UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION
BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 22 WHOLE NUMBER 595
DANISH FOLK
SCHOOLS
By H. W. x^OGHT
specialist in rural education
bure.au of education
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1914
ADDITIONAL COPIES
OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
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V
CONTENTS.
Page.
Letter of transmittal 5
Preface 7
I. Recent Agricultural Evolution and the Folk High School U
Denmark a land where agricultme is a science 9
A marked reclamation service 9
Remarkalile growth of cooperative eutei-prise 10
Control unions and Government breeding centers 11
Parceling out the large estates 11
Rural social life 12
A correct outlook on life 13
The changes of a century 14
Place of the folk high school in the agricultural evolution 16
Testimony of leading economists and schoolmen 16
II. Evolution of the Folk High School in Denmark 18
Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1S72) 18
Gnmdtvig and the gospel of youth 20
Grundtvig's early ideas of what the school should be 21
King Christian VIII invited to open a royal free school for life 24
Roddiug folk high school founded 24
Kristen Kold (1816-1870) the real organizer of the folk high school 25
III. How the School is Organized and Administered 28
Ownership of the folk high schools 28
The teachers: Their training 30
The students who attend the schools 30
State aid to schools and students 32
Cost of schooling - 34
The school a democratic body 34
IV. The Subject Matter and Its Presentation 35
The spirit of the teaching 35
Two kinds of folk high schools 36
Some subjects of particular interest: Seng 36
Gymnastics and play life 37
Historical study the main background 38
Spiritual growth and the work of the day 39
V. Some Typical High Schools 41
General statement 41
A day at Roskilde Folk High School 41
Fredricksborg Folk High School, the inspirer of English schools 43
Vallekilde, a great folk high school 45
Haslev, a folk high school of the practical kind 47
Rj'slingo in Fyen, a historic school 49
Askov " Expanded " Folk High School 51
VI. Local Agricultural Schools and Their Work 55
General statement 55
Lyngby Agricultural School 56
Datum Agricultural and Dairy School 59
. The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute ^'^
VII. Special Agricultiu-al Schools for Small Holders and Rural Schools of Hou.sehold Economics ... 64
General statement
Kserehave Husmande (small-hold school) ^
Fyn Stifts School, near Odense ^
Rural schools of household economics
Haraldsborg School of Household Economics
3
70
4 . COITTEIsrTS.
Page.
VIII. The Folk High School Transplanted to Other Northern European Countries 71
The adaptability of the folk high schools 71
The folk school in Sweden 7I
H'V'ilan Folkhogskolan och Lantmarmaskolan 72
Origm of the Norwegian folk high schools 73
The folk high schools in Finland 74
The folk high schools on English soil 75
IX. Danish-American Folk High Schools in the United States 79
Early history 01 the transplantation 79
Elk Horn Folk High School 80
Nysted Folk High School 81
Danebod Folk High School 82
Hindrances to satisfactory growth of the Danish-American schools 83
X. Feasibility of Adapting the Folk High Schools to American Conditions 84
General statement 84
The agricultural reorganization 85
The old rural schools unable to cope with the situation 85
Coming of the farmers' centralized schools 86
How the reorganized schools may profit by the Danish system 86
The folk high-school spirit in our agricultural commimities 86
Inspirational lectures and extension courses 87
Short courses for all who need help 88
"Why there is need of schools for gro\\Ti-ups in the United States 88
The South Atlantic Higliland a good place to begin 89
The moonlight schools of Kentucky, an experunent in the elimination of adult illiteracy. 90
How the schools might be organized 92
Schools ia which to train the "inspirers" 92
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Plate l. A, Askov Folk High School, oldest and largest of the folk high schools; B, The historic
folk high school at Ryslinge Frontispiece.
2. A, Folk High School Gymnast; £, A group of folk high-school students, chosen to repre-
sent Denmark at the International Hygienic Congress at Dresden 16
3. X, Young women at play and gymnastics, Vallekilde Folk High School, Zealand; B,
"The White House," Askov Folk High School, .lutland 32
■4. A, Model 5-acre small hold operated as a park of the school for small holders near Odense,
Fyen; B, In the model kitchen, rural school of household economics, Haslev, Zealand.. 48
5. A, Datum Local Agricultural School near Odense, Fyen; experimental field in foreground;
B, Fircroft Folk High School, Bournville, England 64
e. A, Nysted Folk High School, Nysted, Howard County, Nebr.; B, Elk Horn Folk High
School, Elk Horn, Shelby County, Iowa SO
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Education,
Washington, January 3, 1914.
Sir: I am transmitting herewith for publication as a bulletin of
the Bureau of Education the third section of Harold W. Foght's
report on the rural schools of Denmark. This section of the report
pertains almost wholly to the folk high schools, which have by com-
mon consent been the most important factor in the transformation
in the rural life of Denmark and in the phenomenal economic and
social development of that countiy. In the 30 years from 1881 to
1912 the value of the exports of standard agricultural products —
bacon, eggs, and butter— increased from SI 2,000,000 to 8125,000,000.
Waste and worn-out lands have been reclaimed and renewed. Coop-
eration in production and marketing has become more common than
in any other country. Landlordism and farm tenantry have almost
disappeared. Only 2 per cent of Danish farmers are now tenants
or leaseholdei*3. Rural social life has become intelligent, organic,
and attractive. A high type of idealism has been diffused among
the masses of the people. A real democracy has been established.
This is the outgrowth of an educational system, universal, practical,
and democratic. Any agency so simple, modest, and inexpensive as
the Danish folk high school that can be considered even as one of the
important factors in such a result, or rather in such a combination of
results, is well worth careful study by the people of the United States.
That the Danish folk high school may be successfully transplanted
is abundantly shown by the success of such schools in other Scandi-
navian countries — Norway, Sweden, Finland. That the form of the
school must be modified for successful transplanting to English-
speaking countries is not only shown by the attempts to establish
schools of this kind in England and America, but is inherent in the
very nature of the schools and in the principles and ideals out of
which they have grown. I agree fully with Mr. Foght's suggestions
as to how these principles and ideals may be embodied as factors in
the readjustment of our rural public schools for children and applied
in the establishment of schools for the instruction of adult illiterates.
Both are desirable. An extensive study of rural conditions and needs
and of rural jDopulation in the United States has, however, led me to
5
t> LETTER OP TRANSMITTAL.
believe that with the necessary modifications to adapt them to varjdng
natural resources and economic and social conditions, schools of the
Danish type embodying the principles and ideals of Grundtvig, Flor,
Kold, Schroder, Appel, and other Danish educators — short course
schools for young men and women from 18 to 30 or 35 years old —
might be no less successful in America than they have been in Scan-
dina\dan countries.
Respectfully submitted.
P. P. Claxton,
Commissioner.
The Secretary of the Interior.
PREFACE.
The following pages tell briefly the story of Denmark's contribution
to the theory and practice of education; i. e., the Danish folk high
school. As Rousseau in his day preached the gospel of childhood,
so Grundtvig, the father of the folk high school, gave his life to the
gospel of young manhood and womanhood. Rousseau contended
that childhood was more than a preparation for becoming grown-up ;
Grundtvig proclaimed the significance of youth as a definite epoch
dm^ing which is determined much of the life to be lived by the man.
Out of Grundtvig' s philosophy of life a system of schools for
grown-up people gradually took shape. eTust such schools no other
country has produced. Almost any progressive people can boast
some sort of agricultm'al or other industrial schools preparing its
youth for the life tasks; but the Danish schools are quite different
from all such. The great work of these schools has been to lift
an entire wa,r-scarred, banki'upt nation out of its slough of despau*,
and to set it high among the producing peoples of tiic world. Nor
was this done immediately through carefidly wrought out technical
com'ses of study, but rather by disseminatmg a broad folk culture
among all the people — young and old alike — until illiteracy is now
practically unknown in the Kingdom. This latter has furnished a
broad-minded leadership in town and rural communities. Out of it
has come a love for home and soil and native land, and a remarkable
ability to cooperate, man with man, in matters of community and
national importance in a way that mere practical industrial schools
can never give.
As "rightful children" of the folk high schools, there have sprung
up local agricultural schools, schools of household economics, and
special schools for small-hold farmers. These furnish the practical
application for the great life principles promulgated and experienced
in the folk high schools. They form a system of rm*al schools com-
plete enough to furnish the broadest kmd of general culture ])roperly
balanced with the practical and technical, and yet so well done that
the highest good in life is more than able to hold its own with the
mere money side of things.
The folk high-school philosophy has been worked out with many
modifications. Some of the schools still adhere to the original
''cidtural" courses, pure and simple. Others have greatl}' modified
7
5 PEEFACE.
tlieir plans by striving to solve tlie bread and butter problems of the
people as well. That the former class of schools has exerted the
deepest and most lasting influence on the nation is certain. But, if
Danish folk school principles are to be in any wise made use of on this
side of the Atlantic, such will probably be adaptations from the
modified schools which, while stiU adhering to the deep cultural
ideas of Grundtvig as enunciated through the "living word," fuid
time to solve the pressing workaday problems of all who come within
the school's influence.
That some adaptation of the Danish folk high school is possible
and even highly desu-able in sections of the United States there can
scarcely be a question. The purpose of this bulletin is to tell in as
simple a manner as possible the story of these schools, emphasizing
what they have accomplished for the nation at large and for the
rural folk as individuals, in the hope of lending some assistance
to the earnest men and women who are at this time hard at work
to bring about an awakening in some of the retarded byways of our
own American rural life.
A general acknowledgment of assistance while studymg these
schools in Denmark and elsewhere was given in the preface to "The
educational svstem of rural Denmark" and needs no repetition here.
H. W. F,
December 2o, 1913
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
I.— RECENT AGRICULTURAL E^'OLUTION AND THE FOLK
HIGH SCHOOL.
Denmark a land icliere agriculture is a science. — Denmark is one of
the smallest kingdoms in Europe. The total land area measures less
than 15,000 square miles, making it less than one-haK the size of
Maine, and less than one-fom"th the size of Missouri. The soil is
natm-ally hght, and great sections of central and western Jutland are
sandy and almost worthless. The climate, while never extremely
cold, is raw and inhospitable the greater part of the 3'ear. The popu-
lation numbers about 2,800,000, of whom fuUy 61 per cent make
their living from the soil.
In tiiis much-handicapped land a mighty struggle has been waged
against nature. In less than two generations a poorly ordered agri-
cultural system has been changed into the most scientific to be found
anywhere on the Continent of Europe. The soil has been made
to yield abundantly, and its products have been placed upon the
world markets by the farmers themselves, v>^ho receive special training
for this very purpose. Nothing speaks in stronger terms for the suc-
cess of Danish agriculture than figures showing the surprisingly rapid
increase in the amount of annual exports. Thus, in 1881, just before
cooperative enterprise among the farmers had gained much head-
way, the net export in the three farm staples, bacon, butter, and eggs,
was valued at $12,010,000. In 1904, it had increased to $08,070,000,
and only eight years later had reached the surprisingly large sum of
$125,000,000. Such figures can be explained in one way only — the
application of broad general intelligence to agricultural production
and marketing, an intelligence induced by a system of schools pecul-
iarly adapted to nual needs.
A marJced reclamation service. — The old Denmark is being made
anew by the industry of man. The sand dunes that have been lieapcd
up by the North Sea for ages along the western shore of Jutland have
been checked in their inland drift. Great windbreaks of pine and
spruce are beginning to stop the force of the northwest winds. Vast
plantations of evergreen and deciduous trees are reclaiming the
heather regions at the heart of Jutland where nothing save ling
could grcv/ before. The very waters from the inland bogs are util-
ized to irrigate the dry upland heath and turn it into productive
9
10 THE DAXISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
meadow. Everywhere the heids and meadows are kept m a high state
of production through careful tilhng and fertilization. AU barnyard
manures are carefully husbanded and utilized. Great quantities of
marl are dug at great labor from deep beds and sprmkled over the
fields. Rock phosphates from the United States and elsewhere are
likewise used to coax the soil to produce. Great macadamized turn-
pikes have drawn the farmsteads close to the markets and made easy
the traffic in raw materials from farm to town. Free rm-al delivery
and parcels post are old and well tried. Rural telephones are com-
mon, and in many regions the farm homes and farm schools are lighted
with electricity generated by wind power.
RemarlcaUe groivth of cooperative enterprise. — To produce much
from the soil is but one side of agricultm'e; to be able to take these
products and place them upon the world markets to the best advan-
tage is quite another matter. The Danish farmer has solved both
the production and the distribution sides of his agricultm-e. In the
first place, as will be shown later, the folk high schools teach a mutual
trust and confidence which have made possible this remarkable devel-
opment in cooperative enterprise, and no one thing has played a
greater part in the agricultural prosperity than the spirit of coopera-
tion which prevails on every side.
More than 1,400 cooperative stores with several hundred thousand
members sell more than $20,000,000 worth of goods annually. In
addition, many scores of societies are formed for the joint purchas-
ing of feeding stuffs, fertilizers, etc. The selling associations are or-
ganized on a plan similar to the Engfish Rochdale system of stores.
The cooperative dairies and cheese factories were the first to
give Danish farm industries a name abroad. The fii'st cooperative
dairy was started as late as 1882. At the beginning of 1913 no less
than 1,188 such cooperative plants were busily at work. To these
may be added 328 private dairies, which make the total number
1,516. About 2,700,000,000 kilograms of milk, making fuUy 96,500,-
000 kilograms of butter, are handled in the cooperative plants. One
dairy alone — "Trifohum," at Haslev, Zealand — receives the milk
from 12,000 cows, treatmg at least 28,500,000 kilograms of milk;
40,000 cheeses of 50 varieties are usually stored in the cm'ing cel-
lars of the dairy, which if put end to end would cover fuUy 13 miles.
The small Kingdom boasts 64 weU-estabhshed bacon factories, of
which 42 are cooperative and managed by the farmers themselves.
Practically every farmer belongs to one or another of these enter-
prises. It matters not whether he is a small holder and produces
only half a dozen pigs a year or is a big estate owner boasting his
three or four hundred. Last year about 2,000,000 pigs were slaugh-
tered in the cooperative bacon factories, representing a value of fully
$30,000,000. This does not take into consideration the slaughtering
RECENT AGRICULTUEAL EVOLUTION. 11
of beef cattle, an important side industiy . Every pig killed for ex-
port is carefidly inspected by Government veterinarians and must be
absolutely free from every trace of disease or it can not receive the
Government's red export stamp. This bacon is sold on the English
markets in successful competition with the products of the Western
Hemisphere. All this work of preparing the pork products for the
markets, from raising the pig to selling it in London, is done by the
farmers trained for this work in the rural schools.
Even the exportation of eggs has been organized as a powerful
cooperative enterprise. This began in 1895 and is now earned on
from 500 gathering centers. The Danish eggs obtain remarkably
high prices abroad, because they are scientifically handled and sold
under absolute guarantee that they are fresh. This is made possible
by the branding system in vogue, and the severe regulations under
which the eggs are gathered, candled, and packed.
Control unions and Government breeding centers. — Agricultural effort
is systematized and kept at a liigh point of perfection by an army of
control union assistants or local agricultural experts trained in spe-
cial courses at the rural agricultural schools. These men test the
milk for butter fat, instruct in feeding, make soil analyses, and give
advice on how to fertilize. They instruct in forms of farm account-
ing, test cattle for tuberculosis, and in other ways lend direct assist-
ance to farming. There are 524 such unions at the present time.
The value of the organizations may be seen in the fact that during
the year 1911 the total number of milch cows belonging within the
unions gave on the average 600 pounds of milk or 23 pounds of butter
more each than did the cows not so owned. To systematize, to per-
fect, and to remove all waste is the endeavor of the control unions.
The National Government takes an active part in agricultural
progress by training a la,rge corps of farm experts who are at work
at the many experiment stations of the country or out among the
farmere. Of great importance are the efforts of the Government in
operating, or at least giving State aid for, the maintenance of breed-
ing centers for choice stock. Thus great work has been done for the
perfection of the two types of Danish native horses, the heavy
Jutish sorrels and the hghter Fredriksborg bays; likewise the fuie
black and white Jutish cov/s and the smaller red Fyen cows are
receiving much attention, as are also the large, wliite Danish '4and
swine" — the perfection bacon hogs.
Parceling out the large estates. — The day of landlordism — absentee
or otherwise — is a thing of the past in Denmark. Since the farmers
have learned to direct their own government, they have passed laws
which forbid the ioining of several farms alreadv established. On
the other hand, the partition of larger farms or estates nito small
parcels is encouraged by legislative enactment. The Government
12 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
encourages industrious farm laborers to become landowners, by
making direct long-time loans for this purpose at 3-| per cent. Local
credit unions of farmers are also organized to assist members of the
unions to borrow money to invest in land or farm improvements,
w^hich money can generally be procured at 4 per cent on the combined
credit of the organization. This solution of rural credits makes it
possible for men of small means to become independent, which would
be an im^possibility under other conditions. Only one-fifteenth of the
Danish farmers are now tenants or leaseholders. At this time
118,614 farms contain 7^ acres or less; 28,992 farms contain from 11|
to 22-1 acres; 35,257, from 33-| to 67^ acres; 6,502, from 135 to 270
acres; and 22 contain 540 acres and over. The latter are the old
entailed estates which have not yet been reached by the nev/ land
laws. It should be added, however, that during the last fev/ years
several of the large estates have been voluntarily parceled out into
small holdings. In this way intensive small farming is ever on the
increase.
Rural social life. — Two things, at least, are necessary to hold a
strong farm population on the soil. One of these is an economic
return from the land commensurate with the labor and money
invested. Without it no one can be contented to remain there.
Denmark has solved this side of the problem. The other pertains to
the social existence in rural communities. Even if agriculture is
made reasonably profitable as a calling, this alone mil not be suffi-
cient inducement to hold a large productive population on the farms.
Daily life must be kept humanly interesting and attractive there.
If the open country can not offer at least simple social attractions,
people will go v/here they can get them.
In these respects, too, Denmark has been fortunate. There is no
longer any danger of a cityward exodus. Many of the social prob-
lems confronting us in American rural communities have been cleared
away. First of all, the groat working factors in countr}^ life — the
school and church — have been able to hold their own against urban
influence. Strong churches and well-organized schools in charge of
devoted and w^ell-trained men who are giving their lives to the work
in the open country lie there as permanent citadels against any out-
side aggression. Much of the social life in the community is inspired
by these institutions. Pastors and teachers have their share in the
remarkably effective extension work emanating fi-om the folk high
schools and local agricultural schools. Because the social and recrea-
tive life is in the main directed from these sources, it is generally
wholesome. Each country parish has its own assembly hall and
gymnasium. The former is used for extension course lectures, by
the local singing union, and for matters of a similar nature. The
latter hold high place in Danish rural life. The gymnasium, in fact,
EECENT AGRICULTURAL EVOLUTION. . 13
is tlie center of the utliletic and play activities of the community.
Gymnastics is compulsory in all the rural schools and is continued
at home after the close of school life. It is not uncommon to see
gray beards among the drilling youngsters, turning handsprings and
vaulting the horse with the best of them. Such activities keep the
farm hearts eternally young. Another unique organization of the
farmers is the so-called sJcyttcforeninger or sharpshooters' associations.
These were founded years ago as patriotic volunteer organizations, to
hold themselves in readiness for the eventualities of war. With the
passage of time these clubs also have become centers for much of the
community's social life.
Last of mention, the schools are training young men and women
for a varied rural artisanship. The small holders' schools, expecially,
are doing a good Vv'ork here. Carpenters and masons who take special
interest in rural architecture; weavers, cobblers, and others who live
and do their work in the country or rural hamlets — all add their
fraction to rural-life betterment. It is well to remember that in the
United States we had at one time a Iwofold social life in rural dis-
tricts. There were the soil tillers, pure and simple, and the group of
artisans down at the crossroads — the blacksmith, whech\Tight, cab-
inetmaker, cobbler, weaver, etc. — who represented an important part
of our early social life. These have long ago disappeared, forced to
the cities because of inability to compete with the machine-made
wares there. Wliethcr our schools or other forces shall be able to
reconstruct such an artisanship, or v/hethcr this is at all desirable, is
quite another question.
A correct outlook on life. — Danish farmers have learned to take the
right outlook on life. They have learned in a generation that agri-
cultural life needs not be complementary of city life. Such farmers
are no longer sTibject to newspaper cartoonmg or witty lampooning.
They have found their strength and are exerting it in a wholesome
way for national improvement. With the conquest of the soil came
new, hitherto unknowTi, powers. The schools pointed the way. In
order best to handle the products of the soil, good laws were neces-
sary. This led the way to politics. The radical or left party, which
is composed mainly of small and middle-class farmers, is now in full
control of the Covcrnment and the Rigsdag. Practically the entire
cabinet, from tlie prime mmister down, is made up of men from the
rural communities; and most of the progressive agi'icultural and social
legislation enacted in recent years can be traced to the radical party.
Once again, it may be asserted that the folk high schools and schools
that have gro^\^l out of them, arc largely responsible for this social-
economic evolution. But before entering into detail upon the story
of the schools, the beginnings of the agricultural evolution must here
be told in order fully to make clear the remarkable changes wi'ought
by them in the life of the people.-
14 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
Tlie changes of a century. — The middle of the eighteenth century
found Danish agriculture in a deplorable condition. The bulk of
tillable lands had, down thi'ough the times, become centered in an
arrogant land-holding nobility or in the Crown. Not many of the
one-time powerful free-landed peasantry had been strong enough to
survive the changeable times of the middle ages as independent land-
owners, xi majority of them had been forced into a condition of
serfdom, under which they must remain on the estate where born,
from the age of 4 to 35; and after the period of bondage was ended
were obliged under law to rent land lots from their recent overlords
on conditions most intolerable. Among other burdens, they were
subject to Hoveri, or working a definite number of days weekly on
the head estate. In addition, they were ground down by heavy
tithings; and personal initiative was curbed by the system, then in
vogue, of working the soil in common. The soil was poorly managed,
and science in agriculture unknown. Even the National Government
seemed to discripainate deliberately against the struggling peasants
through unfair legislation — especially in the form of exorbitant export
duties. To fill the cup of the peasants' despair, a virulent cattle
plague swept the country and closed the markets of Hamburg against
cattle, their chief export.
In the middle of one of Copenhagen's most prominent thorough-
fares stands a rather. plain obelisk called FriJieds Stotte, or liberty
monument. It was erected to commemorate the freeing of the serfs
in 1788. On the one side it bears the inscription: ''The King saw
that Civic Freedom fixed in righteous law gives Love of Country,
Courage for its Defense, Desire for Ivnowledge, Longing for Industry^
Hope of Prosperity;" and on the other, "The King bade that Serf-
dom should cease; that to the Land laws should be given Order and
Might; that the free Peasants may become brave and enlightened,
industrious and good, an honorable citizen, in happiness." These
words of wisdom and prophecy have been fully justified by a century
of attainment on the part of the freedmen.
The first reforms had already come in 1781, when communism in
landholding was abandoned. Three years later the great Crown
estates were parceled out; then, in 1788, serfdom came to an end.
Export duties were lifted on corn and cattle, and the Government
established a credit fund to help the new small holders get on their
feet. This period of reform wrought wonders in the life of the people.
Much progress was made in agriculture. The public schools were
improved and intelligence grew apace. Then came the Napoleonic
wars, carrying with them widespread national ruin. The war left
Denmark politically crushed. Her fleets were gone, and with them
her power at sea; Norwa,y was lost for good, leaving a shrunken geo-
graphical area and a discouraged peoi')le. As soon as the embargoes on
KECENT AGRICULTURAL EVOLUTION. 15
foodstuffs were lifted, gi'ain prices fell to below the cost of production.
The period 1823 to 1825 saw a great crisis in the agricultural life of the
nation. More than one-third of all the big estates went under the
hammer and changed hands. Once more patriotic leaders came to
the succor and brought about additional reforms which gave grad-
ual relief.
