civic competencies and encouraging them to become active citizens within Danish society.
“Grundtvig’s ideas about empowering citizens through education and life enlightenment – so that they can help nurture and protect democracy – remain the cornerstone of the folk-high-school model and such schools play a central role in developing the whole person, raising awareness and helping young people to see that they have scope to act,” says Lisbeth Trinskjær.
A learning space without syllabi or exams
At the same time, through his ideas in relation to how “the living school must develop on its own terms and the child must be born before one may know what hat shall fit it,” Grundtvig has given folk high schools an important mandate of freedom.
For Lisbeth Trinskjær, it is precisely this freedom to formulate schooling within a changing society yet with solid roots in something constant – and entirely without curricula, exams or any other form of assessment – which represents the greatest strength of folk high schools.
“What makes folk high schools unique is their pedagogical learning spaces in which student interests are met with passion from their educators. Where students can experience exploratory immersion and space for their feelings, passions and their own thinking. This means students do not need a tactical approach to get high marks; instead they can pursue what they are truly passionate about – without being assessed.”
Students discover their role in democracy
Trinskjær’s view is that folk high schools offer young adults both a sense of community and a space for self-forgetting in an age that puts the spotlight on the individual. This is a space which stimulates their desire to act and helps students to discover their own role in democracy.
“There is nothing more dangerous for a society than a loss of trust in democracy and politicians, and what we try to do at the folk high schools is to show that politicians are better than their reputation. We create a space for dialogue and we bring debates into our schools – deep and nuanced debates.”
With regards to the climate crisis for example, Lisbeth Trinskjær views folk high schools as an experimentarium which introduces young people to greater possibilities for action.
“Young people approach the climate crisis with huge seriousness and exercise the power they have: buying second-hand clothes, reducing their emissions, adopting vegetarian/vegan diets and considering not having children, although this can only achieve so much.”
“The climate crisis demands international action and green investments, yet through agriculture, beekeeping, herb gardens and a focus on biodiversity across folk high schools, students learn through their own actions that they can make a difference. We try to make them aware that they are capable of taking action and posing a challenge – even to the political system.”
Folk high schools create social cohesion
Mads Rykind-Eriksen, headmaster at Denmark’s oldest folk high school, Rødding Højskole, is in full agreement. Danish folk high schools play a crucial role in the formation and cultivation of young adults. This is because learning at folk high schools is driven by self-motivation and not duty, and because the mission of these schools is to challenge their students, awaken their curiosity and to open their eyes to new aspects of life.
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RØDDING HØJSKOLE Rødding Højskole offers courses over two semesters per year taken typically by around 100 students at a time who each pay DKK 50,000 to 60,000 for a stay of between 4–6 months. The school also offers around 25 short courses aimed primarily at senior citizens and families. Each year the school hosts around 175 public events such as talks and lectures. All are open to the local population. The school has 26 employees. |
According to Mads Rykind-Eriksen, there are four things which Rødding Højskole wishes to impart to its students and participants: 1. Democratic education. 2. A greater awareness of the culture and history which surrounds Denmark and its citizens. 3. New knowledge that leaves them wiser than when they came. 4. Life and popular enlightenment.
“We try to help young people to understand that democracy is not par for the course or something we can take for granted, but rather something that we must fight for. To give them an awareness of their own continued engagement, whether that be through sports associations, political parties, landowners’ associations, boards, etc. – something that goes beyond simply one’s self,” explains Mads Rykind-Eriksen.
Precisely because of the four basic elements which underpin the model, he believes that folk high schools can help make young people aware that they are part of a larger community grounded in culture, language, history, values and norms.
“Folk high schools help to create cohesion in society and to safeguard the high level of trust that we have in our society,” he says.
Students gain a broader perspective
Right from its very beginnings, Rødding Højskole has been a general school and today students can take spring and autumn semester courses in seven main subject areas: autarky and agriculture, textiles and crafts, literature and horizons, music and performance, political perspective and the USA, design and innovation, and finally journalism and the Middle East.
"But we don't just teach subjects, we teach using subjects. For example, if students are learning about European history and the French revolution, they don’t just learn facts but they gain a perspective on the history – right up to the present day so that they understand democracy isn’t something that just dropped out of the sky.”
Beyond the subjects themselves, Rødding Højskole also works on life outlook, democratic education and citizenship through its daily assemblies and each Wednesday between 9am and 10am at the Rødding Debate which is always on current topics. Recent topics have included the war in Ukraine, voting age and consent.
Politicians are invited to the school whenever there is an election to the municipality, parliament or the EU, Constitution Day is always celebrated on 5 June each year, and once per year the school holds a political weekend called The People and The Power in collaboration with journalistic magazine Reason and the journalist Clement Kjærsgaard.
“We’re always trying to place things in a greater perspective and to get the students to realise that if they are to understand the Ukraine conflict, for example, they will need a broader perspective than TikTok. Because if you only have a limited perspective, it is not possible to either understand or to see the wider context.”
“At the same time, we also encourage them to take a position on ethical and political matters – to make them aware that what party we vote for reverberates in the society we get.”
Clarification in a community of learning
A similar type of school is the day folk high school which is not a boarding school but instead attended during the day. The VERA School of Art & Design in Copenhagen is a day folk high school in Copenhagen where young and creative people can pursue their interests in architecture and design, photography, clothing design or visual arts.
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VERA The VERA School of Art & Design has two semesters per year with courses in each of its five subject areas and typically has 70–80 students each semester who all pay DKK 13,800 to attend the school for a period of 18 weeks. The school is funded by the municipality and students must therefore be resident in the Municipality of Copenhagen. The school has 13 employees. |
“We help young and creative people along their way and offer them a community based around their interests. This allows them to bolster their competencies in the broadest possible way and to attain greater clarity with support from a social, learning and knowledge community. We also draw on our former students who act as career advisors,” says Richard Lehner, headmaster at VERA School of Art and Design.