The second great national shock came with the disastrous German
war of 1864. A struggle, long drawn and embittered by national
differences, had culminated in 1848 in a desperate war between Den-
mark and the rebellious duchies of Schleswig and Ilolstein. For the
time being Denmark came out victorious. But the fii'es of bitterness
fed by race differences were kept alive. In north Schleswig, where
an overwhelming number of people were Danish speaking, the offi-
cials were German sympathizers and did all in their power to stir
contention and strife. At this critical time the first folk high school
in history was established at Rodding (1844), just a few miles south of
the present boundary between Germany and Denmark. Thus the
first of these schools took root in patriotic seed ground. Around it
was waged a bitter struggle for national existence; and when Schles-
wig became foreign soil at the close of the war, the school was moved
bodily from Roddmg to Vejen on the Danish side of the border,
where mider the name of AsJcov FoTkehdjskole it became the alma
mater of the folk high schools of the land.
Wlien ail seemed lost, and the nation was sinking in a lethargy of
despair, new voices were heard in the land. A new philosophy was
promulgated; it taught that education must become universal, prac-
tical, and democratic, that hereafter Denmark's defense must be built
on the foundation of broad intelligence, rooted in the love of
God and home and native land. The father of the new philosophy
was Bishop Nikolai Frederik Soverin Grundtvig. Aided by Kristen
Kold and others, he laid the foundation for the folk high schools,
which were destined to revolutionize Danish rural life. The elemen-
tary schools, too, felt the new influence and strove to answer the needs
of the new times. The people were eager to listen and to act. The
new spirit expressed itself in more ways than in schools. Christian
Dalgas and his coworkers began the gigantic task of reforesting the
heather lands of Jutland, and draining the bogs and irrigating the
upland moors. In a lifetime almost as much tillable land has been
reclaimed as was lost to the enemy. C. F. Tietgen became the chief
spirit in a movement to reorganize commerce and manufacture; and
more recently Svend Hogsbro and others with him have drawn the
farmers into a remarkable system of cooperative buying, producing,
and selling associations, which are now the envy and marvel of the
world. A new era of national prosperity came into being, in which
a scientific agriculture is the most important economic factor.
Indeed, fully 88 per cent of the country's export trade falls under the
IG THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
head of '' agricultural produce," v/iiile manufactures, other tlir.ii farm
products, represent only 8 per cent and fishing 4 per cent.
Place of tlie folic high school in the agricultural evolution. — Askov
Folk High School and four score schools of a similar kind have brought
about most of these changes. They came into being at a time when
the nation was politically distraught and needed a healing and uni-
fying influence. They succeeded in harmonizing the discordant ele-
ments, binding all classes together in the common bond of love of
fatherland. Duty and opportunity became watchwords. The edu-
cated seized upon their opportunity and gave the best they had in
them for their country; the ignorant became educated and in time
formed a great working force for a better Denmark.
Just how the folk high schools have been instrumental in Den-
mark's political rebirth, and how they have led the way to its present
economic independence will be told in detail later. Let it suffice at
this point to say, that while the schools do not immediately emphasize
the so-called worldly practical, they do give something instead that has
proved of vastly greater importance — a broad culture, furnishing its
possessor with a keen world outlook, making him altruistic, strong in
love of God and fellowman, of home and soil and native land. Above
everything else, the life lived in the schools imparts a deep confidence
and trust in ma,n, thereby making possible all the remarkable coopera-
tive enterprises spoken of above. And last of mention, the folk
high-school life has made clear to its students that success in life
should be measured by standards other and higher than mere money
standards, and with such practical results that achievement for land
and people is in Denmark esteemed to-day far above successful accu-
mulation of wealth. The teacher, the preacher, the economist, the
man who gives his best for his country, holds higher rank than the
man who has heaped up a great fortune.
Testimony of leading economists and schoolmen. — That the folk high
schools are to be credited with organizing zmd systematizing Danish
agriculture seems almost incredible at first. Foreign educators and
parliamentary and congressional commissions have come to study the
schools in skeptical mood and have gone away convinced. One needs
only to take the testimony of the Danish leaders themselves. On all
his trip of investigation, the writer could find no man willing to give
the credit to an organization other than the folk high schools. To be
sure, many would point to contributory causes and the good work of
the local agricultural schools, but even these are the "rightful chil-
dren" of the folk schools.
Says Poul la Cour, the late lamented scientist of Askov:
Just as an enrichment of the soil gives the best conditions for the seeds sown in it,
BO the horizon-broadening, well-gi'ounded training of the folk high schools provides
the surest basis for business capacity, and not the leaat so in the case of the coming
farmer.
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 22 PLATE 2
A. FOLK HIGH-SCHOOL GYMNAST.
B. A GROUP OF FOLK HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS.
Chosen to represent Denmark at the International Hygienic Congress at Dresden.
KECEXT AGRICULTUEAL EVOLUTION. 17
This much for the general cultural value of the folk-school educa-
tion. Speoking on another occasion in regard to the almost phenom-
enal spread of cooperation, La Cour says:
The resoluteness and capacity vath which Danish farmere passed over from making
a quantity of poor butter on the smaller farms and holdings iip and down the country
to the manufacturing in cooperative dairies of a butter of almost uniform fineness ia
no doubt the consequence of their having had expert leadera like the late N.J. Fjord,
without whom no progress could have been made. But the question remains, how a
great agiicultvu-ai population in so short a time could be induced to follow dh'ectiona
and carry the matter through.'
By way of getting an answer to this query, Mr. la Cour sent out a
questionnaire to 970 cooperative dairies and 260 dairies of a private
nature. Unfortunately only 436 of these made answer; but even tliis
was sufficient to give a good idea of how these leaders are trained.
The answers showed that of the men in charge of the plants, 47 per
cent had attended some folk high school, 62 per cent some dairy
school, 24 per cent had attended some local agricultural school, and
90 per cent had been at one or another of these schools, which are all
imbued with some degree of Grundtvig's philosophy.
Prmcipal Alfred Poulsen, of Ryshnge, speaking in similar vcm on
the same subject, says:
The quickness and precision with which this change was carried out is due partly
to the leading agriculturists of our country and partly to the high schools. By their
help a set of young, energetic men were brought up to understand the importance of
the new ideas; and to secure the success of the new principle of cooperative manufac-
ture. Some of them, after a very short course of professional instruction, were able
to undertake the responsible work as managers of the larger and smaller cooperative
dairies.^
Hon. M. P. Blem, of Copenhagen, one of the keenest of the modern
agi'icultural leaders, in conversation with the writer declared that —
the greatest factor in our national agricultural life is the high schools; for at these a
staff of able young men and women are annually trained and sent out, men and women
who with open eye and undaunted courage go out into jDractical farming life and with
energj^and understanding perform the work they have been trained and perfected in.^
Sir Horace Plunkett, who has himself made a careful stud}^ of
agriculture in Denmark, says :
A friend of mine who was studpng the Danish system of State aid to agriculture,
found this [that the extraordinary national progress was due to the folk high school]
to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, and was astounded at the achievements of
the associations of farmers not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more
difficult undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with all the
most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised for the production
of the finished article. He at first concluded that this success in a highly technical
1 Odense Maelkeritidende No. 31, Aug. 6, 1907.
2 Poulsen. The Danish Popular High School, p. If.
3 See also Blem Report of the Cooperative Movement in Denmark, p. 7.
49720°— 14 2
18 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
industry by bodies of farmers indicated a very perfect system of technical education.
But he soon found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists
of the country said to him: "It's not technical instruction, it's the humanities." ^
A great mass of similar evidence could be furnished to show how
the folk high-school influence is viewed by those intimate with the
schools; but enough testimony has already been introduced to satisfy
the reader on the point of the importance of the part played by the
folk high schools in Danish national life. It is now time to ask just
how these schools originated, and how they have gro%vn into their
present power and influence. These queries will be answered in the
following section.
II.— EVOLUTION OF THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL IN
DEmiARK.
Nikolai FrederiTc Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872).— To tell the
story of the beginnings of the Danish folk high school is virtually to
unfold the narrative of the long and useful life of its originator,
Bishop Grundtvig. This master mind dominated the educational
and theological world in the north for nearly thi'ee-quarters of a
century, and placed the indelible stamp of his spirit upon the national
life in Denmark and, to a lesser degree, in Norway and Sweden.
Poet, philosopher, historian, theologian, and educator, he became
not alone the schools' spiritual father, but his philosophy of civih-
zation has come to form the pedagogical foundation of the schools,
while his reHgious zeal has given them their marked characteristics,
making these schools distinctive in the educational world.
Grundtvig came of an ancient, worthy family. From his mother,
who sprang from an ancestry renowned in national annals, he inher-
ited a love of historic research. He lived in a world of books till
the age of 9, when, according to the custom of the day, he entered the
household of a minister near Vejle, on the edge of the gloomy Jutish
heather, where he spent six years in preparation for the Latin school.
While roaming the heather young Grundtvig became intimate with
the somber life of the folk hving on the monotonous moor, a fact
which stood him well in stead later when his life work for the common
people began.
In 1798 he entered the Latin school at Aarhus, and spent there, as
he later tells, two wasted years. For this institution was one of the
narrow, scholastic type prevalent in those days, where natural boys
were compelled to absorb much Latin and catechism through a
meaningless memoriter process. The result of it all was that from
this time onward Grundtvig became the irreconcilable foe of the old
aristocratic Latin schools with their deademng formahsm and dis-
1 Plunkett. Ireland in the New Century.
EVOLUTION OF THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL. 19
daln for the masses of the people. In 1800 he came to Copenhagen
to prepare for his university entrance examinations. Kere he almost
immediately fell under the influence of Dr. Stefl'ens, the friend of
Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, and SchelUng, through whose inspiring
lectures he was first carried into a new thought world of philosophy^
history, and literature, which was later destined to change his entu-e
life and the thought life of the nation.
An impossible love affair awakened the poetic in Grundtvig's
nature, who despairingly strove to drown his passion in Goethe,
Schiller, and Shakespeare. His poems and translations soon began
to appear in leading periodicals. Especially did he enter heart and
soul upon the study of Norse mythology, and in 1808 his great work,
"Norse Mythology" was published. His fame immediately spread
over northern Europe, Frederik Schlegel, in his enthusiasm, pro-
claiming Grundtvig Denmark's greatest poet.
These had been trying years for the war-pressed nation. The
unwelcome alliance with Bonaparte; the desperate naval battle with
Lord Nelson's English fleet in Copenhagen Harbor; later the bom-
bardment of Copenhagen; the desperate though hopeless resistance
of the remnants of a one-time proud naval force — all had a paralyzing
eft'ect on the feeling of nationality among the masses. At least so
it seemed to the young enthusiast, who with sorrow contrasted the
time in which he lived with the days when Danish ravens scoured
every sea and Norse Viking names struck terror in craven hearts.
The people, he felt, no longer knew the glorious story of Valhalla
and the ancient gods. Their very origin, as sons of the free, uncon-
quered north, seemed even to have lost its meaning. He must
write and translate and through books acquaint this people with
their own glorious past and so inspire them to future deeds! Thus
began long years of literary activity, maldng him, perhaps, the most
voluminous of Danish writers.
In spite of the fact that his manuscripts would have filled at least
30,000 octavo pages he was in no sense a bookworm. His was
properly a great pan-Germanic spirit, ever striving for expression.
It has been said of Grundtvig "that he dreamed so mightily that
he made a world thereof." His researches, so patiently carried on,
were not for the mere love of study; but for the fruits he could bring
the people. Poetry was to him the language of the heart, through
which he best could touch responding chords in the hearts of others.
Meanwhile Grundtvig had completed his theological education
and entered the active pastorate. Almost immediately he found
hunself deep in a struggle against all that was false and formal in
the State church. This led to an open break with officialdom and
high church dignitaries. Finally the pulpit was closed against his
polemics, but not before the demand for reforms had gone too far
20 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
to be checked; and Grundtvig lived to see a new freedom in cliurcli
organization adopted by the country in keeping with the other re-
forms inspired by him.
In 1828 Grundtvig retired from the active ministry, and the
historian, poet, and student of research in him again steps into the
foreground. During the great activity of this period he translated
Snorre Sturlason's Heimskringla from the original Icelandic, and
put Saxo Grammaticus's Chronicles of Denmark from Latin into
homely Danish. Similarly, he translated Beowulf from the Anglo-
Saxon into Danish. These gigantic tasks were inspired by a love
for the masses, in a desire to make the great literature of tho old
north available to all. His purpose was to bring the glorious past
to the common people in such simple and attractive garb that the
slumbering memories of a great ancestry would stir the discouraged
among them to renewed effort.
About this timo Grundtvig made several trips to England, where
he pursued his researches at Oxford and Cambridge. Here it came
to him as an unpleasant shock that England had a throbbing, pul-
satmg folk life which stood in striking contrast to the sluggish indif-
ference of the peasantry at home. Again he had found his spur to
further effort. When he returned home it was as a Columbus "with
sunshme in his eye and a new world in his heart."
Awake! Awake! O Danish Knighthood,
Day and Deed spell Hero Rli^Tne.
Dr. Hollmann says:
By this time he was clear in his own mind that books are the shadow only of the
living word; his own experience had clearly enough taught him that no people can
be roused by books alone, e^-en though these may be ever so soulful. He even went
80 far as to smile at his own impatience that neither the old nor the new writings
could give new life to the Norse spirit and the Danish tree of life.^
From now on plans for a school that could bind all classes together
through a common folk culture were gradually taking form in his
mind. At first it looked as though Grundtvig might organize the
work in person; but this was not to be. He became reconciled to
stand as the great inspiror and left the practical realization to others
perhaps better fitted for this phase of the work.
Grundtvig and the gospel of youth. — "Youth," asserts Grundtvig,
"is the creative period of the spirit when the great hopes and visions
appear that foreshadow the period of maturity and when the soul
reaches out for the cloak that fits it." He would place the youth
under inspired and inspiring teachers at a time when impressionable
to the noblest ideals in life. There must bo an awakening of the
s])irit. The youth are to be taken in hand toward the close of the
period of adolescence, when all young people are ready "to hitch
1 Ilollmann, Dr. A. H. Den Dansko Folkehojskole, p. 20.
EVOLUTION OF THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL. 21
their little wagon to a star," when the fires of hope burn briglit.
To get them to pause, to think, to ask themselves the question,
What are we ? and Why are we ? — to turn introspectively and examine
into their own souls in search of the purpose of life — all this is the
first work of the ''inspirers." With some glimmer of comprehension
of life purpose comes the birth of altruism and love for fellow man.
Now the awakening is carried on apace. It is to be Christian, his-
torical, national, and individual. Such work calls for great teachers —
men who are ''gifted with enthusiasm for what is historically true,
ethically noble, and esthetically beautiful," and for "a continuation
of the best home influence, only intensified and broadened."^ Den-
mark has been fortunate in such teachers, and the schools, in their
daily life, furnish the intensified home influence.
Grundtvig abhorred the narrow humanistic schools of his day.
He called them "the black school" and "the school for death."
"The chief characteristic of the prevailing humanism," he asserted,
"was to turn its back upon the homelike and 'folkly.' " The Roman
flood, as he called the learning of the day, was a tragedy which had
robbed the north European nations of much of what was innermost
and best. The schools had given stones instead of bread, and filled
the youth with questionable impressions of a foreign culture at the
expense of their own virile northern culture.
Grundtvig had practical reasons as weU for combating the so-called
learned schools of his day. "AU these institutions have the fault,"
he said, ' ' that they embitter their students against ordinary worka-
day activities, so that they lose all desire to handle hammer, tongs,
and plow, and can no longer feel happy in the ordmary manual activi-
ties."^ The learned schools trained the few to become professors in
the university and to hold "fat li\angs " in Government office. Mean-
while the masses were left to shift for themselves. The folk-school
philosophy came as a powerful protest against this prevaihng system
and led to its ultimate overthrow.
Grundtvig' s early ideas ofvSJiat tlie school should he. — The great bishop
never outlined a definite plan for the school; but he did promulgate,
from time to time, as his ideas on the subject became crystallized, the
great working principles around which the school is built. It was
left for Kristen Kold and others to make the practical application in
the school.
First of all, the ultimate aim of the schools must not be "examina-
tions foUowcd by a Government living;"^ but rather a culture, an
enlightenment, which shall be its own reward. The main thing must
be, "that which is Uving, mutual, and simple"^ — that which every
1 Bay, John Christian. Conference for Education in the South, igU, p. 163.
s See nollraann, Dr. A. II. Den Dansko Folkehojskole, p. 29.
3 See Grundtvig. Skolen for Livet, Smaaskrilter, p. 135.
4 Ibid.
22 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
mail can afford to seek, because it is useful and ^dll add zest and
enjoyment to life.
Secondly, books must not be unduly emphasized. This does not
mean the wholesale condemnation of books, but is a protest against
the useless heaping up of book learning for no other purpose, seem-
ingly, than to pass an examination. Books will continue as necessary
compendiums, that is true; but in the new schools the voice from the
speakers' stand shall wing the teacher's personality to the students,
so that individual students may feel their own personality quickened
into life.
Again, the method used in presenting the subjects is at least as
important as the subject matter. Grundtvig exclaims:
It is in no wise enough, although necessary, in the Danish folk high schools to strive
to acquaint the youth with a mother tongue, with history, sociology, and statistics,
with constitution and law, administration and municipal affairs; for this might all be
done in such a stiff, dead, tiresome, and even "un-Danish" way that the folk school
would become an empty shadow or a land plague. ^
The school was to be based on the historic-poetical and above
everything else have a decided national stamp. That Grundtvig
should emphasize the national element above everything else is
readily explainable in the Danish struggle for national existence.
The use of the Danish "folkelig," which everywhere appears in
Grundtvig's system, carries a deeper meaning than our ''popular."
The German "Volldsch" comes nearer to expressing it. It is ''pop-
ular," but it is "popular" in its nationalistic setting. Wlien Grundt-
vig emphasizes the national element as necessary in the schools he
"meant thereby what he himself was — a deep national personaUty,
grown up in the historic soil of the fatherland, bearing the imprint of
its language, and soul-inspired by its 'folkly' peculiarities."'
In consequence, the follv high school should concern itself first of
all with the fatherland, with its nature, its history, its needs, its occu-
pations, and its shortcomings. First in the list of subjects must
come the mother tongue and all that belongs to it — Uterature, song,
music, and the like.
The folk high school has been highly successful in teaching its
students to express themselves in pure, ringing Danish, and to sing
the virile folk songs and hero ballads. Likewise, it has created a
taste for the fine old Norse Sagas and the best in more recent litera-
ture. All this may seem to vary in no wise from the ordinary curricu-
lum. One must be in the schools and follow the methods used and
feel the spirit of the students to understand full}^ Grundtvig himself
used tlio purest of Danish and his prose writings have had a purifying
effect on the language; his j^salms are sung everywhere in Danish
iSmaaskrirter, p. 181. auen Dansko Folkehojskole, p. 35.
evoltjtiojSt of the folk high school. 23
churches, and his folk songs, to this day, hold first place in the average
home.
To digress a little here, Dr. Hollmami, who has studied ^ the schools
carefully, has this to say al)out the remarkable influence of language
study in the folk high schools on the nation at large:
The foreigner is surprised, as a rule, when he hears that in Denmark plain peasants
are the leaders of debate in the Rigsdag and control the more important Government
offices; and he is even more surprised when he has had opportunity to hear them give
their views on important questions in the Rigsdag or at agricultural meetings. The
foreigner will, i>erhaps, be even more surprised when he hears in the Danish, folk high
schools lectures given to young people of nothing more than ordinary common-school
preparation on Hegel, Schleiermacher, and the modern philosophical and social
problems.
The "living word" in these schools does not usually concern itself
with what one would call ''popular" lectures; it strives to make real
thinkers out of the sturdy, red-fisted youths on the school benches by
offering the best food for thought, and it teaches them to express
themselves in pure, incisive Danish.
Then, again, the schools must be supplied with teachers able to
Use the "living word" so intimately, so soulfully, so poetically as to
bridge the span between speaker and hearei-s. This is really the
very foundation of the folk high-school system and the secret of its
success. Those of the teachers who have been most successful in
their wbrk have not been noted for great oratorical gift nor have
they employed the intimately technical methods of the search-
ing scientist. The middle ground has been theirs. Says Hollmann:
These men speak without ecstacy, use no bombastic, flowery language; but through-
out the lecture there courses a deep undercurrent of feeling that goes right to the heart
and holds the attention. They speak as would men of a rich inner life concerning
the matters they deal with; much as the rays from a lighthouse that i)enetrate the
surface of the deep, so as to light up for the moment the turmoil of the rolling billows
in the otherwise monotonous darkness.^
Finally, the work of the school must rest on a historical founda-
tion. The subject matter shall not lay emphasis on mere facts,
chronological arrangement, and memoriter processes. Grundtvig
would prefer teaching of the kind the old Norse skjalds or minnesing-
ers did, who through fiery song told the valor of old to spur the
living to greater deeds. To him the history of the fatherland v\'as a
living story Avhich should be narrated from man to man, from gen-
eration to generation. With all this the practical side of life was not
to be neglected. He would emphasize ''statistics" or, as now under-
stood, economics and sociology. There should also be an under-
standing of the constitution and law of the land. Even a study of
local municipal affairs is hinted at in some of his writings.
I Den Danske Folkehojskole, p. 36. 2 Ibid., p. 40.
24 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
It should be ma.de clear here that Griindtvig warns against all man-
ner of technical instruction in the schools. He believed sincerely
that such would be impossible alongside of the general culture.
Practical agriculture, for example, and the application of cooperative
enterprise through the schools held no place in his plans.
It is true that had he lived in our day he would, without question,
have included the history of agriculture, the theory of cooperative
enterprise, etc., in the curriculum, but the fact remains that he did
not, and whatever of imiovation has come in recent years must be
accredited to other leadei-s.
King CJiristian VIII invited to oj^en a Royal Free School for Life. —
It early became Grundtvig's dearest hope to see a high school for the
people established at historic Soro, in Zealand. Here, on the site of
one of the most noted monasteries of the middle ages, stands '^Soro
Akademi/' the best endowed and most noted classical school in the
Kingdom, aside from the National University, He eagerly set
about convincing King Christian VIII of the vast significance of
such a step for the future welfare of the people. The Queen, Cai^oline
Amalie, became his enthusiastic ally. Says Grundtvig:
If King Christian VIII, as I gladly hope, opens such a royal free schooljpxlifer^ef-
popular life in Denmark, he will be able, not merely to smile at the papers when they
praise or blame him, but also to rejoice in a popular remedy just as wonderful as our
absolute kings; for he has thereto opened a well of healing in the land, which will be
sought by crowds from generation to generation and will win this renown, even in
distant lands and in far future days, that therem, past counting, blind people received
their light, the deaf their hearing, and the dumb their speech, and that there the halt
cast away tlieir crutclies and showed clearly that the dance trips it clearly through the
wood.^
The King was practically converted to Grundtvig's views and
requested him to outline a definite plan for the school. Meanwhile
unexpected difficulties were encountered in the bitter opposition of
members of the university faculty and the minister of education.
This led the King to postpone the matter, and with his sudden death
in 1848 all hope of realization was abandoned. But probably this
was fortunate for the future of the folk high schools. As it later
proved, the strength of the school has lain in its leadei-ship; if this is
unworthy, the school — being a private enterprise — can easily be
"snuffed out" and a new one begun by other leaders. For, it should
be recalled, the strength of these schools has never been in imposing
buildings or excellent equi])ment, but in leadership solely.
Rodding folk liigli school founded. — It was stated elsewhere that the
fii^t of the folk high schools came into being in north Schleswig at a
time when national existence was threatened there. The common
])Cople were Danish speaking, but the Government officials were, for
the most part, German sympathizei's and adherents of the House of
' Skolen for Livet og Akademiet i Soer.
EVOLUTION OF THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL. 25
Augiistcnburg. Dr. (liristian Flor, who was professor of Danish
languago and literature at Kiel University, became the great cham-
pion in the movement to establish the Eodding school. When it
opened, in 1844, to a score of peasant lads, it v:ould have been hard
to see anything in this humble institution to betoken the great future
destined to come to the new kind of school.
The purpose of the school was stated in the school's first circular
and reads as follows:
The aim set is to fuund an institution where peasant or burgher can attain useful
and desirable arts, not so much vnth immediate application to his particular calling
in life as with reference to his place as a native son of the land and a citizen of the
State. We call it a high school because it is not to be an ordinary school for growing
children, but an institution of learning in part for young people above the confirma-
tion age, in part for full-grown men; and we call it a folk high school because members
of every station in life may gain admittance to it, although it is primarily adapted to
the needs of the peasantry and from it the school chiefly looks for its students.^
Rodding had a stirring existence. The first principal, Johau
Wegener, resigned after a year, compelled by financial and other
difficulties. Then Dr. Flor himself led the destinies of the school
until the uprising broke out against Danish authority in 1848. The
school remained closed down to 1850, when Dr. Flor once more
succeeded in putting it upon its feet. But no sooner had the financial
and poHtical difficulties been smoothed over than a difference fraught
wdth the greatest importance to the future of these schools reached
a crisis. This was what might be called a struggle between spirit
and matter. The faculty was about evenly divided on the question
whether the school should continue as a cultural institution or become
a school of technical instruction. A heated and often bitter period of
discussion followed; but it ended finally with Grundtvig's philosophy
winning the \'ictory.
In 1862, one of Denmark's greatest folk high-school leaders, Ludvig
Schroder, cast in his lot with the destinies of Rodding. In 18G4, the
German war broke out and, again, the school was abandoned. At
the conclusion of peace the friends of the institution moved it from
Rodding across to the other side of the new boundary fine. Here,
under the name of Askov Folkehojskole, it has grown under Ludvig
Schroder's leadership to become the greatest of all the folk high
schools.
Rodding could not be called typical of the folk high schools. It
was too closely tied up with the purpose of preserving nationaUty
and mother tongue in north Schlesmg to make of it such a factor
in folk culture as the schools of present-day Denmark have become.
Kristen Kold {1816-1870) the real organizer of the folk high scliools. — •
Bishop Grundtvig's folk liigh-school ideas w'ere in a sense an abstrac-
tion containing certain fundamental principles for a unique national
• Schroder. Deii Nordiske Folkehojskole, p. 46.
26 THE DAI^ISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
education. But he never reduced his pliilosophy to the tangible, so
as to give expression to a ciystallized system, applicable to time and
place. This certainly does not diminish the importance of Grundtvig's
work in the great cause of popular education. He must continue to
stand iDreeminently as the "great inspirer."
Of those wl;o realized Grundtvig's theories in practice, Kiisten
Kold should have first place — and this, not because he did so much
more than others, but because he pointed the way and gave the
schools the first impetus in the right direction. He was born in 1816,
the son of a shoemaker, who originally intended the boy to follow the
cobbler's trade. After much beseecliing his parents permitted liim
to become a school-teacher. He spent two years (1843-1845) at
Snedsted Teachers' Seminary, and tliis was followed by a period as
tutor in private families and as assistant teacher in various schools.
It dawned upon him by degrees that the methods of teacliing then
in vogue were wrong and often even cruel.
One day he found a little girl pupil weeping bitterly because she
could not learn a difficult explanation in the catecliism. Then it was
that Kold asked himself, "Can it really be God's will that children
be thus tortured ^\dth learning by rote?" Then and there he broke
every established usage in the traditional system; for, thrusting the
book aside, he began talking over the substance of the lesson with
the children, explaining it to them in detail, and permitting them to
ask questions upon it. This innovation led to a breach with the
archdeacon, the bishop, and the ministry of education, and in a short
while the public schools were closed against liim. He then spent
two years in Smyrna as a missionary. On the way home he became
practically stranded at Trieste, for want of funds. The indomitable
courage of the man can be seen in the way he returned to Denmark.
Spending his last penny for a small draw cart, he put all his earthly l
belongings into this and started northward overland. It took over "
two months to make the journey; but, he says, "it was worth it."
Kold had the kind of nerve required in those days of the successful
reformer; for to suggest any kind of school reform invariably meant
to invite the opprobrium of learned officialdom.
Kristcn Kold was stirred mightily by the reform movement and
the wave of fibcral thought that swept over Europe during the
middle of the centmy. He played a humble role in helping to queU
the uprising in the duchies in 1848; then returning home filled %\ith
pride and zeal because of Danish \dctories against great odds, he
wondered how such an outbui-st of national feefing could be kept
alive in the people "so that all its members could take part in the
groat national questions and live in the national history."
Now, Kold begtin a uiiique experiment. While tutor in the
famity of the wcU-known clergyman, Vilhelm Birkedal, he requested
EVOLUTION OF THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL. 27
and received permission to take in and instruct four young peasants
in addition to his regular pupils. The result proved so satisfactory
that Kold determined to resign his place and organize a small school
of his owTi. With his savings he secured a piece of land for the
school. But as his means were insufficient to carry the enterprise
any further, he laid his plans before Grundtvig, who immediately
headed a subscription list for the new school, at the same time com-
mending Kold to the good offices of other friends of the high-school
idea. A sufficient sum of money was raised, and Kold opened the
school at RysUnge, Fyen, in the fall of 1851, "s\ith 15 students ranging
in age from 14 to 33 years. This was before Kold had decided to
foUow GrundtA^g's advice to exclude all below 18 years of age. The
school gave instruction^ — mostly by the lecture method — in the his-
tory of the world, in Norse history, Bible history, northern mythology
and geography, together w^th readings in Danish and Scandinavian
literature, and practice in singing, especiaU^y the old folk songs and
hero baUads. Considerable emphasis was placed, in addition to this,
on a review of the elementary school subjects, wliich were now taught
in such a way as to make them immediately applicable to daily hfo.
All went well until Kold and Ms adherents undertook to reform
the elementary schools of the island. Then all his opponents rallied
against him, and for a while it looked dark for the future of the
school. But through it aU his students were staunch in their support.
Finally, a Government board was sent to examine and catecliize the
students to see whether the charge could be substantiated that the
school taught nothing but foolishness. The crisis in the examina-
tion came, according to Kold himseK, when the examining dean
asked the husky farm lads tliis question: "Who checked and de-
feated Atilla the Hun?" Almost instantly a young peasant from
Jutland answered: "Aitius." This helped. The board had come in
a cj'itical mood and went away conAdnced that the school was doing a
genuine work for the community. The commission recommended
that the State aid be increased, and thus the school was saved.
Before all this happened, Kold had moved his school from Ryslingc
to Dalby, in northeast Fyen, where he worked successfully for nine
years. The number of students grew year by year, necessitating
lai^ger quarters. Mr. Kold, accordingly, acquired a farm of con-
siderable size at Dalum, near Odense, where he erected substantial
buildings. Here, from 1862 till the time of his death eight years
later, the great high-school man continued his noble work. In those
years at least 1,300 students sat in his classes, becoming inspired to
go out and Hve good and useful lives.
Kold left no writings of value behind; he was essentially a man of
deeds. His voice has passed away, it is true; but the seed he sowed
has multiplied a thousandfold. Says HoUmann: "Kold reminds
28 TnE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
one in more tlian one way of the great Greek pliilosoplier, who did
scr\-icc as mid^^ifc to bring truth into the world; he was Socratic, too,
in the even tenor of his mode of life, as well as in his method.^" He
bad a way of awakening all that was good and noble in liis auditors,
and could impress them with the surpassing value of clean, noble
living. Kold was more than an instructor of his pupils. He was
their friend and adviser. Because he remained unmarried until late
in life he was able to spend all his time among them. He presided
at the common table by day and dwelt in the same rooms wiih. the
young men at night. The striking home and group life which marks
the folk liigh school originated with him. The summer schools for
yoimg women also were originated by him.
Kold's school fell far short of Grundt\dg's ideals of what such a
school for universal folk culture should be; but he gave the masses of
the people all they were prepared for at that time. Some of the folic
liigh schools were founded by men of much greater academic training
than had Kold, though none got so great a hold on the common people
as he. Now, after haK a century of evolution, we find throughout
the land a system of folk high schools which combine the best of
Kold's homely wisdom with the learning of his bettor academically
trained compeers at Rodding and Askov.
When the w^ar of 1804 broke out, there %vere less than a dozen of
the schools in existence. But the disastrous war furnished the neces-
sary spur. In a short time they were springing up on eveiy side to
become the centers from which the national reoi-ganization began.
At the time of writing, four score such schools are busy in every part
of the Ivingdom, inspiring young and old with the best life ideab,
teaching them to w^ork for a nobler nationahsm and a greater
Denmark.
III.— HOW THE SCHOOL IS ORGANIZED AND ADMINIS-
TERED.
O'lvru-rsliip of tlic folic liigli scliools. — Kristen Kold owned his school
in person. "VMiatever subscriptions he received for the Rj^slinge
School were made outright as gifts to the cause. From that time on
a large majority of the schools have been privately owned; or, in
the few instances where this has not been the case, they belong to a
self-perpetuating corporation so organized that it can not exploit
the school for personal gain. The reader should be clear on this
point, that the success of these schools has depended from their
inception on the personality of their organizers. The term "folk
liigh school" stands for a faculty of able, consecrated leaders rather
than for huge piles of l)rick and mortar. Indeed, most of the schools
rather pride themselves upon the simplicity of their buildings and
' Den Danskc Folkehojskolc, p. C3.
OKGANIZATION AXD ADMINISTRATION'.
29
equipment. Kold began his school with a capital of less than $2,000.
Many of the schools have begun their work in rented quarters — '
often in rooms in some commodious farmhouse. Later, if they
proved successful, means for the construction of permanent quarters
could readily be obtained.
A study of the following table will show^ that some folk high schools
have failed in their work for want of sufficient educational vitality
and have died a natural death:
Tadle 1. — Schools organized and closed, 1S44-191S}
Folk high schools.
During the period.
Number
organized.
NumT^er
closed.
Number
at close
of the
period.
Local agricultural schools.
During the period.
Number
opened.
Number
closed.
Number
at close
of the
period.
1844-1851...
I80I-IS6I . . .
1861-1871 . . .
1S71-1SS1...
1881-1S91...
1831-1901 . . .
1901-1906...
1906-1911...
1911-1913...
Total
1 It has been found desiraVde to include, in this and following tables, the statistics for both folk high
schools and agricultural schools.
Betw^een 1844 and 1913, 145 folk high schools and 39 local agri-
cultural schools vv^ere organized, of which 66 folk high schools
and 16 agricultural schools w^ero later closed, leaving in all 79
schools of the former kind and 23 of the latter. This table takes
into consideration Government recognized and aided schools only.
A leading high-school man emphasized recently, in conversation
with the writer, that "the ease with which the schools can be
snuffed out is the best guaranty the country has against the schools
outliving their usefulness." It is interesting to notice hov\^ the most
influential of the schools have been successful in training and inspir-
ing an unbroken djmasty, as it were, of teachers and leaders having
a common purpose and continuing the school's once-for-always
established policy. At Askov, for instance, Ludvig Schroder was
succeeded by his son-in-law, Jacob Appel, w^ho had for j^ears been
a leading faculty member. When the latter was called to become
the minister of education, Mrs. Appel had all the training and inspira-
tion necessary to step in and take her husband's place. Likewise,
at Vallekildo, the great Ernst Trier was succeeded by his son-in-law,
Poul Hansen, and at Lyngby, II. Rosendal has just taken liis son,
H. A. Rosendal, into the administration as joint principal with him,
intending by degrees to release the reins of control. So it is dow^n
the line of the other schools
30
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
TTie teachers: Their training. — A group of nearly 600 men and
women are required to do the work of the folk high schools. These
teachers are bound by common bonds through Grundtvig's philoso-
phy. Their efforts are further harmonized at great periodical high-
school meetings held over the country by special university courses
for high-school teachers and the like.
The preparation of the teachers is not uniform. Many of the
principals and permanent teachers have the best academic prepar-
ation possible. The rest are educated in the teachers' seminaries
and at the folk high schools themselves. While thorough academic
and professional training is held in high esteem at the folk high schools,
these are by no means the only qualifications considered. As a matter
of fact, they are not always even the first qualifications to be con-
sidered. Learned dullness holds no place in the schools. Some of
the most successful high-school teachers have come as students up
through the folk high school in which they later did their best work.
The Government leaves the question of teacher preparation entirely
to the principal m charge, depending on its right of inspection to main-
tain standards of desired excellence.
The students who attend the schools. — A study of Table 2 gives some
interesting figures. Dm^ing the period 1844-46, 34 men and 6 women
attended the folk high schools, and 36 men the agricultural schools.
By 1911-12, 6,936 men and women were in attendance at the folk
high schools, and 1,659 men and women at the agricultural schools.
Those figures leave out of consideration the 19 rural schools of house-
hold economics.
Table 2. — Average number of students in attendance at the folk high schools and local
agricultural schools, 1844-1912}
Folk high schools.
Agricultural schools.
Total
number
in both
schools.
Agricul-
tural
students
in per
cent of
all
students.
Women
in folk
Apr. 1 to Mar. 31.
Men.
Wo-
men.
Total.
Men.
Wo-
men.
Total.
high
schools;
per cent
of total
folk high
school at-
tendance.
1844-1846
34
20
135
209
331
1,320
2,000
2,182
2,151
2,180
2,020
2,732
3,249
3,385
3,493
3,273
3,119
3,:}88
3,541
3,003
3,712
6
14
29
35
05
371
1,038
1,242
1,424
1,587
2, 189
2,012
3,033
3,153
3,190
3,2(i0
3.023
3,227
3,147
3,104
3,227
40
34
104
244
390
1,691
3,098
3,424
3,575
3,707
4,815
5,344
0,282
0,538
0,089
0,539
0, 142
0,015
0,088
6,707
6,930
36
42
01
75
89
186
153
349
443
418
510
849
1,083
1,175
1,107
1,015
1,000
1,129
1,309
1,301
1,400
0
2
4
1
2
7
2
12
18
82
43
0
43
150
90
100
129
173
ISl
189
199
30
44
65
76
91
193
155
301
461
500
559
855
1,120
1,331
1,197
1,121
1,189
1,302
1,490
1,550
1,659
76
78
229
320
487
1,884
3,253
3,785
4,030
4,207
5,374
0,199
7,408
7,809
7,886
7,600
7,331
7,917
8,178
8,257
8,595
47
56
28
24
19
10
5
10
11
12
10
14
15
17
15
15
16
16
18
19
19
15
41
18
14
16
22
1840-1851
1S51-1J-O0
1850-1801
18t;l-1800
18<J0-1871
1871-1870
1870-188!
36
msi-is^o
ls.s<;-ls'jl
1S'J1-189G
42
45
49
189O1901
1901-1900
1900-1911
48
48
1905-1900
1900-1907
19f)7-190S
50
1908- HM)9
49
1909-1910
1910-1911
47
46
1911-1912
• These are regular students only. The large number of short-course students are not considered.
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION.
31
The total attendance for 1911-12 was 8,595, which number would
almost reach 10,000 if the schools of household economics and certain
nonrecognized schools were counted. The agricultm-al schools com-
prise a Mttle more than 19 per cent of the total attendance, and the
women almost 46.5 per cent of the folk high-school attendance.
The total number in attendance at any one time may seem small if
compared with ^\jnerican school attendance ; but when considered on
the basis of the total rural population of Denmark it proves surpris-
ingly large. Indeed, 33 J per cent of the yoimg men and a somewhat
smaller number of young women spend some time, at least, at the folli
high schools, and 44 per cent of these later attend the local agricul-
tural schools. Wlien one bears in mind that not quite all agricultural
students attend the folk high schools as preparatory to the agricultm-al
schools, it will be seen that at least one-sixth of the young people
frequent the agricultural schools in addition to the folk high schools.
Table 3 shows that the schools are open all the year round, although the
heaviest attendance is during the winter months (November-March),
when the schools for men are all in session, and during the summer
months (May-July), when the schools for women are in session. The
attendance for the other months is drawn from certain advanced con-
tinuation com'ses, requiring school residence throughout the entire year.
Table 3. — Attendance by months.
Months.
April
May
June
July
August
September.
October
November .
December.
January...
Febiiiarj' . .
March
Folk high school.
Agricultural schools.
1905-6
1910-11
1905-6
1910-11
319
328
633
518
2,881
2,761
267
345
2,883
2,755
242
340
2,878
2,744
233
335
59
48
95
77
141
129
104
160
139
161
25
104
3,408
3,643
893
1,223
3,502
3,684
897
1,231
3,688
3,914
921
1,263
3.679
3,893
925
1,257
3,565
3,779
918
1,232
A large majority of the students pursue the regular folk high school
and agricultural school courses, as may be seen from Table 4.
Table 4. — Classification of students according to departments.
Departments.
Folk high school.
Agricultural schools.
Total.
Men.
Women.
Men.
Women.
1910-11
1905-6
Folic high school (regular)
2,851
101
534
3,047
9
5,898
1,439
547
5,668
1,067
633
1,146
13
183
Artisans
Navigiii ion and fishing. . . .
22
Gymnastics
55
62
21
27
70
89
69
104
Continuation courses
Household economics
76
Horticulture
57
■138
7
6
63
138
7
44
Dairying
111
Control assistants
93
1
Total
3 603 s ifij.
1,301
189
8,257
7,886
' '
32 TUE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
Sonic of the schools have special wcU-eqiiipped departments for
the (raiiiing of artisans— such as masons, carpenters, cabinetmakers,
painters, tinners, etc. Two of the liigh schools, lying near the coast,
used to offer courses for sailors and fishermen of an inspirational
rather than professional nature, but these have recently been dis-
continued. Special departments are maintained for the training of
teachers in physical education and gymnastics. Gymnastics is other-
mse taught as a subject in all the regular courses. Subjects in house-
hold economics are offered in the regular courses, but no complete
departments of this kind have been maintained since the estabhsh-
ment of separate rural schools of household economics. The number
of students pursuing control assistant courses during 1912-13 num-
bered several hundred, which is a marked increase over the figures set
forth in the above table.
According to statistics for 1910-11, only 6 per cent of the students
in the two kinds of schools came from the towns or cities. This shows
definitely that the folk high schools — as also the local agricultural
schools — have become distinctively the schools of agricultural commu-
nities. The average for aU the schools is about 85 -students. How-
ever, the actual attendance ranges from 10 or more to about 400 to a
school. Many of the smallest schools do some of the very best work.
Of all the students, 54 per cent were (1910-11) children of substan-
tial middle-class farmers (Gaardmsend) ; 20 per cent came from the
smalUiolds (Husma^nd) ; 10 per cent were children of country artisans;
3 per cent of country laborers; and the rest were variously distributed.
Of the students, 10 per cent were country artisans by trade, and 38
per cent of all received State aid.
Of the total number in attendance, 1 per cent of the students were
below 16 years of age at the time of matriculation; 6 per cent were
between 16 and 18 years of age; 80 per cent were between 18 and
25 years; and 13 per cent were above 25 years. Only one-seventy-
fifth of the entire number had attended Realskoler or Latin schools.
All the others had completed the work of the elementary school and
had devoted their time to practical tasks until old enough to gain
admittance to the folk high schools
State aid to schools and students. — For reasons stated elsewhere,
tlie schools continue to be private institutions, but if they are to do
their work well and reach the mass of the common i>eople, they must
l)e State-aided financially. Almost from the first this has been the
case. For a number of years the State aid was small and grudgingly
given. But as the Government came to realize the great value of
the schools, and especially since the farmers themselves have come into
control of the Government, the annual appropriations to aid the
schools und deserving students have increased rapidly.
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 22 PLATE 3
YOUNG WOMEN AT PLAY AND GYMNASTICS, VALLEKILDE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL,
ZEALAND.
B. "THE WHITE HOUSE,'
ONE OF THE GROUP OF
HIGH SCHOOL. JUTLAND.
BUILDINGS, ASKOV FOLK
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION,
33
The aid consists in (1) assisting in the direct maintenance of the
schools; (2) helping students to meet school expenses. The amount
of the aid for maintenance to any one school is regulated by the size
of the budget of the particular school for the past fiscal year. Stu-
dent aid is determined by a number of circumstances, although it must
not exceed a specified amount monthly for any one individual.
The poHcy at this time is to reduce the amount given immediately
to the schools, and increase the amount of student aid. It should
be understood that the amount allowed a student is paid directly
into the school's coffers and never to the beneficiary.
Table 5 explains the amount of State aid that was given during
the year 1910-11, the monthly amount for each apphcant, the total
number of apphcants, etc.
Table 5. — Showing how Slate aid to students is distributed.
Kind of
school.
Se.x.
Applications
for aid.
Amount distributed.
Total
appli-
ca-
tions.
Num-
ber
ac-
cept-
ed. ■
Total.
Average for school month.
Geographical
divisions.
Men.
Women.
High
schools.
Agri-
cul-
tural
schools.
High
schools.
Agri-
cul-
tural
schools.
High school . . .
1 Agricultural
I schools.
(High schools..
I.-Vgricultu ral
I schools.
High schools . .
1 Agricult u r a I
I schools.
/Men
\ Women.
(Men
\ Women.
/Men
\Womcn.
(Men
\Women .
/Men
\Womon .
/Men
\ Women.
729
385
Crowns.
42,140.50
26, 385. 00
17, 880. 28
6,032.00
69, 780. 00
49, 799. 50
18,134.50
3, 654. 00
101,920.50
76, 184. 50
36,014.78
9,686.00
2, 200. 00
Crowns.
21. 93
Crowns.
Crowns.
Crowns.
570 387
21.99
227
93
1,555
1.233
'262
49
2,284
1,803
4S9
142
29
129
51
746
791
152
36
1,131
1,178
281
87
28
25.54
25.03
18.93
Jutland
i9.53
23.55
25.03
19.96
Denmarli.
20.43
24.50
25.03
The Faroes
Total
7,747
2,705
233, 805. 78
19.96
24. 50
20.43
95 03
The total amount distributed during the year for student aid was
233,805.78 kroner (crowns) .^ The total number of apphcations for aid
was 4,747, of which only 2,705 were accepted. Every such appUca-
tion must be made direct to the municipal board of the muriicipaUty
where the apphcant resides and is known. Only persons of unim-
peachable character who do not have sufficient means of their own
to pay the small school fees can receive this aid. It aU amounts to
this, that in Denmark every person who has an inclination to take
advantage of these rural schools for grown-up people has the oppor-
49720°— 14-
1 The krone of Denmark equals about 27 cents (26.8).
-3
34 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
tunity to do so; and this in spite of the fact that the schools are pri-
vatoly owned.
The following figures show the recent growth in State subsidies
to the schools and their pupils: 229,292 crowns in 1908-9; 241,551
in 1910-11; 424,700 in 1912-13; and about 520,000 in 1913-14.
The "Expanded" Askov Folk High School has just been voted a
special annual aid of 30,000 crowns out of which 4,500 crowns are to
be used for student aid.
State recognition of the schools is regulated by law. In order to be
placed on the accredited list, the school must have been in successful
operation at least two years, and for the two years must have enrolled
no less than 10 students for 12 months, or 20 students for 6 months,
or 40 for 3 months. None of these can be less than 16 years of age;
nor can more than 25 per cent of the male students be from 16 to 18
years of age. Any other students of low age shall not be counted.
Cost of schooling. — One of the chief reasons for the substantial
gi-owth of the folk high school is the relatively low cost of the school-
ing. The amoimt charged for tuition, board, and lodgmg is deter-
mined from year to year by the Association of Folk High Schools and
Agricultural Schools, which is binding upon all the schools holding
membership in the association. The charges for 1913 were: A
winter course of 5 months for men, 175 crowns for tuition, board, and
lodging — 25 crowns a month for board and lodging and for tuition,
payments of 20, 15, 10, and 5 crowns, respectively, the fu-st 4
months, with nothing to pay the last month; a summer course of 3
months for women, 96 crowns for tuition, board, and lodging — 17
crowns a month for board and lodging, and tuition for the 3 months,
20, 15, and 10 crowns, respectively. Ten crowns should be added for
books and other supplies, and two crowns for doctor fee. This makes
the total amount paid for a 5 months' winter course only 187 crowns,
or S50.50, and for a 3 months' summer course 108 crowns, or $29.19.