“Young people are faced with many choices and that unbearable lightness surrounding all the choices and options that they are unsure what to do with – that is something day folk high schools can help young people with by providing clarity, strengthening them in their own position and providing them with time and space to reflect,” he says.
Students also receive guidance and support in getting into creative higher education programmes in Denmark and abroad.
Empowering young adults
The school places great emphasis on the empowerment of young adults. For example, through the school’s external exhibition space which is a gallery 500 metres from the school.
“We provide the time and the framework for young people to express and to practise their interests. They all work individually on their art, but then when they bring their pieces together into groups of five students to curate an exhibition, to hang them up and to hold an opening, they experience how their art takes on legitimacy. This allows them to stand tall and acquire a self-awareness which is hugely empowering,” explains Richard Lehner.
Despite its focus on art, the school is by no means an elite institution for artistic and creative disciplines.
“We place focus on helping the whole person to develop, so our courses are not really about mastering one’s artistic discipline but on becoming well-balanced and attaining a sense of clarity and serenity in life. Unlike other education institutions, we have great freedom of method and all of our educators have an artistic career on the side of their teaching. They understand very well what it is to work in the photography or art world in Denmark in 2022, so as a school we have a strong foothold in the here and now.”
At the same time, the day folk high school also views democratic education as a part of its mission statement. This is something which is pursued both in class but also through talks and morning assemblies, etc.
Social cohesion at folk high schools
While students at the VERA School of Art and Design must be residents of Copenhagen, folk-high-school students generally come from all over the country and this enables the schools to help create cohesion across society.
“Living with young people from all parts of the country – amongst different political views, different genders, different backgrounds – this is to experience first-hand that one’s own echo chamber is not the full extent of all that there is. This develops awareness and prepares students socially to understand what different people are like – including within Denmark – creating greater social cohesion as a result,” says Mads Rykind-Eriksen.
However, he recognises there is scope for the schools to go even further in this work – for example, by attracting more students from a trade and immigrant background.
“Immigrants are not familiar with the popular enlightenment mindset and like the Germans and many others, they tend to believe that it is a waste of money to attend a school that does not give you a universally recognised diploma. But it is certainly not a waste of money as students come away with the four basic elements under their belt: democratic education, learning, cultural/historical awareness and life/popular enlightenment,” he asserts.
Lisbeth Trinskjær points to personal finances as an obstacle when it comes to universal access to folk high schools.
“Some social groups simply do not have the money to fund time at a folk high school and at present there are 42 FTE students in Denmark’s folk high schools who are funded by the municipalities, so there is work to be done at a structural level – scholarship schemes or more forms of support,” she says.
“We can learn an incredible amount from contact with people who have different life stories to us, because this awakens empathy and a sense of responsibility for one another. As K.E. Løgstrup said, if we do not understand other people then we will not care about them. So our schools are popular, but we still need to do more work when it comes to social cohesion,” she explains.
Huge interest in Grundtvig’s ideas across the world
It is not only in Denmark that folk high schools are popular. Grundtvig's ideas spread quickly to Norway and today there are folk high schools located across the country. According to Lisbeth Tingskjær, there are folk-high-school-style civil society institutions which are inspired by the Danish model located in many places across the world.
“In the USA and several places in Europe there exist schools established by locals who studied at folk high schools in Denmark when they were young. These are schools with a focus on popular education and the development of civil society. Right now we have an initiative in Ukraine which has had to be suspended due to the war and we are also seeing an extreme interest in the folk-high-school model from Asia – in particular from Japan and Korea,” explains Lisbeth Tingskjær.
So Grundtvig's ideas about life enlightenment, popular enlightenment and democratic education are certainly alive and well.
FACTS ABOUT FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS
The idea for the Danish folk high school originated in the early 1830s from the theologian, author, philosopher, historian and politician N.F.S. Grundtvig.
His ideas concerned life enlightenment and popular education – and they were based on giving ordinary people an insight into matters that would allow them to participate in society.
The first Danish folk high school was Rødding Højskole in Schleswig. It opened in 1844 and led the fight to preserve Danish language and culture in the borderlands so that those who lived there could participate in the dawning democracy.
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS
- There are 75 folk high schools in Denmark divided into seven different types.
- Most are general and Grundtvigian schools. In addition there also exist specialised folk high schools, sports folk high schools, lifestyle folk high schools, Christian/spiritual folk high schools, youth folk high schools and folk high schools for senior citizens.
- Folk high schools are boarding schools where students live and receive instruction in different subjects and disciplines on relatively long courses lasting between 12 and 40 weeks or shorter courses which last one to two weeks.
- Each year, Danish folk high schools take in around 40,000 students/participants of which approximately 11,000 study longer courses.
- The cost of the long courses varies from around DKK 1,200 to 2,500 per week.
- You must be at least 16 years or older to attend a youth folk high school or 17 and a half to attend any of the others.
DAY FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS
- There are 17 day folk high schools in Denmark.
- Day folk high schools are institutions of popular education with a purpose, curriculum and environment that are marked by the folk-high-school model but which also serve to bolster participant prospects in terms of education and employment.
- Day folk high schools are in principle for all adults. Most are aimed at young adults but there are participants of all ages.
- Some day folk high schools have a distinctively academic profile while others specialise in working with people who have special needs due to health reasons, for example.
- Instruction and activities are imparted during the day at day folk high schools, typically between 20 and 30 hours per week.
- Around 4,000 participants per year attend classes at Danish day folk high schools.