Naturally these sums will not buy any luxuries, but the food is whole-
some and plentiful. The dormitory rooms are exceedingly plain
and are arranged for 2, 3, and 4 students to a room. The schools are
now generally equipped with central heating plants. In the older
schools many of the dormitories are heated by stoves, or are even
without heat of any kind. When the latter is the case, the students
are expected to do their studying in large heated study rooms and
reading rooms in the recitation hall.
The school a democratic body.— The students of the folk high
schools form a highly democratic body. A strong sense of responsi-
bility and respect for the rights of others pervades the school atmos-
plierc. The students are treated as members of the principal's
family. Indeed, the latter usually presides over the dining-room,
SUBJECT MATTER AND ITS PKESENTATIOlSr. 35
where teachers and students meet on common ground. All tlie
students, except those who live regularly in the vicinity of the school,
are expected to room in the dormitories, where small groups of them
live in close contact with chosen teachers whose constant inspiration
counts for much in the course of training. Kristen Kold, in his day,
secured much of his great influence over the Mves of his students
through his daily communion with them at the dormitories. ''My
occasional heart to heart talks with Kold," says a prominent high-
school man of to-day, ''had more to do with shaping m}' life than
even the homely wisdom of his lectures." Others leaders since Kold's
time have followed his example with gi-eatest success.
In many schools the students Uve under self-imposed rules and
regulations, enforced by representatives chosen from themselves.
Since the students are grown-up people who should know how to
behave, the system has proved generally satisfactory. As a matter
of fact, no other rules are necessary among the students than just
such as might apply to the average family and be dictated by the
feehngs of respect and love for one another.
It is well also to add here that the day's work at the folk school is
so full of varied interests from early morning until late at night that
it would be difficult for any one so inclined to find time for "irregu-
larities."
IV.— THE SUBJECT I^IATTER AND ITS PRESENTATION.
The spirit of the teaching. — The young people who attend the folk
high schools come here at the time in life when they are most impres-
sionable. The "inspirers" know this period and turn it into an
abundant seed time. The Germans call it the "sturm und drang"
period, which comes to aU who stand on the threshold of mature
manhood and womanhood.
Denmark has been fortunate in producing an unfailing supply
of teachers able to meet the heart^cravings of the seekers after truth.
They are themselves men who "feel a fervor and zealous warmth
for their vocation and possess a power to captivate the attention of
their students."
As indicated repeatedly above, the lecture method of presenting
the subject matter prevails. But this is varied, without warning,
with a give and take process of questions and answers somewhat like
the maieutics used by Socrates of old. The element of interest plaj^s
a great role in all this work.
The teachers must have what has been called the "historical-
poetical faculty," for the whole course of training is based on history.
The pageantry of the past is portrayed in living colors for the purpose
36 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
of illuminating incidents in one's own national history and life
history. Says xilfred Povlsen:
Here we find mentioned the relation of man and woman, parents and cliildren,
master and servant, religious, social, and political questions, which all agitate our
own times. It is, if you like, a sort of unsystematic, practical life-philosophy, which
in this way — the historical — we seek to convey to our pupils.^
But tliis historical background is broad enough to include materials
from the virile mythology of the Old North as well as problems of
present-day social science. Folklore, songs, and literature hold
important place in the curriculum. The Danish high-school students
are often as well acquainted with Shakespeare and Emerson, Goethe
and Tolstoy, as with their Scandinavian Holberg, Ibsen, and Bjorn-
sen. Religion in the dogmatic sense is not taught in the schools,
but historical teaching, if properly done, is itself religious; that is,
as one of the high-school men has expressed it: "The hand of God
is shown all through the evolution of the ages, and in this way the
religious feeling is constantly kept awake and exercised."
Students whose preparatory training has been faulty are required
to take regular classroom work in Danish language, writing, arith-
metic, and drawing. Courses are open to all in practical surveying,
geography, physics, chemistry, biology, sanitation, and nature study.
Gymnastics is required of all students. Some few schools offer
sloyd. All have handwork and various phases of household eco-
nomics for young women.
Two lands of folk TiigTi scliools. — It has long been a mooted question
among Danish educators just how far the high schools might safely
go in the pursuit of the "practical subjects." Shall training for life
pursuits be taken up by the high schools, or shall this be left entirely
to professional schools ? Many of the leading school men insist that
to introduce professional studies would mean the early decadence of
real folk high-school culture. Of the 79 Government accredited
schools, 48 adhere to the culture idea. In this Hst are, perhaps, a
majority of the schools which have done most to place a real stamp
on the character of the nation, but 31 schools — among them some of
the largest — offer specific courses in agriculture, horticulture, carpen-
try, masonry, etc., and seem in no danger of losing their original
inspiration.
Some subjects of imrticular interest: Song. — The "songbirds" in the
hearts of the Danish peasantry are not dumb. Go into any home
and they sing — not alone the long and sometimes doleful church
hymns, but folk songs, ballads, and patriotic songs of every sort.
The children all learn to sing in the elementary schools. No teacher,
indood, can secure a certificate to teach who is unable to lead the
pui)ils in song. Music, song, and poetry play a great part in the folk
' The Danish Popular High School, p. 10.
SUBJECT MATTER AND ITS PRESENTATION. 37
high school's work. Every lecture or recitation begins with song;
every student sings. The average high-school man is quite a poet
in addition to being a music lover. Many of them show the gift of
spontaneous composition so common in the old Norse skjalds or
minnesingers.
The song collection in daily use comprises songs written by high-
school men from Grundtvig down to the present tim.e. One can get
a good idea of what the schools sing by glancing over the contents
of the songbook edited by the Association of Folk High Schools and
Agricultural Schools, which is almost universally used:
Contents:
•
1-46
Morning songs;
47-115
Spiritual songs;
116-145
Home and school;
146-176
Folk life and mother
tongue;
177-361
Historical songs;
362-395
Denmark;
396-408
Norway and Iceland;
409-412
Sweden and Finland
413-430
The North;
431^58
Geographical songs;
459-527
Miscellaneous songs;
528-545
Folk songs;
546-579
Evening songs.
Gymnastics and play-life. — No phase of folk school activity appeals
to the observer more strongly than does its work in gymnastics. The
students come to the schools from a variety of occupations, generally
from outdoor, active hfe. But they are not permitted to become "stale,"
as every day's work includes at least 60 minutes of gymnastics and
very possibly tmce 60 minutes. The earliest schools used a violent
military system of drills formulated after the German army system.
In the early eighties Vallekilde abolished this and adopted in its place
the more scientific Ling system from Sweden. Even the latter has
become modified and improved with time. This new Danish-
Swedish form of gymnastics can now be seen in all the schools.
Said one of the school men in conversation:
Our work in gymnastics has made sturdy, clear-eyed, keen-witted men out of the
shuffling young farm louts who have come to the school; and it has taught our young
women pride in strong, beautiful bodies, helping them to understand what it means
to be created in God's own image.
The effect of the work is far felt. The love of gymnastics and
play is carried home by the high-school students, who have organized
gymnastic associations in every country commune. This means
much for a continued close social relationship. Song, gymnastics,
and play make up the tripod of Danish rural recreative hfe. Where
you find the one the other two are sure to be.
38 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
The excellence of Danish folk-school gymnastics is now generally-
recognized on the Continent. In 1911 Jens Ovesen, who has charge
of gymnastics at Ryshnge, brought a group of 28 young gymnasts,
most of them farm boys from Ryslinge School, to represent Denmark
at the International Hygienic Congress, at Dresden. Exhibitions
were also given at Berhn and other German cities; and everywhere
the Danish farm lads were applauded for their skill and ability,
getting the heartiest kind of praise from the continental press. In
1912 Denmark picked its representatives to the Olympic games at
Stockhohn largely from the folk high schools. And, last year, Niels
Buch, an old VaUekilde student, had charge of 20 young men and
16 3'oung women who won high honors in the competitive driUs held
in connection with the Congres International de I'Education Physique,
at Paris.
School work that makes thinkers of men. — To make their students
able to think and reason for themselves has been the aim of the
school men. Encyclopedism has been avoided, and the students
generally return to their homes with strong, reasoning minds, open
to conviction, but just as ready to convince if on the right side of
the argument.
The writer, on one occasion, had gone through a strenuous day
with the 160 young men at VaUekilde and met with them again in the
evening for the last lecture of the day. The lecture happened to deal
with the social-economic development of Europe during the latter
part of the eighteenth century, and seemed rather dry and technical.
But this did not discourage these horny-handed sons of toil who
proved to be surprisingly well at home with such personages as Adam
Smith, Malthus, Carlyle, Voltaire, and Rousseau. At the close of the
lecture the students broke up into smaller groups, continuing a discus-
sion of the arguments propounded by the lecturer in a mamier to con-
found many a university senior of recent memory.
Indeed, the superiority of the folk high-school graduates over stu-
dents from mere technical agiicultural schools is pretty sure to lie in
the broader world horizon of the former, and the facility mth which
tliey have learned to reason from cause to effect — to think things
tlu'ough for tliemselves.
Historical study the main haclcground. — The folk high school makes
no use of formal methods in its instruction, partl}^ because it does not
concern itself with technical subjects and partly because its students
are grown people to whom it can address itself in a popular philo-
sophic manner. The school does not teach the classic languages at
all. English and German are studied in some of the schools, because
of tlie intimate commercial relations existing between Denmark and
England and Germany. The languages are taught with a view to
immediate practical use onlv. Even the mother tongue is not pre-
SUBJECT MATTER AND ITS PEESENTATION. 39
sented in such a wa}'^ as to emphasize the grammatical machinery
beyond the merest necessity. Mathematics as a systematic study
holds a minor place. The requirements are always Hmited to the
practical application of arithmetical and geometrical calculation.
Prof. Poul la Cour has even gone so far as to create a method of his own
for the presentation of mathematics and physics. He calls this the
historical inethod. Under it mathematics and the natural sciences
take on a new life as the lecturer unfolds them in their historical set-
ting as historical gi'owths.
History is, after all, the main lecture subject. By this is meant
history in the broadest sense of the word. It covers what is generally
termed universal or general history, the history of civiUzation, liistory
of racial culture, and Kterature. About two-thirds of the time spent
in the schools is devoted to these studies.
Through the use of such material the folk high schools strive to
give the mass of the people a broad culture, much the same as the
regular academic schools seek to convey to their students through a
larger number of subjects, covering a longer period of time.
The main difference between the cultured person and the man
of no culture is, no doubt, that the former feels himself in an organic
touch with the higher life of civihzation and its development through
the times; while the latter — without knowing it — lives in a discon-
nected and mostly accidental relation to the culture and spiritual Hfe
that surrounds him. In most countries there is a startlmg gap between
the comparatively small circle that can lay claim to the higher culture
and the mass of the people who go through life without it. Here the
Danish folk high schools have been great bridge builders, spanning
the once existing deep gulf in the spiritual life of its masses. An able
English schoolman who had made many trips to Denmark to study
the schools, referring to this happy circumstance in an address at
Askov, once said:
We Englislimen have much to learn from you here in Denmark. We have a glorious
history, but it is foreign to the larger mass of the people. We need folk high schools
to span the gap between the people and its history and poetry. ^
Sinritual growth and ilie worl^ of the day. — How the thought life of
the student gradually unfolds itseK under the influence of the daily
contact with the liigh school ''inspirers" can be told in no better way
than it has been done by an old Askov student, in a graphic little
booklet called En Vinter paa Askov Hojskole af en Elev." A picture
of the daily hfe at the school, as described by him is therefore repro-
duced here in free translation :
At 7 o'clock in the morning, the school bell hanging before the main entrance is
sounded. The school becomes awake. Doors and windows are thrown open, and then
' Lud\'ig Schroder, in the periodical, Church and Culture, Christiania, 1896.
2 A Winter at Askov Folk High School, by a Student.
40 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
etudents make their bed." (there are, as a rule, two in a room, each student furnishing the
bcddhig from home), fetch water, brush, beat, s^yeep, and polish. By 7.30 o'clock
everything must be spick and span . The bell sounds for a second time and all students
assemble for coffee ^ in "Dagmarsalen." One hears a clappering of wooden shoes and
heavy boots. From the "white house," from tiie main building, and from the dormi-
tories the husky fellows come a galloping and are soon seated at the long tables in the
lar^'e dining room. After coffee there is morning devotion. It is a personal matter
whether or not one takes part in this. Exercises open with a piano voluntary by Fru
Ingeborg Appel, wife of the principal; then follow song and prayer.
The first class period of the day begins at 8 o'clock, in the large lecture room. The
lecture is x^receded by song. Song, song, and again song, might well be the folk high-
Bchool motto. The songs are mainly from Grundtvig, Richard t, and Bjomsen, together
with folk songs. The lecture program varies from day to day. Either Dr. Marius
Kristenscn lectures on j^hilology or Prof. Poul la Cour gives a course in historical mathe-
matics, or Prof. Ludvig Schroder speaks on Norse mythology and the heroes of old.
At the close of the lecture the young men rush out in a hurry. They must get to
their rooms and dress for gymnastics, which begin at 9 o'clock. The instructor gives
the order, luid the columns "double quick" around the gymnasium several times to
rouse the gymnasts to keen attention. Then they go through the "setting-up exer-
cises" with great expedition. Thereupon they separate into smaller troups and are
Boon engaged in a large variety of exercises. Some go through contortions on the
Swedish ladder; others are using the hand and arm beams; still others are exercising
on the horse. Every man works with a vim and at the close of the period the jierspira-
tion stands out all over their well-knit bodies. The command to dismiss is given, and
the young fellows rush to the baths and the welcome showers. No sooner are they
dressed than the bell calls to breakfast.
At 10.30 o'clock all the students meet again in the large lecture hall. This time it
is either Prof, la Com* or Principal Appel who gives an interesting lecture on some
topic in natural science, or la Cour lectures on the historic method in mathematics,
or Prof. Axelsen introduces a theme in modern history. ^\Tien this period is ended
the students scatter to various classrooms to receive instruction in accounting, hand-
work, hygiene and sanitation, history, and geography, up to 2 o'clock.
The dinner hour is 2 o'clock. The kitchen at Askov is not the least remarkable
of the many interesting places there. An exceptionally able housekeeper is required
to make ends meet and to make it possible to serve four meals a day on the 25 crowns
a month for board. The dinner is good and wholesome; there are always at least
two courses, say, vegetable or fruit, soup and roast beef, or a variety of Danish national
dishes. The culinary department is at Askov, as at other folk high schools, under
the particular supervision of the principal's wife, who, besides, at times takes con-
siderable part in the practical instruction. After dinner the class work is suspended
until 3.25 o'clock. Such students as desire may meanwhile devote their time to
outdoor sport, football, or, when the weather permits, some winter game or other.
At 3.25 o'clock the beloved old Nutzhorn, one of the original foundera of the school,
appears with his baton under his arm. The stiidents gather at the gynmasium, and
soon the large hall is filled with a great volume of eong from the hundreds of student
voices.
From 4 to 5 o'clock instruction is given in Danish, German, and English for the
young men, while the young women ' take their gynmastic exercises under the com-
mand of Fru Appel.
At 6 o'clock all the students meet in the large lecture hall for the last lecture of the
day, which again deals with history. Either Prof. Fenger lectures on an epoch of
' It is customary to eat a very light meal— porridge, broad and butler, milk or collee— immediately upon
rising. Breakfast is served at 10 o'clock, dinner at 2, and supper at.7.
* Askov is one of the few coeducational folk high schools.
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS. 41
Danish history, or Principal Appcl takes np a i)hasc of other European history, as,
for exami>le, of Prussia or England, or Prof. Schroder deals with Grundtvig's national
philosophic thought or a theme of similar content. Schroder is Askov's real founder
and is one of the high -school leaders who has wielded the greatest influence. The
methods used by him in presenting his subjects is, according to the testimony of many
high-school teachers, the acme of the highest and purest in the art of popular lecturing,
and whoever has been so fortunate as to have heard him will know the significance of
the power of the "li\'ing word." Self-control and deep sincerity characterize his
method. Remarkable for deep thought, he expresses himself in plain, straightfor-
ward terms which are as free from doctrinaire dullness as from oratorical pathos.
Schroder is known to have said that he is often filled with diffidence and worry to
have guests, especially from learned circles, tell him at the close of a lecture that they
had found it "interesting." "If my lecture has only been entertaining," he would
say, "then it has failed in so far as it was the purpose to impress my listeners with
some responsibility which they should meet and take." There is another way of
listening. It happens occasionally that one hears at the close of a lecture, a great
inhalation of the breath. This is a sure indication that the inner man has felt the
weight of the argument and has taken it to himself personally.
One will see from this glimpse of daily life at Askov that a school
spirit reigns there well worthy of comparison with the best to be
found in academic institutions of the highest rank. School life
there is a cumulative growth, developing as the days go by, setting
the individual free from the many triviahties wliich before bound
him, furnishing him with an altruism which makes work for others
and cooperation -svdth one's neighbors seem both right and easy.
v.— SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
General statement. — It is difiicult to convey to the reader all that
the folk high schools are and do. The work is of the spirit more than
of matter. It is felt and experienced rather than seen. Therefore
the ghmpses of the journejdngs to and fro among the schools by the
writer and his friends, which are given in the following paragraphs,
may not always convey as much to the mind as would be highly
desirable in order to do the schools justice.
There are now 79 Government-accredited folk high schools estab-
hshed throughout Denmark, besides a few that are striving toward
recognition. To tell the story of all would be out of the question.
Six schools only, which are typical of aU the schools, have therefore
been selected from this number. They are Roskilde, Fredriksborg,
Vallekilde, and Haslev in Zealand, Ryshnge in Fyen, and Askov
in Jutland.
A day at Roskilde Folk High School. — Roskilde, the ancient capital
of Denmark and burial place of its Kings, is near the center of Zealand.
The school hes 2 miles down the fjord from the to^vn. A brisk walk
over the excellent, well-rounded, surfaced, and ditched roads brought
us to the school, which is constructed of brick and stone in sixteenth
42 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
contury style. Several substantial teachers' cottages flank the main
appi-oach. The principal and his family live in a -wing of the main
building, so as to be in the midst of the pupils, to direct and advise.
We were well received by Principal Thomas Bredsdorf, who intro-
duced us to his family and faculty, making us feel quite at home.
One hundred and forty young men were in attendance — a sturdy
family — 60 per cent of them sons of Gaardmaend (farmers of from 15
to 100 acres), 25 per cent of them sons of Husmsend (farmers of 1 to 15
acres), and the rest sons of artisans and laborers from country and
town. But here they were on an absolutely equal footing.
A lecture period by the principal, which we attended, reflected the
daily life and work of the school. The period began, as every period
does, with song. This was a rousing religious-patriotic song through
which the youth pledges himself to God and fatherland. The particu-
lar lecture theme v\^as Grundtvig's influence on history, poetry, and
song. The high-school "inspirer," as he is at his best, was seen in
;Mi\ Bredsdorf, who so enthused his listeners that they hung on his
every word.
We ate dinner with the students and faculty. The fare was ex-
ceedingly simple. The students in this particular school pay only
22 crowns per month for board and room, equivalent to about $5.95.
The charge for tuition is 23 crowns for the first month, 18 for the
second, 13 for the third, 8 for the fourth, and 3 for the fifth.
The course of study had the usual broad historical basis. Said
Bredsdorf:
History must be considered as never ending. All play their role in it. It is a living
stream in which is the power and the destiny of the eternal. All must do theii- little
mite in order that the stream can sweep on resistlessly as is its destiny.
Love of land and home and church fructify under this school in-
fluence. Somehow, while the sturd.y farm youth are seated on the
hard benches listening, the crust to their better selves gives way and
the soul shines through — they become converts to the high-school
faith. Then and there they become better Christians, better Danes,
ready to put self-interest aside in order that God and native land may
get what by right is felt to be theirs.
During the afternoon intermission groups of young men continued
to discuss the more vital points raised in the morning lectures. Some
of tliese concerned questions of such ethical and ])hilosophicai nature
as the farm youth of most countries would seldom care to approach.
The zeal of the students and instructors can not be better demon-
strated than in this, that one of the busy faculty members of Rosldlde
walked all the way to town with us in his eagerness to explain some of
the great points in the school doctrines. He left us only when he had
to hasten back to make his evening lecture, which, strangely enough,
was to deal with "Lincohi and the emancipation of the negro slaves."
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS. 48
Fredrickshorg Folk Iligli School, the inspirer of English schools. — •
This is one of the most renowned of the newer schools. It was
founded by the well-known Asko\ instructor, Holgcr Begtrup, in
1895. As a high-school lender Bogtrup is known as few others, being
a much-sought leader in the extension courses out among rural com-
munities. Up to 1902 he had delivered 2,000 lectures outside of the
classroom. He is, moreover, ranked as an able historian, having
recently completed his great work on "Denmark in the Nineteenth
Century." An ardent follower of the famous poet, J.C. Hostrup, who
was also a great patron of the folk high schools, Begtrup became deter-
mined, when the poet died in 1S92, to raise up a school in Hostrup's
home community as the mostj^ractical way to honor the memory of a
man who in hfe gave the best he had for Denmark.
Thus Fredriksborg Folkehojskole came into being at Hillerod, in
northeast Zealand. The name (originally intended as "Hostrup-
sminde") is that of the renowned royal Fredriksborg castle on the
edge of Hillerod village, which naturally became fastened to the school.
The institution and its grounds are very attractive. It comprises a
large, well-built main building, and several smaller structures,
together ^^nth teachers' cottages and a school church. The latter is a
"free church;" i. e., established by the school and community as a
voluntary organization outside of the State church. These churches
are found as members in most of the high-school organizations, and
their origin is easily traced to the movement for freedom within the
church begun by Grundtvig in the early day. Twenty-two acres of
land comprise the beautiful, well-planted campus, garden, park, and
home farm, on which latter vegetables and fruit are raised for school
consumption.
The winter school (November-March) at Fredriksborg is usually
attended by from 125 to 140 young men of sterling worth. The sum-
mer school (May-July) for young women is larger, often passing the
200 mark.
Principal Begtrup emphasized, for our particular benefit, the vast
importance of the folk high school to Danish rural life. "Eighty per
cent of the leaders in dairy work, and all the other cooperative enter-
prises," he stated, "are high-school men." He further called atten-
tion to the extension-course influence emanating from the schools.
The Kingdom has a veritable netw^ork of organizations at work, hold-
ing meetings, lecturing on aU manner of inspirational and practical
subjects. "This work," said Begtrup, "is done by high-school
trained men. And more than this, our schools return ail their
students to the plow, happy and contended."
On the wall of the general lecture room at Fredriksborg, back of the
rostrum where the listeners can all see it, hajigs a large painting by
Viggo Petersen, which symbohzes well the work of the school. It is
a Bible scene. Isaac stands in the open field before the tents as
44 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
sunset lints the landscape in wonderful color (or is it sunrise ?) waiting
to receive Rebecca, his betrothed, coming out of the north. The
remarkable scene symbolizes the Danish peasantry waiting for the
light of education, brought to them by that modern Eleezer, Grundt-
vig.
Fredriksborg offers interesting continuation courses for advanced
students. These are organized into an association called, rather
sentcntiously, the "Window," or "The Window in the West," the
idea being that this class of advanced and mature students should be
looking out from the windows of life w^ith serious thought toward the
ultimate purpose of being.
Principal Begtrup gave an interesting lecture on Leo Tolstoy,
which was followed closely, eagerly almost, by the 125 young auditors.
,The speaker sparkled wdth wit and humor, giving besides, a lecture so
historically deep and philosophically acute, that many university
students would have been put to their best paces to follow it. One
of the remarkable things about the folk schools is that in an unusually
short time of five months the students are ena,bled to get a really
helpful outline on philosophy, history, and Hterature; and, in addi-
tion, many practica,l things, much gymnastics and song. As to the
latter, ITolger Begtrup expressed it: "We have much song, northern
song; though perhaps not what some people would call 'fine' song."
•' Fredriksborg holds the unique position of being the touching point
between the Danish folk high schools and the schools of a similar
nature now rooting themselves in English soil. The first school of
this kind was opened at Bourn ville, near Birmingham, in 1909, by
Tom Bryan, a scholarly gentleman, whose inspiration to estabhsh
such a school came to him while listening to a lecture in one of the
Danish schools. During the last few years a most interesting exchange
of ideas has been going on betvreen Fredriksborg and Fircroft — the
name of the Bounnnllc school. Both teachers and students have been
exchanged. A year ago a group of 50 Enghsh teachers \'isited Fred-
riksborg. The past two years an enthusiastic young Enghshman by
the name of Jonty Ilanaghan has been at Fredriksborg preparing
himself to do folk high-school work in Yorkshire; while a young
Enghshwoman, his ])ctrothed, is equipping herself for the same work
at Vallekildc. During 1912, nearly one-fourth of the Fircroft stu-
dents were Danes from the Fredriksborg community. In this way
the two countries are beginning to reach out to one another a helping
hand to the end that^ —
The toiler, bent
Above his forge or plough, may gain
A manlier spirit of content,
And feel tliat life is wisest spent
When the strong working hand makes strong
Tlie Working brain.
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS. 45
VaUeJcilde, a great folk liigli scliool. — Immediately after the close of
the disastrous German war in 1864, Ernst Trier, one of the three or
four greatest school men that Denmark has produced, laid the foun-
dations of Valleldlde, in northwest Zealand. lie felt that now Den-
mark's only hope lay in education. "The folk high schools, " he said,
"alone can hft the disheartened people." He opened the school in
rented quarters in 1865. Success came from the very first, because
he was inspired for the great task. To-day, his son-in-law and suc-
cessor, Poul Hansen, stands at the head of one of the most complete
and influential schools in the country.
Ninety acres of fine rolling land, laid out in ornamental gardens,
parkings, experimental plats, and school farm, comprise the worldng
area of the school. In this hes a regular village of buildings. This
appears graphically from the accompanying drawing. The most
important of the structures are a large, fireproof central school build-
ing with dormitory capacity for 200; a good, carefully equipped
gymnasium; a building for manual training, and another for art
work. There are cottages for aU the married teachers, a school
church, and an elementary school for the children of the faculty.
The school farm has some remarkable buildings that deserve at least
a passing notice. The entire plant, by the way, including cow barns,
stables, and hog houses, is hghted by electricity generated by means
of wind power. , The enormous windmiU was the first of its kind
erected by the famous Askov teacher-scientist, Poul la Cour. The
mill is fitted with storage batteries of sufficient size to supply current
for a week at a time in case of still weather.
In the fine sanitary cow barns, 30 thoroughbred red Fyen cows are
kept. As an illustration of careful economy in everything agricul-
tural, all hquid manure from these barns is made to pass by cement
gutters to outside cisterns, whence it is forced by electric power to the
meadows and plowed ground, and carefully sprinkled over the soil.
The school butchers its own pork and beef. But the cream all goes
to the cooperative creamery in the vicinity, and the butter is actually
"bought back" by the school. There is also a large school bakery
on the campus, and a well-equipped hospital with separate building
for contagious diseases.
VaUekilde has from 160 to 180 young men in attendance during the
winter months and 200 girls during the summer time. The young
men are divided into distinct groups as "agriculturists" and "indus-
triahsts," the former preparing, as the name would indicate, for soil
tilling pure and simple; while the latter are to become farm artisans
of various kinds. It is interesting to note that Vallekiide, which has
retained the early high-school philosophy in all its purity, is able to
combine with this a large degree of the practical without losing any
of the cultural values. To be sure the entire industrial group must
46
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
"""S-Si;
O en -L, S B -^ JP
<» g S 3 K c3 2
W !-■ CU 3 O '>^ ^
00 CS C5 rH C^ CO Tt?
GROUND PLAN OF VALLEKILDE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL.
Shov/ing location of buildings, experinnental plots, fields, etc.
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS. 4T
attend all the general lectures and Uve in the same "atmosphere" as
the other students, and the industrial work is chiefly theory after all.
Such subjects as these are taught: History of arcliitecture, building
construction, drawing — freehand, mechanical, machine, etc. — j)aint-
ing (practical work), calculation, bookkeeping, and penmanship. The
agricultural group makes some approach to the practical through occa-
sional lectures in agriculture and horticulture, drawing, and actual
fieldwork in surveying and leveUng.
Vallekilde is strong in gymnastics, and play-life, and song. The
young women of the summer school are offered exceptional opportu-
nities for the study of handwork, music, and the fine arts; but these
studies are considered as incidental merely to the culture lectures.
It was the writer's pleasure to be permitted to spend a night at
"Hytten," or the lodge, the most interesting of all the buildings on
the campus. "Hytten" is held sacred in the memory of all Vallekilde
students. Scarcely a student but has been made a better man or
woman for having come within its benign influence.
The story is this: Ingeborg Trier, a daughter of Ernst Trier, was
born into the Vallekilde high-school world in the late sixties, a true
daughter of a great father. All her Hfe she gave to the cause of the
men and women who toil close to the soil. As a young girl she led the
othergirlsin their games and gymnastics. She was the woman who later
taught the girls gymnastics in such a way that they learned the signifi-
cance of being created in God's own image. Then she married Niels
Hansen, brother of Principal Poul Hansen, who is farm manager at
Vallekilde. She was brought as a bride to ''Hytten," and there she
remained to the day of her death, a mother to the whole school, and
when she was put to her final rest a few years ago 1,000 old students
and friends gathered from all Denmark to do her the last honors.
''Hytten" was open to every student in the school. Here they
came to plan their pleasures, to rest from the work of the classroom.
Here they sang and played their games. But more, here came the
young woman to confide her heartaches to the mistress of the house,
usually to go away again with the balm of Gilead in her heart; here
came, too, the young man who sought soul rest, and the vnld young
fellow who had gone wrong, and Ingeborg Trier Hansen had words of
wisdom for them all. No wonder that thousands look toward
"Ilytten" \vith benedictions in their hearts.
This bit of sentiment is given a place here because it comes pretty
near disclosing the secret of the success of the high-school men and
women. The folk liigh-school hfe at its best is a communion of man
with man ; the work of emancipated leaders consecrated to the work
of freeing others.
Haslev, a folk high school oj the 'practical Idnd. — This school is ono
of a group of six schools founded by the "Inner ISIission Church" —
. an independent church body. To be exact, the school is owned by
48 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
an association of church members which seeks to reach primarily its
own membcrsliip, though all students are made welcome. The '' patri-
otic-spiritual" hfe wliich stamps the regular Grundtvigian schools is
possibly not so marked at Ilaslev. On the other hand — since it is a
church institution — rehgious subjects are actually taught as part of
the course of study.
The school Hes on the edge of Ilaslev, a small town in south-central
Zealand. The buildings are set in a tract of 75 acres, 15 acres being
devoted to campus, parking, experiment plat, and garden. The rest
of the land is farmed and supplies milk, meat, and vegetables for the
school. Three good-sized buildings are used immediately for teach-
ing purposes, besides ample barns, stables, etc. There is dormitory
capacity for 210 persons. Electricity is freely apphed in this school
all the way from peehng potatoes in the school kitchen to running the
thrashing machine at the school barns.
The study courses here aim to reach two classes particularly: (1)
Those who are to till the soil, and (2) those who are to Hve as artisans
in the country. It is interesting to see how the school seeks to train
the actual soil tillers and the country artisans as well, thereby keeping
alive in the country a twofold civilization.
The first-mentioned of the two classes is really what the other
schools would designate the regular cultural group, though here at
Ilaslev it becomes the farm group. It gets less of the inspirational
work offered by the former schools, but more of religious lectures and
practical agricultural work. Forty-five-hour periods are devoted to
class work each week by the young men in the vdnter school, as ap-
pears from the following enumeration:
Eecjular hujh-Sfhool section for mm. weeMy
Lectures on Bible history 3
Lectures on church history 2
General lecture 1
Biographies of great men 1
Question hour 1
History of missions ! . 2
History of Denmark 2
Lectures on general history 2
Lectures on the history of literature 1
Danish (comp;)sition, analysis, classics) 5
Accounting 4
Penmanship 1
Katural science 2
Drawing 2
Geography 2
Sanitation 1
Horticulture 1
Farm accounting 1
Gymnastics 3
Agriculture 6
Song drill 2
Total 45
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 22 PLATE 4
.1. [vlODEL 5-ACRE SMALLHOLD OPERATED AS A PARK OF THE SCHOOL FOR
SMALLHOLDERS NEAR ODENSE, FYEN.
B. IN THE MODEL KITCHEN, RURAL SCHOOL OF HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS,
HASLEV, ZEALAND.
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS. 49
The seven hours devoted to agriculture and horticulture include
the history of agriculture, practical work in planning the farm,
platting and planting gardens, and fieldwork in surveying and
levehng, pruning of fruit trees, etc.
The summer course for young women is quite similar to the course
described above, wdtli the exception that six hours of plain sewing,
embroidery, knitting, and dressmaking are substituted for the
agriculture. It is well to add here that the summer schools for
women in all of the folk liigh schools require much sewing— seldom
less than one hour daily.
The artisan group at Haslev is subdivided into smaller groups
or classes, as carpenters, brick and stone masons, smiths, machinists,
painters, tinners, and wheelwrights. The course of study for car-
penters and masons will serve to illustrate the kind of work required
from the entire group : The courses cover three ^\dnters of five months
each, and are intended especially to answer the needs of the country
artisans who work during the summer months. The first year is
devoted more particularly to theory — i. e., geometrical drawing,
projection, algebra, and geometry. The second-year class emphasizes
buildmg construction. By the close of this j^ear the students are able
to draw plans and specifications of fair-size farm buildings. By the
close of the third year they make their own drawings, calculate the
size of timbers, iron supports, etc., with great accuracy. Much
practical work is done on the premises, although most of the work
is devoted to miniature buildings and models.
The artisans are required to follow this weekly schedule:
Hours.
Lectures (in regular high-school section) 12
Danish (composition, analysis, classics) : 6
Accounting — arithmetic 4
Bookkeeping 1
Natural science 1
Gymnastics 3
Technical subjects 22
Total 49
Haslev is proud of the fact that it is sending out annually scores
of practically trained artisans who not only knov,' their profession,
but who are also equipped mth the additional advantages of having
spanned the gap between the deadening workaday in life and the
higher culture fife which of right should be the common heritage of aU.
Ryslinge in Fijcn, a historic school. — Ryslinge, wliich is a small
country village in south-central Fyen, beautifully situated in a
prosperous agricultural community, holds high place in folk high-
school history. It was early brought into notice because here
Kristen Kold opened his first school in 1851. The community has
been prominent in many other ways. The free-church movement
49720°— 14 4
50 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
began here in the early day. The first "Valgmenighed," or free
choice congregation, was founded here — i. e., a congregation in
which the membership is free to choose its own pastor, instead of
being obhged to accept one appointed by the State. Here, too, were
organized the fii-st "skytteforeninger" or associations of sharp-
shooters, which built at Eyshnge the first of the rural assembly halls
now found in every country commune. And nowhere have the
gymnastic organizations prospered more than here.
Ryslinge Folk High School can scarcely be considered a continua-
tion of Kold's school, though it has taken to itself all the spirit and
all the traditions of this school. As it now stands, Ryshnge owes its
origin to a former army chaplain, Johannes Clausen, who began his
school activities here in 1866. He was pastor of the local church
and really intended his school for an "Inner mission" institution,
but he brought several teachers — his intimate friends — into the
school, who had strong Grundtvigian tendencies. This indiscretion
probably cost the principal his position; but it gradually gave the
school a new coloring, so that to-day it stands for the purest of
Grundtvig's philosophy.
In 1884 a new era began at Ryslinge, when Alfred Poulsen was chosen
principal. He came from Lyngby Agricultural School, where he had
been in charge of the folk high-school department. Poulsen is one of
the biggest schoolmen in active charge of the schools at the present
time. The most lucid dehneation of the folk high schools ever penned
in Enghsh is from his hand.^ He is also the president of the Associa-
tion of Folk High Schools and Agricultural Schools, an organization
which has been of vast importance in unifying the work of the schools,
and in getting for them the necessary State recognition and aid.
Prof. Poulsen is one of the most ardent advocates of the pohcy
of keeping the folk high schools as free as possible from textboolvs and
classroom practices. He says:
It is a great mistake, and contrary to the high-school philosophy, to combine this
school with agricultural schools, or with other departments requiring much study.
The right spiritual uplift of the man and opening of the soul demand, first of all,
peace and quiet. Where there is much book activity there can be little time for
meditation and the "living word" becomes powerless.
His fear is that many practical subjects strongly emphasized wiU
force the real spirit of the folk schools into the background — ultimately
to get only such time for lectures as can not be used for ''practical"
purposes. A majority of the schoolmen seem to share these views.
Ryslinge is remarkably weU built and attractive. Its attendance
is limited to 200 young men in A\dn.ter and 200 young women in sum-
mer. Months before a term opens the matriculation sheets are
closed, and the students are refused for want of room. The fact
that such schools deliberately limit themselves to a comparatively
■ The Danish Popular High School.
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS. 51
small number of students should convey a hint to schools where big
numbers too often play the master role.
It is unnecessary to take the time here for a review of the work
seen at RysUnge. In organization of courses, in daily Ufe, and in
other ways it closely resembles Vallekilde; to tell the story of one
school is to give that of the other. Our sojourn there was delightful
and instructive, although cut short because of the principal's forced
absence from home.
AsJcov "Expanded" Folk High School. — When Schleswig became
German territory Rodding Folk High School was transplanted, it
will be recalled, root and branch, to loyal soil north of Kongeaaen
(King's River), which marks the new boundary. Vejen is an unim-
portant country village on the raihoad between Koldmg and Esbjerg,
and the topography of the country is, on the w^hole, monotonous and
unmteresting. In spite of all this, no spot in Denmark has greater
historic memories, nowhere is the patriotic life and the folk Ufe more
keenly alive than here on the frontier. Askov Folk High School,
the greatest of all the folk high schools, lies in the midst of this com-
munity, a short half hour's walk south from Vejen, right in sight of
the German frontier. Had Denmark built strong, fro\\aiing earthworks
along the boundary, they could not have been the national defense that
she now has in the work of this school. North of the line the people
have become welded in clear-sighted, far-seeing nationality, and even
south of it Danish spirit and Danish language have been kept alive.
It is a significant fact that a large number of young people from the
German side of the boundary may be seen not alone at Askov, but
at the other schools in the peninsula and over on the islands.
Askov is a direct continuation of the first school estabhshed in
Denmark, and has retained all the old traditions. Above the portal
of the oldest of its many school buildings may yet be seen the inscrip-
tion: ''Flors Hojskole," in remembrance of Dr. Christian Flor, the
early champion of Rodding. Ludvig Schroder brought the school
across the boundary and directed its work up to the time of his death
in 1908. During these years remarkable progress has been made.
The school was at first conducted as an ordinary folk high school;
but in 1878 it was reorganized as the ''Expanded" Askov.
Prominent high-school leaders had ever since Grundtvig's time
kept aUve the hope that Soro would eventually be converted into a
great central folk high school with continuation courses for students
from the other schools. All hope finally failed, and by common con-
sent Askov was chosen instead. Indeed, such men as Ernst Trier,
of VaUekilde, and J. Fink, an old Ryslinge leader, and their sup-
porters, were among the first to point to Askov as the logical place
for such a school. The Danish high-school association was organ-
ized to look after the financial side of the problem, and with sucli
marked success that the reorganized school could begin its work as
early as November, 1878.
52
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
At the present time the f ollowmg courses are offered : ■ An advanced
course for men, covering two winter sessions of six months each; an
advanced course for young women, also covering two winter sessions
ot six months each; and a regular summer course for young women.
In the advanced courses the men and women attend the lectures
m common; although in most of their other work they have separate
classrooms. The men alone reside at the school dormitories during
the winter sessions. The women students fuid accommodation in the
small village that is springing up around the school grounds.
Some 2G0 young men and v/omen — the pick of the advanced folk
high-school students — were in attendance at the time of our visit.
Many of these had completed the regular courses in the other folk
high schools; some were here from the agricultural schools; some
from teachers' seminaries and from the ''learned" schools; and still
others had come from the National Polytechnic Institute and the
National University. This enthusiastic throng was here preparatory
to going out into the other folk high schools as teachers and inspirers.
The summer courses at Askov differ but little from the summer
work in the other schools. Even the first year of the advanced
course is practically the sa.me as offered elsewhere. Tlie difference
lies in the second year's work. Throughout, there is more actual
book study, methods, and laboratory work. The natural and social
sciences, especially, receive much attention.
The following dail}^ program will give a good idea of scliool Vv^ork
at Askov :
Daily program, summer school for women, 1913.
Hour.
Monday.
Tuesday.
AVednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
8-9.
Social science.
Geography.
Nature study.
9-10.
Gymnast ics.
10-11.
Danish.
Arithmetic.
Danish.
Arithmetic.
Danish.
Arithmetic.
11-12.
History of literati
ire.
General history.
-
Noon intermission.
1.30-2.30.
o. Drawing.
Handwork.
Drawing.
Handwork.
Drawing.
Handwork.
6. Handwork.
Drawing.
Handwork.
Drawing.
Handwork.
Drawing.
2.30-3.
Sonj; practice.
3.25-^.2.5.
Xatiu'e study.
Sanitation.
Elocution.
Danish.
4.30-5.45.
Discussion.
Sewing.
Discussion.
,w.
Lecture.
Lectures Sunday artcrnoons at 5.30.
SOME TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
53
Daily program, winter school for men, 1913.
(First year.)
Hour.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
8-9.
Discussion
on
mathematics.
Discussion
in history of
the north.
Mathematics.
Hygiene and sanitation.
9-10.
Gymnastics.
10.30-11.3C.
Historical phj'sics.
General history.
Natural science.
11..3C>-12.30.
Geography.
Discussion
in physics.
Geography.
Accounting.
12.30-2.
Drawing.
Discussion
in general
history.
Drawing.
Swimming.
Discussion
in general
history.
3.30-1.
Song i/ractice.
4-5.
Sociology.
English or
German.
Lectures.
English or
German.
5-Li.
Danish.
Danish.
Discussion
in natural
science.
Discussion
in
mathematics.
Danish.
Danish.
e-7.
History of literature.
History of the north.
(Second year.)
Hour.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
S-O.
Literature of all nations.
Advanced geography.
Applied mathematics.
0-10.
Gymnastics.
10.30-11.30.
I'hysics.
General history.
Natural science.
11.30-12.30.
Advanced
algebra.
English or
German.
Advanced algebra.
English or
German.
12.30-2.
Discussion
in general
history.
Drawing and laboratory practice.
S\^ immuig.
3.30-1.
Song practice.
4-.'r.
II istory of religions.
Hygiene and
sanitation.
Biology.
Sociology.
5-6.
Discussion
in history of
the north.
Danish.
Discussion
in general
history.
Danish.
Danish.
Danish.
r>-7.
History of litrnituro.
History of the north.
54 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
Askov has had associated with it the names of such great men as
Poul la Cour, Svend Hogsbro, and others. La Cour is known to
the workl for utihzing wind power to generate electric current. The
mill at Askov is built above a very niteresting chemical laboratory,
located in a grove of trees by itself. The mill furnishes current to
liglit the entire school, a score or more buildings, besides supplying
all the electricity required for experimental purposes. The chemical
laboratory was primarily intended for advanced research work only;
but, of late, two weeks' courses have been added for farmers and their
hired men, and dairy employees, who are all obliged to understand
the general principles of electricity, since this is coming more and
more into use for lighting the farmsteads and running the dairies.
October 6 to 14, 1874, marked the beginning, in Denmark, of a
most remarkable system of extension work. At that time some 70
or 80 young and old people met at Askov and "lived" for more than
a week in an atmosphere charged with religious fervor, patriotic zeal,
and eager desire to help one's fellowmen. This was the beginning of
a series of annual meetings which grew in importance with time.
Each autumn larger throngs of the peasantry and town folk flocked
to the school.
This movement was not limited to Askov alone. In a short time
other folk high schools and agricultural schools had taken it up and
the two weeks' autumn meetings were held all over the land. School
buildings proved too small to hold the throngs, and groves of trees
near by were used instead. Some schools have their natural woods,
while others have been obhged to plant for this purpose.
Askov has a historic grove for its great meetings, which, by the
way, are no longer limited to the autumn time, but are held during
spring and summer as well. This is "Skibelund Krat," a small iorest
of gnarled oaks and other trees, a few minutes' walk south of the school
and overlooking the German frontier. This spot has been sacred
ground for many years. Here the peasantry met to celebrate the
signing of the liberal constitution of 1849; and here have the Danes
south of the border met with their brothers annually since the war to
renew their vows of steadfastness to a lost cause. Since the coming
of Askov, Skibelund has become a veritable Mecca for the high-school
folk. All kinds of popular meetings are held here. At or near the
natural amphitheater where the speaking is held are busts and monu-
ments of folk leaders who have given their lives for a happier Den-
mark. Among the others can be seen a great memorial to Principal
Ludvig Schroder and his wife, who died some six years ago. Perhaps
the most striking thing at Skibelund is "Modersmaalet," a group
monument in the center of which stands a woman of heroic size,
gazing southward — "The spirit of the Mother Tongue" — blessing her
divided cliildrcn.
LOCAL AGEICULTUEAL SCHOOLS. 55
The themes discussed at these gatherings cover a wide range of
knowledge. At first they were limited by the folk high-school tradi-
tions to the "inspirational" lectures in history, literature, mythology,
etc. With time the field has broadened until now every phase of
ethics, politics, agriculture, sociology, and the like are freely dis-
cussed. This extension work is quite similar to the American Chau-
tauqua, except that no admission fee is charged.
It might be added here that many men who had gained their
inspiration at the high-school meetings later organized their home
community and continued the great work at the community hall and
gj^mnasium, one of which may be found in every rural district. In
the towns and cities the friends of the new education built Hdjsl'o-
lehjem, or high-school homes — institutions combining many of the
features of a modern Y. M. C. A. building with the conveniences of a
fiLrst-class hotel. Even Copenhagen has such an institution, called
Grundtmg's Hus (Grundtvig's House) . Aside from oft'ering the facili-
ties of first-class hostelries, managed in a truly Christian spirit, these
homes are the rallying centers in town and city for the new extension
work. Each has its library and reading rooms, and holds weekly
meetings fashioned after the great outdoor meetings. It is estimated
that in this way a wholesome and helpful education is brought to the
very threshold of every farmer and villager in the Kingdom.
The State hes lent marked assistance to the extension movement
by encouraging perambulating courses in agriculture and household
economics, setting aside for this work annually large sums to pay
teachers and lecturers. To this should be added that the Govern-
ment maintains a national service of "control assistants" — science
speciaUsts — whose services as speakers and agricultural organizers
may be had for the asking.
VI.— LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK.
General statement. — The Danish country boys leave the elementary
rural school at the age of 14 or 15; then they devote three years or
more to practical home and farm tasks. At 18 they may enter the
folk high schools, spending there a winter or two to get as large a
share as possible in the cultural subjects. Then at 19 or 20 or even
later they are ready to make a final study of the technical agricul-
tm-al subjects m the local agricultural schools.
The importance to students of a course in the folk high schools
before they enter the agricidtural schools can scarcely be overesti-
mated. The life at the former schools has a quickening effect upon
them ; they learn to thmk for themselves, and enter the agricultural
schools ready to apj^ropriate and apply to a larger degree w^hat they
56 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
fiiul there than could otherwise have been possible. From figm-es
quoted elsewhere it appears that about 50 per cent of all agricultural
students have attended folk high schools for one or more winter ses-
sions before entering upon their technical studies. Many agricul-
tm*al schools, as a matter of fact, reciuire that their matriculants
shall have spent some time at the folk high schools before beginning
agricultural studies.
Capt. J. C. la Coui' loved to say: ''The Danish agricultural school
is the child of the Danish folk high school, and must, like this, have
Christian faith and national life for its basis." The union between
the two kinds of schools is remarkably close. In organization and
internal management the agricultural schools are very similar to their
prototype, the folk high schools. The same democratic spuit of gov-
ernment, the dormitory plan of student life, the great emphasis
placed on song and gymnastics, the use of the lecture method when-
ever feasible — all bespeak this.
Every agricultm*al school has its school farm. For that matter, so
has practically every folk high school. Some of the schools have
a hundred acres. It is true that the folk high schools use their land
chiefly to aid in the upkeep of the school by furnishing vegetables,
Vvhile the agricultural school uses its land for laboratory pm'poses.
The amount of practical work varies greatly. Some schools are
content to adhere closely to teaching the theory of agriculture.
Others have extensive experimental fields, herds of milch cows, great
numbers of swine and poultry; at a few schools there are fully
equipped creameries for the working up of the milk produced on the
school farm and milk hauled in from neighboring farms. Several
have weU-equippcd bacteriological laboratories, where problems are
worked out of greatest value to agricultural life. Each separate
school strives to formulate its courses to the needs of its own agri-
cultural section.
The Government-aided agricidtural schools number 23, including
three special agricultural schools for smaU-hold farmers. Some-
thing of the daily life and work at three typical schools of this kind
is described below. The three are: Lyngby, in Zealand; Dalum, in
Fyen; and Ladelund, in Jutland.
Lynghy Agriculiural Scliool. — Lyngby is one of the most beautiful
spots in Denmark. It is only 7 miles north of Copenhagen, and on
this account is visited by foreign commissions and unattached edu-
cators more frequently than the other schools. The L^mgby com-
munity comprises a whole system of educational institutions rather
than a smglo school. There is the Lyngby Agricultural School and
right across the road from it Grundtvig's Folk High School. A Gov-
ernment ox]KM-iment farm lies contiguous to the agricultiu-al school,
and a most unique agricidtural museum adjoins the folk high-school
LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.
57
grounds. Besides these, a cooperative association of local farmers
has experiment fields and sales emporimns in the school community.
L^'ngby Agricultm-al School was organized in 1S67 by Capt. J. C.
la Com* and a local association of farmers. This was really an attempt
to operate an agricultural school having as one of its integral parts a
folk high-school department. This did not prove a very satisfactory
arrangement; the folk high-school department did not prosper. In
1890 the Grundtvig High School Association (organized to perpetu-
GROUND PLAN OF GRUNDTViG'S FOLK HIGH SCHOOL.
16. E.xperiment fields of Ilorso Cooperative Associ-
ation.
17. Cooperative association headquarters.
18. Agricultural school farm.
19. Further experiment fields.
20. Experiment orchard.
21. J. C. la Coui-'s monument.
22. Teachers' cottage.
1. Agricultural school.
2. Grundtvig's High School.
3. Agricultural museum.
4. 5, and 6. Museum buildings.
7. Museum exhibits.
8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Additional museum farmsteads.
13. Machinery hall.
11. Government experiment fields.
1.5. Buildings of experiment station.
ate the bishop's name in a folk high school) purchased the agricul-
tural school and additional land. A group of new buildings was
erected for Grundtvig's Folk High School, giving the school at the
same time a separate administration. The present status is there-
fore this: One association of school men and farmers owns both
schools, but these have separate principals and separate internal
management. Yet they work in the greatest harmony, so far as to
use a g3^mnasium in common, exchanging lecturers, and in other
58 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
ways helping each other. The work, according to expert testimony,
has been much more satisfactory to all concerned since the division
into two schools.
Lyngby Agricult^lral School is a good illustration of the sub-
stantial smaller schools of agriculture. The school farm embraces
some 19 acres only, but Ljmgby has the opportunity to make use
of important investigations carried on by the Government on its
experiment farm mentioned above. The students may also draw
much inspiration from Grundtvig's Folk High School and from
study at the great Danish Agricultural Museum (Dansk Land-
brugsmuseum) near by.
Lyngby offers two courses for young men — one of six months
and one of nine. Prerequisites for admission are : (1 ) Some familiarity
with farm work, and (2) time spent at some folk high school. The
six months' course is as follows:
Chemistry (inorganic and organic).
Physics.
Study of soils.
Treatment of soils (including meadow and
moorlands; irrigation and draining).
Study of fertilizers.
Rotation of crops.
Plant culture.
Study of weeds.
Seed culture.
Plant diseases.
Domestic animals (their anatomy).
Breeding of domestic animals (cattle,
Judging horses and cattle.
Diseases of domestic animals.
Feeding.
Horseshoeing and smithing.
Dairying.
Farm machinery.
Farm accounting.
Drawing.
Surveying and leveling.
Arithmetic.
Written themes.
Danish.
History of agriculture.
horses, swine, and sheep). Study of how to overcome commercial
Study of breeds and breeding. I faults in our domestic animals.
The nine months' course includes all of the above, but is more
detailed. Lecture courses in sociology and economics with special
reference to rural life are added. Some work is also offered for
students who desire to become ''control assistants" — i. e., local
agiicultural experts who offer advice in dairying, feeding, fertiliza-
tion of soils, etc.
The Government experiment station is utilizing some 125 acres
of land at this time. The Lyngby station limits its work to cereals
and root i)lants especially adai)ted to Zealand conditions. Highly
scientific experiments are carried on in the comparative values of
cereals, clover, roots, etc. All such work may be observed by the
students of the agricultural school.
Dansk Folkemuseum is the largest museum of its kind in Den-
mark. Several large buildings are fdlcd with agricultural imple-
ments and furnitu]-c and household utensils, arranged chrono-
logically covering many hundred yeai-s. Plere the students have
the oi)i)ortunity to study the evolution in the plow or harrow from
LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 59
the simple wooden affair of the forefathers to the many modern
implements. Harvesting, threshing, and dairying may likewise
be observed from their primitive beginnings to the present-day
labor-saving machinery. Entire farmsteads, with all their out-
buildings, two, three, or even four hundred years old, have been
moved in from various parts of Denmark, Sweden, the Faroes, and
Iceland, and rebuilt on the museum grounds at Lyngby.
The cooperative enterprises carried on in the community can
also be utilized to practical ends by the school.
Ddlum Agricultural and Dair^y School. — To take the half hour's
walk from Odense in Fyen out to Dalum Agricultural School seemed
almost like making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Kristen Kold.
His first Ryslinge school, it may be recalled, was moved to Dalby
in northeast Fyen, and in 1862 Kold opened a more pretentious
school at Dalum, where he labored up to the time of his death in
1870. His was a great work, and when he died no available man
was found to continue what he had begun, with the result that the
school eventually closed its doors, not to be reopened before 188G,
when it was reorganized by a great school man, Jorgen Petersen,
as Dalum Landbrugsskole.
This school, with Ladelund and Tune, make the trio of greatest
local agricultural schools in Denmark. It has influenced Danish
agricultural life in every corner of the Kmgdom. Some 4,267
students have completed its courses in the 26 years of its existence.
Of these, 3,198 have returned to the soil as scientific farmers, 652
have gone into the creameries, and 417 have become control assist-
ants, or agricultural experts whose business it is to advise the farmers
and teach them better agriculture. The average winter attendance
is about 200, while in simimer only 25 of the most capable students
are retained, who get the practical work of the farm by actually "doing
it" under experts. This small group become heads of large farms,
managers of dairies, bacon factories, etc.
Dalum offers the following courses:
1. Courses for agriculturists —
(a) 6 months (November-April).
(6) 9 months (November-July),
(c) 3 months (May-July).
2. Coiu-se for dairymen —
(a) 8 months (September-April).
3. Course for control assistants —
(o) 1 month (October).
1. Courses for Agriculturists.
The six months' course requirements for admission are: (1) Practical knowledge of
farm work; (2) completion of a course in a folk high school; (3) applicant must generally
be at least 20 years of age. The studies are as follows:
Chemistry. — Inorganic and organic — in relation to everyday life.
Physics. — Mechanics, heat, electricity, meteorology, etc.
GO THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
Plant culture.— Structure, life, common diseases.
Drawing. — Geometrical, mechanical, etc.
Surveying. — Field work throughout the spring.
Danish.— Language, composition, themes.
Arithmetic.
Farm accounting. — Cash and bank accounts, fodder and milk accounting, field
records, daily and annual settlements.
Gymnastics.
History of agriculture. — With special reference to Danish conditions.
Study of soils.
Dairying. — In addition to the regular course, a series of lectures of special interest
to milk producers is offered, such as treatment of milk in the home, statistics on dairy
management, etc.
Farm management. — Farm organization, rotation of crops, use of banks and credit
unions, land laws, communal laws, etc.
Farm machinerj'. — Study of farm implements, results of trials and experiments
with common farm m^achiuery, preservation and use of machines, etc.
Plant culture. — Preparation of soil, study of fertilizers, seeding, harvesting, history
and culture of the most useful plants, weeds, plant diseases, seed culture, etc.
Domestic animals. — Anatomy; the horse, breeds and breeding; the cow, hog, sheep,
etc., in similar manner; care of all domestic animals.
The nino months' course presupposes the completion of the above
six months' course or its equivalent in some other school. The coui-se
includes all the studies enumerated in th.c six montlis' coui-se in addi-
tion to three months of advanced work, with practical application in
laboratory and experiment field, during May, June, and July.
The three months' course is a continuation course for old and
advanced students. It is practical laboratory and field work chiefly.
It covers the months of May, June, and July.
2. Course for Dairymen.
The dairy school of Dalum has its own lecture halls, bacteriological and chemical
laboratories; a large cream.ery which manufactures the milk from the school herd of
cows and from the farms of the vicinity; and much other modern equipment. Only
mature students of good school preparation are accepted. The course covers eight
monihs' work, from September to April. The studies are as follows:
Chemistry, physics, machinery, bacteriology, domestic animals, dairying, farm
accounting, bookkeeping, arithmetic, penm.anship, and gymnastics.
I'ractical exercises:
1. Study of milk in the creamery; testing for fats, etc.
2. Bacteriological exercises; common bacteriological technique, microscopic cul-
tures, etc.
3. Chemical analyses of a practical kind for the dairy, such as testing for purity,
dclermining per cent of water in butter, etc.
4. Chemical experim.ents in qualitative analysis dealing with the chief inorganic
and organic substances.
3. Course for Control Assistants.
The demand for control assistants is so urgent that the school has organized a special
course in this field. The work is open to men and women of maturity and experience
who have already completed an agricultural or dairy course at Dalum or at some
agricultural school of equal rank. The work is all advanced.
LOCAL AGEICULTUKAL SCnOOLS. 61
The course includes classwork and lectures on dairying, dairy accounting, study
of feeding, study of soil tests and fertilizing, with practical work in milk weighing,
testing for fats, etc., the use of Dr. Gerber's apparatus, keeping records of individual
cows, etc.
Dalum is a large school. Something like a score of substantial
structures have sprung up around Kold's original school building,
which is still in use. The experiment fields are large and interesting.
The school herds of cattle and swine were the best seen anywhere
on our trip. The faculty list includes some of the ablest agricultural
scientists in Denmark. The principal is Th. Madsen-Mygdal, who
has done much for Danish agriculture. Another man of note is
Jacob E, Lange, who is well laiown for his w^ork in horticulture.
Ladelund Agricultural and Dairy School. — This great farm school
lies only an hour's walk northwest of Askov, or may be reached in a
few minutes by rail from Vejen to Brorup Station. The school
embraces 50 or more acres of land, divided into home farm, experi-
mental plats, forestry station, and school campus. The latter con-
tains some 40 farm and school buildings.
The purpose of the school is stated in the following language:
Through the courses of instruction it is sought to give the students — who must
be acquainted with the practical side of agriculture and dairying — such a foundation
of knowledge as will enable them to attain a clearer insight into those things which
they in practice must labor with, and hence also greater interest, greater returns,
and greater joy in their work. This end is sought to be attained partly by giving
the students knowledge of nature that surrounds them, of the forces that are work and
the laws that govern, and before which we must yield and regulate our daily work in
field and barn and dairy, and partly by making known to the students the results of
experimentation, of investigation, etc., in the field of agriculture and dairying —
results on the basis of which we must shape our practical activities.'
The school offers courses in agriculture, in dairying, and in the
preparation of control assistants.
The agriculture courses are three: (1) A five months' course, from
November to March, for young farmers vv^ho can not give the growing
season to study ; (2) a nine-months' course, from November to July,
for long-time students; and (3) a four months' continuation course,
from April to July, for students wdio have already taken a short
preparatory course. The subjects of instruction are practically the
same as studied at Lyngby, The continuation course, however, lays
great stress on practical field work.
The course in dairying includes chemistry, physics, bacteriology,
farm accounting, Danish, drawing, gymnastics, bookkeepmg (for
dairymen), dairy culture, history of agriculture, dairying, and rural
economics, practical work in the bacteriological laboratory and school
dairy.
1 Under visningsplan for 1912.
C2
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
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13 CI 2
3j= g c
3 c, 0.2
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« S b o
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(NCJOMMcococoeoeocococoW'j'
LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 68
There are three courses for control assistants — of six, three, and
one month. These agricultural speciaUsts devote their time to
giving expert advice to the farmers of a given community and are
paid partly by the community and partly by the State. Such experts
may be found all over the land, testing milk for butter fat or the cows
for tuberculosis. They make soil examinations and give ad\dce as to
what fertihzers to use, what rations to feed, etc. Their work has
been especially effective among the older farmere who have not had
the opportunities for study now at hand. Students takmg control-
assistant courses have generally completed some agricultural course
before matriculating in the new work. Here emphasis is laid on
control accounting, milk testing, bacteriology, and the study of
domestic animals.
Ladelund Agricultm-al School is equipped with remai'kably strong
bacteriological and chemical laboratories. The latter is used exten-
sively to analyze milk, fertilizers, and feeding stuffs from the farm-
steads far and near. The school owns a herd of 35 red Fyen cows,
some of which yielded 16,500 pounds of milk annually. Tliis milk,
together with the milk from many hundred red cows from adjoin-
mg farms, is manufactured into butter and prepared for the English
markets at the cooperative creamery, which is a part of the school
plant. This school creamery handled the past year fully 1,000,000
kilograms of milk.
The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute. — It is appropriate
in this connection to mention the great mother school of agriculture,
the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute (Den Kongelige
Vetermser- og Landbohojskole) , situated almost at the center of
Copenhagen. The agricultural schools discussed above are more
local schools intended to tram practical farmers. The Roj^-al Institute,
on the other hand, is a school of research, and offers advanced courses
for the training of practical agriculturists, horticulturists, foresters,
surveyors, veterinarians, and blacksmiths Most of the teachers in
the local agricultural schools have been trained in this great school.
The coUcge was founded in 1783, at fii-st solely as a veterinarv'-
school. It was afterwards enlarged to include agriculture and horti-
culture, and stiU later departments were added for surveyors and
foresters. In 1892 and 1893 the State contributed about 1,000,000
crowns for further enlargement.
The total number of students ranges from 400 to 600. Of these
about 200 belong to the veterinary group. The agricultural group is
smaller, seldom passing 125. The rest are divided pretty evenly
among the foresters and the horticulturists. The attendance is not
limited to Denmark. The reputation of Dr. T. Westerman, Dr.
K. Rordam, Prof. B. Bang, the great authority on animal tubercu-
losis, and other members of the faculty is so great that students
04 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
attend from all over northern Europe, and even from Bulgaria, Greece,
and Roumania.
Without describing the work of the institute m detail, it should be
said that it is a great institution, comprismg many acres covered with
massive buildings, wherein are found well-equipped laboratories,
libraries, museums, etc. The school forms the center of all agricul-
tural acti^^ty in the Kingdom. Here is, for example, the laboratory
for agricultural-economic experiments, through which important
chemical, bacteriological, physiological, and other experiments in
dairying, feeding, and breeding of cattle, swine, and poultry are car-
ried on at selected farms throughout the land. The laboratory pur-
sues continuous tests of butter intended for export. Another
important arm of the service is the serum laboratory, which prepares
and distributes various sera, vaccines, and preparations intended to
stamp out disease of domestic animals. Finally, the 25 national
experts in agricultural economics (Statens Landokonomiske Konul-
enter) are connected more or less closely with the Royal Institute.
Four do their v/ork under the mmistry of agriculture, one is attached
to the mmistry of justice, while the remainmg twenty are stationed at
the scattered experiment farms, and are in direct touch with the
school. These specialists lend direct assistance to the local agricul-
tural schools, and in many other ways promote agricultural improve-
ment.
VII.— SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS FOR SIVIALL
HOLDERS AND RURAL SCHOOLS OF HOUSEHOLD
ECONOMICS.
General statement. — Three special schools have been established for
the sons and daughters of small-hold farmers, and, in some of their
courses, for the fathers and mothers also. The small holders face
problems which call for special treatment. There are 75,000 such
farmers, each of whom must make a living out of from 2 or 3 to 7
acres of land. As the regular agricidtural schools were organized
to answer the needs more particularly of the gaardmand, the hus-
mand sought relief in these schools, which have been opened at
Ringstcd in Zealand, Odense in Fyen, and Borris in Jutland.
Here follows a brief description of two of these schools — Kserehave,
near Ringsted, and Fyn Stifts School, near Odense.
Kxreliave Ilusmandsskole {small-liold scliool). — N. J. Nielsen-
Klodskov, who is credited with originating the movement for the
new schools — and at present the principal of Kserehave — states the
purpose of the schools to be "to prepare leaders who shall make the
life of the Danish husmand so honored and recognized that the young
sons anil daughters of these home-; will gladly choose this calling in
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 22 PLATE 5
A. DALUM LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL NEAR ODENSE, FYEN. EXPERIMENTAL
FIELD IN FOREGROUND.
B. FIRCROFT FOLK HIGH SCHOOL, BOURNVILLE, ENGLAND.
This is the first adaptation of the Danish schools on British soil.
SPECIAL AGFilCULTUEAL SCHOOLS^ ETC. 65
preference to city life." The schools have, indcecl, ah'eady done
much to make the small holders' lot more tolerable and theK work
more profitable. They prepare the students for mtensive scientific
farming in the same way that the agricultural schools are doing, but
they go even further in stressing the auxiliaries or side lines of agri-
culture, as chicken raismg, rabbit breeding, and bee culture. Many
of the small holders would be unable to make ends meet were it not for
chickens, rabbits, and bees. The smaU-hold schools also lay an
unusual stress on the short courses of 11 or more days — time enough
to give people who are m the ruts inspiration for a new start.
Kserehave was founded in 1903, and during the 10 years of its
existence has instructed 5,500 students, ranging in age from 18 to 75
years. The school is the property of Principal Nielsen-Klodskov.
A gift of 50,000 crowns from a local philanthropist and a State loan
of 60,000 crowns made its foundation possible. Later other friends
of the school have given liberally to place the school on a solid founda-
tion. At this time the school property, includmg the large 125-acre
experimental farm, is valued at half a million crowns nearly. The
student capacity is 200.
The school equipment of the small-hold schools is at least equal
to what may be seen at the best of the agricultural schools. K?ere-
have has a land area divided about as follows : Ten acres used for
buildings, campus, parldng, flowers, and shrubbery; 3 acres of beech
and oak forest fashioned as an outdoor auditorium for summer
meetings; 7 acres divided into parcels and used variously for the
breeding of chickens, rabbits, hogs, etc.; 3 acres planted to orchard
for experimental purposes; 2 acres given over to experiments in
vegetables and for a school-ldtchen garden; 4 acre? used exclusively
for horticultural experiments; and, finally, 96 acres divided into
mterestmg small-hold farms of 6, 12, 18, 20, and 40 acres, respec-
tively— the latter as practical object lessons in managmg farms of
different size.
In variety of courses the small-hold schools take first place. Kgere-
have offers the following long and short courses :
During the winter session —
Six months' agricultural course for young farmers.
Six months' training course for country artisans.
Six months' horticultural course for young gardeners.
Six months' course in household economics for young women.
During the summer session —
Five months' course in household economics for young women.
Six months' continuation course for agriculturists.
Six months' course in horticulture for men.
Tliroughout the year. — Eighteen short courses of 11 working days each, for older
men <Gnd women, residents of Zealand. New courses open on the first and third
Tuesdays of each month except October.
49720°— 14 5
66
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
Agricultural courses. — The courses, it will be seen, are two of six
months each. The first course covers the same ground as is covered
in the elementary course in the average agricultural school. It
includes work in sanitation, gymnastics, Danish, accounting, history
of agriculture, plant culture, domestic animals, farm bookkeeping,
surve3ring, practical experimentation, and manual training.
By special enactment of the Rigsdag, a liberal sum of money has
been set aside for aid to worthy students of the small-hold schools.
This is more liberal than in the other schools. For example, a worthy
young man of small means may obtain as high as 30 crowns a month
to help him through the six months' course mentioned above. This
is nearly enough to pay his way through the whiter half year.
But the practical and theoretical contmuation course is actually
planned to give the student worker an mcome. According to a law
passed in 1908, students who have completed a course in this or other
recognized agricultural or folk high school may ask admittance to the
summer continuation course and receive aid and pay through the
ministry of agriculture.
The daUy plan is about as follows:
Time devoted to field work.
Time devoted to instruction.
Time for meals.
5 to 6.25 a. m.
7 to 10.25 a. m.
11 to 2.30 p. m.
4 to 5 p. m.
5 to 6 p. m.
6 to 7 p. m.
6..30 to 7 a. m., coffee.
10.30 to 11 a. m., breakfast.
2.30 to 3 p. m., dinner.
7.30 to 8 p. m., supper.
The instruction embraces agriculture, plant culture, domestic
animals, horticulture, and the auxiliaries of agriculture. Theory
and practice go hand in hand. The students are divided into groups,
each in charge of teachers and field managers. The practical work
is done in the several experiment fields under the direction of the
latter. During October the daily instruction is suspended, and all
the time is devoted to work.
The students receive 10 crowns a month during the first 5 months
and 50 crowns durmg October, in addition to free tuition, board and
lodging. The work has proved remarkably satisfactory. A young
man who applies his theories to the soil in the sweat of his brow is
likely to get his agriculture about right. At least so it has proved at
Kserehave, which sends out annually a throng of practical and indus-
trious young farmers who are well equipped for their life work.
Courses in household economics : The two courses for young women
are thorough and fit their students well to take charge of small farm
homes, where the greatest economy must be exercised to make ends
meet.
SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS, ETC. 67
The half-year courses are almost identical, so an outline of one may
answer for both of them :
Hygiene and sanitation. — Anatomy of the human body; laws of health; home
Banitation.
Gymnastics. — New Danish gymnastics.
Danish. — Reading, composition, and themes.
Accoimting. — Common and applied arithmetic.
History. — History of civilization, history of literature, church history, history of
the north, geography, and sociology.
Song.— Folk and patriotic songs.
Physics. — Physics of everyday life.
Chemistry.— Chemistry of the household.
Housekeeping. — Preparation of foods: Baking, butchering, practical kitchen work,
drying and preserving fruit; pickling, etc.
Handwork. — Knitting, darning, patching, plain sewing, dressmaking, and embroid-
ering.
House management. — Relation to domestics; treatment of clothing; the laundry.
Sick and child nursing. — Lectures and practical work.
Sloyd. — Basketry, patching shoes, work in pasteboard; bookbinding; making
clothes brushes, etc.
Bookkeeping. — Practical household accounting.
Plant culture. — ^Structure, life, treatment, and improvement; kitchen plants, small
and large fruit; windbreaks, seed culture, weeds.
Domestic animals. — Anatomy, life, management; special study of chickens, ducks,
geese, rabbits, and bees.
Practical work. — Practical application in all the above, so far as possible.
This course is seen to mclude considerable work of an agricultural
nature. The housewife at the average small hold works her own
garden and may in a pmch help in the field. A considerable number
of women still work regularly in Danish fields; but these are chiefly
Polish and Russian girls, who are glad to do a man's work, thereby
escapmg the worse condition of their old home. Needy young women
may procure aid on the same terms as the young men. In this way
they may draw from the State, upon application through their home
commune, as high as 30 crowns monthly for not to exceed fire months.
Eleven-day courses for mature men and women. — By far the most
interesting are the short courses of 11 days each. A special appro-
priation has been made to aid men and women of small means to take
advantage of them. Any pei'son, who, by reason of his occupation,
can profit by such a course is eligible to aid. The total cost of the
course is 30 crowns, and the amount of aid is usually enough to
cover both this and such other expenses as railroad fare, etc., to and
from the school.
The practical lessons learned in the short courses are unquestionably
many and important; but the inspiration gained from contact with
other people with problems to solve, is even greater. Many is the
small holder who has returned home from the short courses with a new
68 THE DANJSH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
outlook on life, and with courage in the heart for renewed effort.
"'When my wife returned home from her 11 days at Kssrehave," says
one man, "she looked 11 years younger than when she left home."
And so it is down the line with others.
Fyn Stifts School, near Odense. — This school, also knoiAai under the
name of Odense Husmandsskole, was organized by the United Asso-
ciations of Small Holders in the Island of Fyen in 1908. The institu-
tion is leased to the present prmcipal for 10 years, as the universal
experience in Denmark has been that the success or failure of all these
schools is closely bound up with, the individuality of the one man at
the head.
The purpose of the school ma}^ be stated from the school catalogue
in these words :
It is to give the students a good spiritual awakening and general guidance, and to
offer them such knowledge of the professional subjects as shall enable them to take
their place in the body politic and community as independent citizens, as farmers, in
such ways that they may live economically independent lives, and make the most of
their lot as small holders. The purpose is, moreover, to give such knowledge and
understanding of the auxiliary lines of agriculture that the small holder may be enabled
to keep his entire family together, each member to work at some specific avocation at
home.
The instruction is similar to that of Kaerehave. It embraces long
and short courses for young farmers, with special application to small
holds; two courses for young women to aid them in their difficult
role as helpmeets on these small farms; two courses for artisans —
carpenters, masons, etc. — and two courses for control assistants.
Ilere, too, of greatest interest, are a number of short courses for
men and women, young and old, living in the country. At this point
the school is very close to the people. The investigator found at
Odense middle-aged and old men and women mingling in classes with
young men and women in their best years — the ages ranging from
25 to 75 — but all with life problems to solve. Some come to get new
insight into potato culture, others make a two weeks' study of soil
from their own land, or others again take up bee culture, rabbit
breeding, or chicken raising. And they all gain enough stored-up
inspiration to tide them over the hard places of the future.
It is hard to say whether this school or Kserehave attracted us the
most. Both of them are well built and well equipped. Their grounds
and experiment plats were especially full of interest. The school lies
in an area of 65 acres. The main building is set in a beautiful lawn
of several acres. In the left foreground is a complete model small
holding of 7 acres. In the right foreground are the outbuildings
of the larger farm (25 acres), which furnishes the school with vege-
tables, milk, and meats. There is also a horticultural experiment
station of 17 acres, for the cultivation of small and large fruit.
SPECIAL AGRICULTUEAL SCIIOOLS_, ETC. CO
including a largo kitchen garden and individual garden plats for
students. Another part of the farm has a modern hennery, a rab-
bitry, and an apiary. There is even an area of mulberry trees for
silkworm culture.
The model small holding of 7 acres deserves a few words in passing.
Upon it a model home has been erected, adapted to the size of the
farm. It contains a suite of four rooms for the family, a barn for the
cows, and stall room for a horse, besides room for grain, fodder, and
machinery. And all of this is under one roof — but it is all built so
substantially and is kept so clean that it never becomes insanitary
or a nuisance. Over the stall of each cow is kept a record of the
weekly production in milk and butter fat; and if a cow should fall
below a certain minimum it would go immediately to the butcher.
Because the small holder's land is very limited, dvrarf apple trees and
long-stemmed cherry trees are grown, the latter often along the
driveways, where they can combine the useful with the attractive.
Dwarf apple trees are planted 9 to 10 feet apart. Some of them yield
amazingly. A perfect system of rotation is followed in the small
hold. Every foot of ground is utiUzed, and records are kept of every-
thing produced and sold, and of everything purchased. The young
farmers who make a special study of this model small hold are able
to attack their own farm problems with eyes wide open.
Rural schools of household economics. — Separate schools to prepare
country girls for their later life responsibilities are comparatively new
in Denmark, although house-mother schools have been popular in
the towns for many years. Not more than a dozen rural schools of
this sort are sufficiently established to be recognized by the State,
though 17 or more are in operation.
All of the folk high schools offer summer courses for young women,
especially of the inspirational order, and several thousand students
attend annually. Class work in sewing and needlework, lectures on
sanitation, and other important themes are included in these summer
courses, but these have never been considered sufficient preparation
for the responsibilities of housekeeping. It is an old custom in Den-
mark to send the young woman, as soon as bethrothed, to some large
country home — the manse or the home of a country squire — to take
a year's work in practical housekeeping. This has unquestionably
been a fine training for Danish housewives, but even the best homes
are not expected to know many of the latest things which science is
thrusting upon the schools, which schools alone can supply. With
the demand for agricultural schools where to train scientific young
farmers came a natural insistence that the helpmeets of these young
men should be afforded equal opportunities; hence the rural schools
of household economics.
70 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
The schools are built in the open country or on the outskirts of
some rural village. It usually has land enough — 3 to 5 acres- — to
furnish vegetables, milk, and butter for school consumption. A first-
class vegetable and fruit garden is used as a laboratory where the
young women do much individual work. The flower garden, too,
receives its share of attention.
The young women are expected to reside at the school during their
continuance there. The courses are usually six months in length.
This enables the schools — which often run the entire year — to train
two separate groups of students each year. The buildings are
equipped with model Idtchen, dining room, living room, and cham-
bers, all of them intended as models for practical farm homes.
Some idea of the scope and thoroughness of the schools may be
obtained from the following brief description of one such school —
Haraldsborg, near Roskilde.
Haraldsborg School of HouseJiold Economics. — This school lies on a
beautiful ridge of hills, overlooking Rosldlde Fjord, sibout 20 minutes'
walk from the railway station. The housemother, Fru Anna
Bransager-Nielsen, limits the number of resident students to 35, who
are treated as members of the family. These are grouped for con-
venience into five families of seven each. At the time of our visit
three families had charge of the model kitchen, one family was occu-
pied in the living-rooms and bed chambers, and the remaining family
was hard at work in the dressmaking room.
The school was a marvel of neatness. Wliat seemed most valuable
in this system of preparation was not so much what the young women
learned to do, as the right habits of life inculcated with the work of
the day.
Haraldsborg is large enough to produce the vegetables, milk, meats,
etc., consumed at the school. Four acres are devoted to lawn and
flowers, and ten acres to the farm, which keeps a span of horses, a
couple of cows, and some pigs.
The course of study includes the following subjects:
Natural science. — Chemistry and physics, with special reference to the household.
Housekeeping. — Preparation of foods; food values, theory of household economics;
household accounting; baking; butchering; curing meats; pickling; cleaning house;
dining-room work ; washing; ironing.
Handwork. — Plain sewing; dressmaking; patching; darning; fine needlework and
embroidery.
Sanitation. — Study of human anatomy; laws of health; home sanitation.
Garden culture. — Care of kitchen, fruit, and flower gardens; preparing vegetables
and fruit for keeping and winter use.
Other subjects. — Song, gymna.stics, literature, rural sociology, and reviews in any
of the elementary subjects wherein the students may prove deficient.
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN NORWAY, SWEDEN; ETC. 71
VIII— THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL TRANSPLANTED TO
OTHER NORTH EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
The adai^tahility of the folk high, schools. — The question naturally
arises, could such institutions as the Danish folk high schools be
adapted to the needs of other countries ? They were born of pecu-
liar national needs. Can they live and do their work on other than
Danish soil ? The answer is that the schools have been quite adapta-
ble to changed conditions and needs. They have done as well, in
fact, outside of Denmark as at home. It is true that the transplanta-
tion has so far been Umited to north European nations of kindred
origin with the Danish, but there seems Uttle doubt that Grundtvig's
system, especially in its more recent practical apphcation, could find
a ready field of usefuhiess even as far from the land of its origin as
the United States. Indeed, Danish emigrants have already made a
beginning at transplating them to American soil.
The folk high schools were carried to the mountain regions of
Norway in 1864, where they have flourished despite much adverse
legislation. In 1868 they were transplanted to Swedish soil, where
44 strong schools, of a somewhat modified type, are now wielding a
remarkable influence in farm communities. Finland has found the
folk high schools a national bulwark against Russian domination, 43
such schools are now keeping ahve the sturdy Finnish folk life. Even
Iceland and the Faroes have each one high school. The next step
was the successful transplantation to England. The first school of
the kind for English-speaking people began its activities at Bourn-
viUe, near Birmingham, in 1909, under the name of Fircroft School.
Its appeal has been especially to the artisan class, with which it is
doing a good work. A second school has just been opened in York-
shire, which will be watched with much interest by friends of t]ie
movement.
The folk school in Sweden. — The school came to Sweden as a protest
against a deadening materialism and indifference for fatherland and
nationality that had long prevailed.
According to Swedish thinkers of 50 years ago:
The peasantry were devoted solely to their swine, their calves, and brandy stills;
and the chief qualification for election to the Rigsdag was a promise to see to the
reduction of taxes. The great social questions of the future were left to shift for
themselves.'
Then appeared Dr. August Sohlman (1824-1874), editor of the
Swedish ''Aftonbladet," as an advocate of ''a new kind of schools
free to aU the people — a school which might also become a means to
reform the existing narrow humanistic schools and lead to a national
folk culture." He was seconded in his effort by many leading men
J Schroder. Folkehojskolen i Sverige, p. 398.
72 THE DAXISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
of the day. Ultimately the "Nordiske Nationalforening" offered its
sii])port to t]ic new cause, with the result that the first Swedish folk
liigli school was founded at Herrestad in East Gothland, November 1,
1868. The very same day another school was opened at Onnestad
in Skaane, and one day later Hvilan Folk High School, near Akarp,
in southwest Sweden, threw open its doors.
This beginning marked a renaissance in Swedish agricultural life.
The school has caused the same "breaking through of sleeping souls"
here as in Denmark. The spirit of confidence in one's neighbors is
just as marked also. Cooperative enterprises are clustering v\'herever
the folk high schools thrive. In Sweden, the schools early empha-
sized more of the purely practical, laying more stress on textbook
study. And in a few instances examinations were introduced, though
generally to be discontinued later. The chief Swedish modification
of the Danish system lies in the addition of fully equipped agricul-
tural departments to most of the schools. In this respect, at least,
the Swedish poHcy is at variance with the tenets of a majority of
Danish high school men. Since 1882 — when the Swedish Govern-
ment began offering liberal support for the establishment of agricul-
tural schools — the folk high schools have gone through a partial reor-
ganization. Two schools are now usually found on the same campus,
under one administrative head, although the schools continue to have
separate principals and are housed in their own buildings. Their
relation is much the same as is that of the several schools in an
American university — each with its own dean subject to a common
administrative head. The schools at Lyngby and a few other places
in Denmark have a similar organization.
Sweden has 44 Government-recognized folk high schools, with 1,100
men and 1,080 women students. The State appropriation in 1912-13
for aid to the schools — privately owned as in Denmark — was 339,200
crowns, and stipends for needy students, 80,000 crowns.
Ilvilan Folkltdgskolan och Lantmannaskolan. — It is unnecessary to
describe m detail the Swedish schools. In administration, methods
of instruction, and subject matter they follow closely their Danish
prototypes. One marked difference has been noted above — the
Swedes prefer to bring under one administration all the schools
which in Denmark are usually kept as distinct institutions. In aU
probability, any adaptation that might be made of these schools in
the United States would likely resemble the Swedish plan more than
the Danish, since our conditions will hardly permit of schools de-
pendmg solely on the insph-ational elements to attract a student
body.
Ilvilan Folk High School and Agricultural School may be taken
as typical of the Swedish schools. The four distinct Danish schools —
folk high school, agricultural school, smaU-hold school, and school of
POLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN NORWAY, SWEDEN, ETC. 73
household economics — are all represented at H\TLlan ])y very good
courses. This is not to say that the opportunities offered here are
just as good in every respect as in the separate Danish schools, but
very satisfactory work is done.
The courses and number of students in each course for the year
1911-12 were as follows:
The folk high school — ' students.
General course for men (November 1 to April 13) 63
Advanced course for men (November 1 to April 13) 28
General course for women (May 1 to July 28) 34
Advanced course for women (May 1 to August 14) 19
The agricultural school —
General course for men (November 1 to April 13) 48
Two courses for control assistants (September to October and May to
June) 129
Special course for small holders (March 4-16) 29
Course for housemothers and their daughters (July 1-G) 36
Total 386
Origin of the Norwegian folic liigh schools. — In Our Redeemer's
Churchyard, at Christiania, stands a simple gravestone bearing an
inscription that may bo translated thus :
So awaken the folk one morning tide
With life in heart and light in mouth,
And sweetly it sings
With loosened tongues
AMiat Life's about.
Beneath the stone sleeps Ole Vig, the Norwegian teacher and
^\T.iter who first brought Grundtvig's spirit to Norway. With liim
came a great awakening to his people. Now, V. A. Wexcl roused
the church to a greater spkituality; Ivar Aasen strove to purify the
mother tongue; P. A. Munch and others wrote in fieiy words the
history of Norwaj^; Asbjornsen and Moe pubUshed their marvelous
collections of folk tales; Lindemami set the mountains echomg with
his folk melodies; and Ole Bull pkyed for all the world. This was
in the decade 1850-1860. Like Grundtvig, Ole Vig was only the
prophet; others were to carry to execution his plan for a system of
Norwegian folk high schools.
Two young imiversity students, Herman Anker and Olaus Aiwesen,
were won for the high-school cause by Yig's zeal. They both went
to Denmark and Uved the folk school life for a season. \^Tien they
returned home they took steps to open a school jointly, Anker, who
was a man of wealth, to furnish the means, and Arvesen to devote all
his time to the work.
In this way Sagatun Folk Pligh School, beautifully situated on the
shore of Lake Mjosen, was organized, and opened its doors to the
pubhc in October, 1864. Eighty young people were in attendance
74 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
the first year, and the folk school idea took root, never to lose its
hold.
In 1867, the great schoolman Chris toff er Bruun founded the re-
nowned Vanheim Folk High School. This was followed by Seljord
and nearly a score of others. But these schools have all had their
difhcultios to meet. Some own' their own buildings; others have been
obhged to get along with rented quarters; while a few are really per-
ambulating, going from momitain district to mountain district, open-
ing their doors for a few weeks or months at a time at some large
farmstead. Yet, in the midst of all these difficulties, the sphit of
the schools has not lagged; the song has contmued to stir the hearts
of the mountain folk, and the lectures to fire their souls to noble
action.
Two serious difficulties have hampered the work of the folk schools
in Norway: (1) Each "amt" or local administration unit had its
own contmuation school above the free elementary school, intended
to give the comitry population a hberal education. Unfortunately,
as it appears from an investigation —
the amt schools have proved the cause of drawing many farm boys away from the
soil and into other callings instead of preparing them to live the country life as
enlightened and interested citizens, with a keen sense for the life and customs of
their forefathers.
The amt schools were mclmed to be aristocratic and narrowly
scholastic, becoming really nothing more than preparatory schools
for the higher learned institutions. Naturall}- these schools were not
inclined to share the field with the privately owned folk high schools.
(2) The folk high schools at first had to depend solely on private
open-handedness for maintenance, as the State was disinclined to
lend aid.
More recently these difhculties have been surmomited. The folk
spirit has permeated the whole people, reachmg even the official
classes. State aid has been extended to all worthy folk high schools.
The amt schools, too, have become somewhat modified in their or-
ganization, making it possible for the schools to work in greater
harmony than m the past.
Norway is a great mountain ridge cut by deep ocean fjords into
innumerable mountain districts, each with its o-wn manners and
customs, and even dialect. The folk high schools have invaded these
fastnesses and raUied the mountain folk around them. The great
nationalizing movement in Norway of recent years, which has cul-
minated m the adoption of a pmified national tongue, a national
music, a revival of national dress, folk dances, and the like, can be
traced in large measure to the influence of the folk high schools.
The folk high schools in Finland. — Here Elias Lonnrot, well known
for his compilation of Finnish folk songs, the Kalevala; Johan Lud-
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN NORWAY, SWEDEN, ETC. 75
vig Runeberg, the poet; and Uno Cygnseus, the father of the sloyd
system — all had something to do with preparing the people for the
coming of the folk high schools.
The first school was organized by a woman, Sofia Hagman, at
Kongasala near Tammerfors, in 1889. She rallied around her the
young women of the community, givuig them from 18 to 20 houi*s
of instruction weekly. Sewing for women was the most important
part of her course. There were also classes in religious study,
accounting, drawing, song, and gymnastics, and lectures on the
history of the world, church history, geography, etc.
This school was soon followed by Borga Folk High School, which
was largely inspired by the poet Runeberg. The first folk school in
Finland to use the Swedish tongue was opened at Kronoby in East
Bothnia, in 1891. This resembles in almost every respect the Danish
and Swedish schools.
In 1905 Finland could boast 23 folk high schools, of which 7 used
the Swedish language. Now they have grown in number to 42, of
which 15 are Swedish-speaking. Prior to 1905 the Finnish Govern-
ment was very conservative in its support of the schools. Then by
degrees the Government's policy changed. At this time it encourages
the schools through liberal State aid. This now amounts to more
than 300,000 marks annually.
The folk MgTi schools on English soil. — One day back in 1905 a party
of English educators and other gentlemen on a tour of inspection in
Denmark were spending the week end as the guests of Principal Poid
Hansen, at Valleldlde Folk High School. While here they listened,
among other things, to an instructive address on the purpose of the
folk high school by Prof. Valdemar Bennike. One of the English
party was J. S. Thornton, who has written much on the Danish
school system for the press and educational periodicals. He describes
the scene of the address in the following language :
As he (Bennike) spoke he stood in front of the Ansgar picture (it was Ansgar who
first brought Christianity into Denmark), thus emphasizing all he had to say by
showing that the teaching of himself and his colleagues, wliilst looking eagerly forward
to the future, was nevertheless rooted in the past and based on a Christian founda-
tion. * * *
"The main object of this school," said Bennike. " is not to impart to our students a
mass of useful information — that is only a secondary aim. The principal aim is to
impart to them a spiritual view of life, so that they may see there is some sense in ^Aar
existence." The last words were scarcely out of the speaker's mouth when I heard
an involuntary chuckle from the neighbor at my right, telling me that the plirase had
gone home. The seed had fallen into good ground; for, some three years after, the
gentleman in question — Mr. Tom Bryan — had become the liead of the first People's
High School in England that could fairly be said to resemble the Danish original.*
The school here referred to is Fircroft, previoush^ mentioned. It
would be unfair to say that it is, root and branch, a transplantation
I Thornton. Fircroft, the First People's High School in England, p. 1.
76 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
from tlie Danish mother tree. To say that it is a Danish graft on an
Enghsh stock comes much nearer being the truth, for it is really a
continuation of the so-called Quaker Adult School which used to meet
at Bournville of a Sunday morning for a serious study of the history
and literature of the Bible. With such preparation it was not difficult
for the folk high school to strike root:
A little booklet, issued by the school, has this to say about the
genesis of the school :
The founding of Fircrof t College in January, 1909, was the outcome of serious th'.)u;7;ht
on the part of a few people keenly interested in the education of working men.
A study of existing educational facilities impressed them with the disabilities under
which the workers labored, and the strong necessity of attempting to lessen these
disabilities if, in case of the workers, education was to yield its best results.
It was felt among other things that the invaluable work of the adult schools, the
Workers' Educational Association and kindred institutions needed supplementing in
a particular way; that larger opportunities of systeniatic study should be brought
within the reach of those pursuing it; and that, beyond all, there should be added to
systematic study a common life and fellowship through which might be nurtured a
clearer discernment of the things of abiding value.
The desirable thing, indeed, was a modest workingmen's college, which should be
adaptable to varying standards of educational attainment on the part of its members,
but the chief end of which should be to mold and fashion men, and teach them the
greatest theme of all — the art of right living.
Education, it was felt, was not an exhaustive pursuit of facts, nor a desultory
acquaintance with them, but a broadening of the whole life, and the success of Fircroft
would be measured by the extent of its achievement in this direction.
Fircroft has, for the past four years, worked along these lines mth
the greatest success. Laborers, clerks, teachers, gardeners, farmers,
colliers, mechanics, and shop assistants from various parts of the
United Kingdom have spent some time at Fircroft and are witnesses
to the broader outlook made possible by their stay.
The school is situated near the village green at Bournville, and is
set in 3 acres of beautiful old garden. The accommodations are
limited to a family of 20 only. The school is equipped with library,
lecture hall, common room, gymnasium, dressing rooms with shower
baths, and a workshop. The garden offers opportunity for practical
gardening in charge of an expert gardener; for open-air study — of
which there is much at Fircroft; and for recreation.
Methods of instruction and subject matter follow closely the
Danish schools. The subjects include Bible study, poHtical and
social history, economics and industrial history, EngUsh hterature,
natural science, local government, and social questions of the day.
An interesting feature is the Monday evening lecture course on social
questions of the day, given by eminent speciaUsts. Another recent
innovation is a correspondence course which can reach many who
find it impossible to be in residence.
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN NOEWAY, SWEDEN^ ETC.
The daily program follo^vs:
Autumn term, Sept. 24-Dec. 17, 1913.
77
Time.
9. ■15 to 10.45.
11 to 11. cO.
12 to 12.."0 p. m.
S to 9 p. m.
Monday
Lecture
Logic and gram-
mar.
Gardening
(2 to -1 p. m.)
Nature
study, ram-
ble.
Special lecture
as announced.
Tuesday
English lan-
guage.
The growth of
human society.
Essay and criti-
cism class.
(3.30 to 4.30
p.m.) Gym-
nasium.
Wednesday
Elementary
economics.
Nature study . . .
Sha kespcarc
reading.
English history.
Thursday
Elementary
biologj^.
Bible study
Essay and criti-
cism class.
Gymnasium. .
Commerc ial
geography.
Friday
History of Eng-
lish literature.
The history of
landscape.
Gardenmg
Gardening
Cozy hour.
Saturday
Industrial
history.
Reading class...
Arithmetic.
Bible study.
It is interesting to have the opinion of the Enghsh press and the
verdict of the resident students at Fircroft on the value of such an
institution. We may fu'st quote from the report of a special repre-
sentative of a prominent London paper ^ who made a careful study
of the school. He says in part:
I found the authentic stamp of the Hojskole on Fircroft. Here are "workers —
there a clerk, a mechanic, or a shop assistant; there a gardener, a laborer, or a miner — •
withdrawn, for a time only, from the daily round, to leam what they may make, if
they ■will, not only of their minds and souls, but of their bodies; for physical exer-
cises, the only compulsory thing at the rural high schools in Denmark, are given a
prominent place at Fircroft. The three dozen men — in their early twenties, chiefly —
cultivate the humanities in an old house sequestered in 3 acres of garden, and their
way of life is simple and frugal. As to study, there is the freedom of choice that
characterizes the Hojskole system. There is also the same intention not to make
of education a thing pumped into people. From the acti\dties and opportunities of
Fii'croft there results, it is found, not an exhausting pursuit of facts, nor a desultory
acquaintance U'ith them, but a broadening of the whole life. It is certain that many
who have been introduced for the first time at Fiix-roft to a wider world of thought and
knowledge are now, when back at their occupations, keener-eyed and playing a more
ser\iceable part in the world. The students, says the warden, are "drawn into a new
atmosphere of study and reflection, affecting the whole of their subsequent life."
The report of the inspectors of the board of education pays a tribute to the high
quality of instruction given. But the individual attention which the students receive
is even more important than the class instruction. The warden, speaking on the
subject of cultivating a taste for literature, says illuminatingly : "A book must be
found for each man which will make the most direct appeal to his imagination. In
the case of a man who has had a religious training, the thing that appeals to him most
readily is poetry, like Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal. The influence of this upon the
mind of a young farmer was magnetic. In the case of a farm laborer, book after book
was suggested, apparently without any effect; the awakening came in reading Adam
Bede. In the case of a mechanic, Kingsley struck the note which found a response."
I Daily Morning Leader, Oct. 26, 1911.
78 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
At the annual reunion of old Fu'crofters held May 25, 1912, six
of the one-time students, Alf Stephens, Cecil Leeson, Bob Pounder,
Syd Davis, Tom Handforth, and Frank Ferguson, gave five-minute
speeches on '"The value of Fircroft, my personal experience," which
bring out some very illuminating phases of this and similar schools.
These statements are contamed in the July issue of The Old Fir-
crofter, the students' periodical:
Frank Ferguson said there were many ways in which Fircroft had benefited him.
He came, having read a little and thought a little; but Fircroft filled in the gajDs. He
had previously had a fair grounding in industrial history, but at Fircroft he got many
details he couldn't have got elsewhere. Then, again, at Fircroft he had his mind
ministered to on more than one side; he had heard something of literature, and Bible
matters, and science; and as a result he was now better equipped for serving the
community. But that wasn't all. Fircroft also gave him food for his soul. It did
something to temper his disposition; it gave him new points of view; and, mixing
with other fellows, he was educated in human nature as well as in books. It was
one of the great pleasures of his life to look back on the two terms he spent at Fircroft.
Bob Poimder said that at Fircroft he got hold of the idea that the wealth of the nation
did not depend on pounds, sliillings, pence, but on healthy, well-educated indi-
viduals. He foimd that religion did not consist of facts and creeds, but of feeling
and thought, and action. But there was something that one couldn't understand
unless one spent a term at Fircroft. One got boimd up with a lot of fellows.
Tom Handforth said that before he came to Fircroft he was a rebel; he was a rebel
still, but a different kind of rebel. From his early days he had thought it was wrong
for so few people to have so much, while so majiy had so little. He even joined a
socialist party, but he hadn't the faintest idea what socialism was, or which way he
was going. At Fircroft he found the very thing he wanted. He learned something
of the past history of the nation and of other nations, and got some inkling of the way
in which it would have to develop. He thought he was now a wee bit more of a
dangerous rebel, for he knew where he was going. Fircroft showed him there was a
piU"pose in life, ajid it was each man's duty to carry the work forward.
Alf Stephens thought Fircroft had taught him some valuable truths. He had got
the idea of responsibility, whether in connection with politics, religion, or education.
He had come to desire the genuine in everything, and to do away with shams. He
had learned the oneness of things, and that shed a great light on the difficulties of
to-day. In study, Fircroft put him on the track of things. His stay at Fircroft was
the awakening of his mind.
Answering a series of questions which had been suggested by Prof. Muirhead, Cecil
Leeson said:
(1) That he did not think that any but an infinitesimal proportion of Fircroft
applicants were led to seek admission simply in order to attain positions conventionally
regarded as higher than those held by workingmen. At the same time, considering
the responsibilities wliich rested on workingmen in connection with trade unions,
etc., it seemed to him that where there was foimd in a crofter any talent worth ciilti-
vating, one could not afford to waste it.
(2) In answer to the question whether the Fircroft training had been of material
advantage in his own case, he said that since Ms residence his wages had increased
about one-tliird and his worries about one himdredfold. Fircroft was quite at liberty
to take credit for the one, provided it shouldered responsibility for the other.
(3) Ho (lid not want to see any definite preparation for residence in Fircroft except
that which should develop an interevsted state of mind.
.
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 79
(4) Asked what he would have done differently if he had his time at Fircroft over
again, he said, first, that he now realized that, in the lecture, the student should work
at least as hard as the lecturer; and, secondly, that he would try to be courageous
enough to do without a notebook at lectures.
(5) He did not think that attendance at university classes by Fircroft students was
ad\'isable. Fircroft was too small to be divided, and if it was to keep its distinctive
atmosphere it could not afford to find room for external students.
(6) Answering the question, "What do you value most as the result of j-our residence
at Fircroft?" he emphasized three points. Fir.st, he had learned the value of books in
giving information; secondly, the greater value of books in giving rise, in the reader,
to thoughts which in a very real way were original; and, thirdly, he had attained self-
reliance.
In answer to the same series of questions, Syd Davis agreed in most points with Cecil
Leeson. But he thought that it would be a great advantage to a prospective Fircrofter
to have had a preliminary training in the rudiments of English grammar and to have
taken a course in the correspondence classes.
England lias made a beginning. But "whether such a school can
become as widely popular here as it is in Denmark," Prof. Tliornton
remarks, "remains to be seen." He further says:
If Lancashire and Yorkshire had 50 such schools dotted about their country spots,
and other coimties had them in the same proportion, we should still have fewer for
our population than they have in Denmark. But they would be enough to uplift not
a, man here and there, as already happens, but to leaven the whole lump. For Eng-
lishmen are of the same race as Danes, Norsemen, and Swedes; and what has happened
on the east of the North Sea may just as well happen on the west. There is no Simday
school, no coimcil school, no town or parish council, no cooperative undertaking, no
religious community that would not have received an upward impulse. The effect
would be seen in all our industrial, political, aiid religious life.'
IX.— DANISH-AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE
UNITED STATES.
Early liistory of the trans'plantation. — Danish immigration to the
United States was of little consequence numerically before the close
of the Civil War. The period 1865-1870 marks the begmning of a
rising tide; 10,000 Danes landed in the United States during the five
years. Nearly 36,000 came during 1870-1880, and this number
increased to 76,000 the next decade. After this, agricultural condi-
tions became very much improved in the Danish Islands, and the
emigrants came in decreasing numbers, until now the annual influx
is considerably less than it was in the early seventies.
Mam^ of these newcomers, scattering over the countr}* and par-
ticularly over the Middle West, were old folk high-school students
who found it hard to forget the teachings of their early school days.
They instinctively sought the open country and made their pioneer
settlements from Michigan and Iowa westward to the Pacific. Every
1 Fircroft. The First People's High School in England, p. 4.
80 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
settlement had its church and its resident pastor, who was also
generally a high-school man. The pastors have generally taken the
lead in organizing the schools within the settlements.
In November, 1874, Kev. Olav Kirkeberg, a Norwegian in the
service of the Danish- American Church, and resident pastor at Elk
Horn, Iowa, an inland settlement many miles from railroad, opened
the first Danish-American folk high school in the United States.
Kirkeberg was a student of the great Norwegian folk schoolman,
Christoffer Bruun, and his assistant at Elk Horn was Kristian Oster-
gaard, an old Askov student.
Another school was founded at Ashland, Mich., in 1882 by the
Ryslinge student. Rev. H. J. Pederscn. Unfortunately, this school
lay too far eastward to attract Danish-Americans in sufficient num-
bers to pay expenses. Several able schoolmen, including Prof.
Christian Bay, a well-known writer on the folk high schools, have
tried to reorganize the school, but in vain. Recently another effort
has been made to revive it.
Another school which later suspended activity w^as opened at West
Denmark, Wis., in 1884, by Rev. K. L. Norgaard, also an Askov
student. Schools were further established at Blair, Nebr. (Dana
College), and Des Moines, Iowa (Grand View College), which still
retain considerable of the folk high school spirit, method, and subject
matter, but whose chief work now is to prepare pastors for the two
branches of the Danish Lutheran Church in the United States to
which they belong. These may therefore be passed by in the present
discussion.
This leaves just three typical Danish- American folk high schools
for our consideration: Elk Horn Folk High School, Elk Horn, Iowa;
N3'stcd Folk High School, Nysted, Nebr. ; and Danncbod Folk High
School, Tyler, Minn.
Elk Horn Folic High School. — This and all the other schools of its
kind in the United States have been founded cither immediately by
some body mthin the Danish Lutheran Church or by an association
of members belonging to the church. The Elk Horn school was at
first the property of the congregation. The campus comprised three
acres, upon which was erected an unpretentious main building costing
about $3,000. This has twice been destroyed by fire and each time
rebuilt larger and better. There is also a dormitory for young
women, a gymnasium, and a home for the principal.
The school, when it was first opened, lay far out on the Iowa rolling
prairies, and the settlers were much scattered. But the Danish
farmers of Shelby and Audubon Counties supported it loyally, giving
freely of their small means and doing such work with their own hands
and teams as might be required of them. All coal and building
materials, for example, had to be hauled over hilly roads from railway
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 22 PLATE 6
A. NYSTED FOLK HIGH SCHOOL, NYSTED, HOWARD COUNTY, NEBR.
B. ELK HORN FOLK HIGH SCHOOL, ELK HORN, SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
This is the oldest Danish-American Folk High School.
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 81
stations 12 to 20 miles away. All this work was cheerfully donated
by the settlers. Even the students, who in Elk Horn's most palmy
days used to come from 20 or more States, had to be transported
laboriously by wagon. "These experiences," says A. P. Juhl, the
present principal of the school, "were not of the most pleasant when
the students, in order to ease the load for the horses, were obliged to
get out and trudge thi-ough the mud up the hills, to say nothing of the
bitter winds they often were obhged to face." Nothing short of the
folk high school spirit could have suffered such hardships without
complaint.
The work at Elk Horn in the early day was in every respect similar
to the work of the Danish schools. Many lectures and very little
textbook work was the plan. The lectures, especially from 1 1 to 12
noon and 7 to 8 at night, were well attended by the farmers of the
vicinity, who would drive miles to be present.
Rev. Kirkeberg was succeeded by Rev. H. J. Pedersen, who later
founded the Ashland school. In 1882 he was in turn superseded by
Rev. Ivristian Anker, a distant relative of the great schoolman,
Herman Anker, of "Sagatun," Norway. Under Anker's adminis-
tration, from 1882-1897, the school did its best work. Students
came annually from nearly half the States in the Union, reaching
close up to the 200 mark. Anker owned the school privately, and
under this management it propsered the best. Then came church
differences and other disagreements. The school was sold to one of
two discordant church bodies, and after that time has not been so
prosperous.
Down through the years considerable classwork has been added in
academic subjects. The lectures have been reduced in numbers in
the same proportion. The school has done some work in preparing
teachers for the rural schools and even for commercial acti\'ities.
Unfortunately, it has not seen its way clear to be of any material
assistance in tying the agriculturists to the soil in the way the m.odified
Danish schools do in the mother country.
Nysted Folic High School. — This interesting httle school was founded
in the fall of 1887 by Rev. C. J. Skovgaard, who also belonged to the
large group of Askov students doing pioneer work in the ^fiddle West.
The school is located near the small village of Nysted, in Howard
County, Nebr. The school was opened in an empty store building
with a leaky roof. The first year was marked by many hardsliips;
but when, on occasion, it got too cold in the house, "the students
would go through their gymnastic exercises and later forget their
troubles in song and iaiteresting lectures." The second year a scliool
was opened with a capacity for 24 students, but the founder had
difficulties in making ends meet financially, as he was obliged to pay
24 per cent interest on a small loan for the building.
49720°— 14 6
82 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
A corporation was established and given the name "Nysted
Ilojskolesamfund," which purchased and now supports the school.
Tliis body consists of about 300 stockholders, and is independent of
any church organization. A suitable building, v/ith dormitory capac-
ity for 50 students, was soon after erected on an attractive campus
of 10 acres.
Says Principal Aage Moller:
The school has replaced the undesirable dancing and drinking of former days with
a serious spiritual life. The Avhole country side, including teachers and students,
form a harmonious brotherhood of kindred interests.
Continues Mr. Moller:
Our school is reared on exactly the same principles as are the folk liigh schools in
Denmark. But the United States is now our country. This must be kept well in
mind. We are planting the school in American soil, and we feel that success shall in
the end be ours.
At present 80 to 90 students are enrolled in the course of a year;
young men during the months December-March, and young women
during April-July. An interesting short course of eight days is
given in March for old and young people. The work is highly inspira-
tional. It includes lectures on church history, Bible study, social
and economic problems, debates, and song.
Danebod Folk High School. — There is a large degree of similarity
in the liistory of the Danish-American folk high schools. They all
began as pioneer institutions in new prairie settlements, and have
all seen hard times, always hampered in their possibihties by lack of
funds. They have every one had among their leaders and teachers
many who were ready to suffer surprising hardships for the sake of
the cause of education. Perhaps none of the schools has had a more
varied career than Danebod, near Tyler, Minn., and yet survived,
and with a fair promise of greater usefulness in the years to come.
Danebod was organized in 1888 by Rev. H, J. Pedersen, who has
been mentioned above in connection with other schools. A heroic
struggle now began, which has been continued for a little more than
a quarter of a century. In the early years the settlers were desperately
poor and could do but httle. After the school had been in operation
for a few months teachers and students began to feel the need of an
assembly hall and gymnasium. Lumber v\^as expensive but great
boulders — glacial drift — were abundant. Many hundred loads of
these were now dragged together, and slowly hewn into shape for the
"Stone House." This Uttle structure was used for several years as
church, auditorium, and gymnasium. "It was not attractive," says
an old student, "but it was here that many of us fii-st learned to
know ourselves, and that to us sheds an everlasting halo around it."
Danebod gradually grew from its humble beginnings. A church
was Iniilt, the oiiginal school building was greatly enlarged, then a
FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN" THE UNITED STATES. 83
gymnasium and, finally, a small hospital were added. By 1912,
during the administration of Rev. Thorvald Knudsen, the attendance
had reached 100. The new principal, Rev. Halvdan Helweg, has
just celebrated the quarter-centennial of Danebod amidst promises
of a most prosperous future.
Hindrances to satisfactory growth of the Danish- American schools. —
It is undeniable that the Danish- American folk high schools have
not succeeded as well as their fiiends had hoped; yet if they should
all suddenly stop work no one who understands what they have done
would have the temerity to say that their existence has been in vain,
or that the results fi-om their labor have not been worth the sacrifice
of the heroic souls who gave both time and means to the cause. The
schools have done a work of inestimable value among Danish-
Ameiicans, and one can only \v-ish that the future may shape itself
in such a way that the work of the schools for the coming years may
be greatly enlarged.
It is in place here to point out the main reasons why the schools
have succeeded no better than they have; so that tliis ma}?^ not be
taken as a vaUd reason why other schools of the folk high-school
type in the United States should not be able to prosper.
Perhaps no one difficulty that Danish-American leaders have suf-
fered under is greater and more insuperable than the scattered con-
dition of the people from whom students must be dra^vn. There
are scarcely half a million Danes in the United States, counting the
fii-st native-born generation, and these are scattered from ocean to
ocean. Even under these conditions the folk high-school spirit has
been strong enough to draw students for many hundred miles, so that
even the humblest school can boast students from half a dozen States.
At Elkhorn 50 students of the winter session 1896-97, as an experi-
ment, averaged up their travehng expenses — going to and from the
school, and their expenses wliile at the school — and found that it had
cost 15 per cent more to reach the school than to spend the term
there. This seems cause enough to force the closing of almost any
ordinary kind of school.
Again, there has been a lack of financial backing. The men who
led in the work have themselves been poor men. It will be recalled
that the Danish schools could scarcely make any headway before the
State came to their aid with subsidies. Tlie growth of the schools
has been crippled in Norway for the same reason. It is quite certain
that had substantial aid been extended to these schools in the United
States, they might have succeeded quite as well as they have done
in Denmark.
It would be hard to deny, too, that some of the high-school leaders,
who have had all their training from Denmark, found it difficult to
readjust themselves to the new conditions. In spite of their natural
84 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
broadmindedness, and contrary to Griindt\ag's philosophy, vdiich is
all embracing, they tended to give too much energy to reproducing
Danish conditions and hfe. On the other hand, it is but fair to state
that the schools have served as a check upon the over-hasty immi-
grant, maldng of liim a saner, truer Danish- American for being first
well grounded in the best that the schools have had to offer.
A last cause for indifferent success is, no doubt, that the schools
have been unable to adapt their activities, in any large measure, to
American conditions. This may be also explained by lack of funds.
If, for example, the three Danish-American folk high schools that
are now active should reorganize their school plants on such a basis
as to combine the pure folk culture with the practical courses offered,
say, at Haslev or Valleldlde, and more particularly with the long and
short courses of such schools as Kserehave or Fyn Stiffs School at
Odense, they would unquestionably be enabled to accompHsh a much
more vital work for Danish- Americans than they are now doing. In
other words, it ought to be possible to combine in the Danish-
American folk high schools of the future Grundtvig's philosophy
Avith the practical w^ork of the other Danish schools which are so
successful in meeting the needs of an agricultural people.
X.— FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS
TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS.
General statement. — The discussion of adapting the folk high schools
•to American conditions has been left to the last. It seems scarcely
necessary to raise the question as to whether such an adaptation is
possible after telUng the Danish story in detail above, or whether it
is desirable to make use of the inspiring folk-school culture as a
leavening influence in American communities. The only questions
asked ought to be, where should the beginnings be made; and hov>^
should they be made ?
That there is both a place and a need must be evident to people of
ordinary discernment. The great national industrial transition going
on round about us is forcing upon the country a partial reorganiza-
tion of the educational system. Fifty years ago the American people
were essentially agricultural. Nov\^it has become half rural and half
urban, half agricultural and half industrial. The cities are growing
apace — often at the expense of rural communities — and thither are
flofldng also hundreds of thousands of unassimilated aliens.
It is self-evident that an educational process which can reach clear
down to the roots of things, strengthening character, and teacliing
riglits of followman, loyalty to the State, and fear of God, even
whilc^ it suppUcs the youth and old men, without distinction, wdth
practical training for brcadwinning, may be made of inestimable value
ADAPTING TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS. 85
in hurr}nnp; the Americanization of the alien. Such is the Danish
system. But the school, after all, adapts itself most readily to
country needs and conditions. And in American rural life there
seems if anything greater in"gency for educational reorganization
than in city life.
The agricultural reorganization. — The movement awa}' from the
land, either to the cities or to newer, unexhausted soil, has retarded
and stunted the agricultural development of whole sections in our
country. In places this retardation has culminated in the decay of
agriculture itself and the people who hve on the soil. There is a
surprising amount of degeneracy in many one-time prosperous rural
communities wliich have become drained of their best blood. Other
sections, lying far from the highways of civihzation, have become
lost to progress, not because of disintegration of population particu-
larly, but because of the deadening effects due to isolation from
fellow men.
The future of our agricultural life must be closely ])ound up with
education. The pioneer period of the nation lies behind us; and even
the time of household economy in American life is past. Instead,
we are in the midst of a period of exploitation. Even before rural
districts had felt the call of the cities and the beckoning of the West,
land exploitation and land speculation were well under way. One of
our greatest national weaknesses is this disregard for the God-given
soil, and the carelessness with wliich we plunder it. The soil should
be hoty; but the schools, at least, have been unable to inculcate this
doctrine. The very worst phase of our present agricultural transition,
perhaps, is tenant farming. American landowners are moving to
town, drawn thither by its educational, religious, and social attrac-
tions. The farms are left in the hands of tenants who generally
"skin" the soil to death in their efforts to meet the increasingly high
rents. This suicidal system is gradually destroying our greatest
natural resource — the soil. Wliat have the rural schools been doing
to check this national evil?
Tlie old rural schools unable to cope loith the situation. — The small
one-teacher schools which answered well the needs of rural life among
the pioneers and the household economy type of farmers, can no
longer keep up with the procession of change and reorganization in
agricultural hfe, and must be abandoned for a new type of school
organized to meet the needs of our new agriculture, that of the
husbandman type.
It is true that in some sections these small schools must persist for
an indefinite time, chiefly on account of geographical difTicultics.
Here the most will have to be made of a bad situation by pro^^ding
good, well-trained and well-paid teachers, and who, ^^ithal, must
have the right vision of the new agricultural life.
86 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
Coming of the centralized farmers' scliools. — A great movement is
now beginning to spread across the continent, wMch contemplates
the consohdation of the many weakling schools in a few, centrally
located, graded farmers' schools. The best organized of the consoli-
dated schools offer eight grades of elementary work and from two to
four 3^ears of high-school work.
The new schools should do for the community what the old have
been incapable of doing; namely, train the boys to become scientific
farmers and the girls practical farmers' helpmeets. Such training
can be made to inculcate a wholesome love of country life, and may
be expected to counteract the townward exodus. Moreover, from
these schools must come many impulses to organize the country
jDCople on a more permanent social and economic basis.
How the reorganized schools may profit hy the Danish system,. — The
first lesson taught by a study of the Danish system is that rural
schools must be reared in the midst of the rural community and
nowhere else. By this is meant the open country or the rural village,
preferably the former. The whole system of Danish rural schools —
elementary school, folk liigh school, agricultural school, and school
of household economics— is found in a rural environment. The
founders of these schools are too wise to tempt the pupils' suscepta-
bihties for city life by rearing the schools in the organized urban
centers.
There are in the United States at this time several thousand
consolidated schools, many of them built in the midst of ideal rural
smTOundings — as real farm schools. In too many instances, unfortu-
nately, consohdation has been brought about by disorganizing
independent districts adjacent to some village or larger town, adding
the taxable farm area to this and sending the children to the tovni
school. It should be understood that this is not invariably a wrong
way to solve the problem. If the village is rural-mJnded and clean,
nearly as good results may be looked for; but ordinarily the town
school is organized solely for the towai children, and the farm boys
and girls are not likely to come under satisfactory influences, since
the agricultural atmosphere \nll be wanting. On the other hand, in
one or two States where consohdation has taken place in the open
country, the organizers have been so unwise as to carry to the country
a fully organized town course of study, including grades and high
school, striving to graft this city branch on the rural stock. Such
procedure must fail wherever tried, and in several instances it has
brought the reorganization of the schools into iU-repute.
The folic high-school spirit in oar agricultural communities. — It has
been stated and reiterated above that the folk high-school spirit has
emancipated the agricultural population in Denmark. It has at
ADAPTING TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS. 87
least made country people the peers of their cit}- brethren. They
have become leaders in affaire — in production, in distribution, in
politics, and chiefly because they have learned to think for them-
selves and to act independently of the industrial classes. As much
can not be said of our farmers as a body. The schools have been of
small help in this respect. Now that the new agricultural schools
are coming to the nation we should be clear on several points :
First, there is great danger of going to the extreme in the imme-
diately practical and technical. The work of the schools is in danger
of focusing too much on making two blades of grass grow where one
grew before, on teaching girls to cook and keep house according to
sanitary regulations, and the like. Tliese things are all necessary
and must be taught in the schools, but they are utterly insufficient
to make us a really great agiicultural nation. It was not the local
agricultural schools and household economics schools that primarily
made Denmark a great scientific agricultural nation. If the worldly
practical is, separated from a broadening culture, the life horizon of
the pupil is prone to become narrowed down to what is immediately
present only, resulting in shrewd, calculating seeking for personal
gain instead of a far-reaching altruism.
Second, our final conquest of the soil can scarcely come before a
more genuine folk culture permeates our rural communities at large.
Tliis would teach a greater love of the soil — and the naturalist farmer
is the greatest kind of a farmer; it would help us to measure the good
in life by spiiitual standards and not by man-made rules. It would
help us to rise above the limitations of locality and State, and teach
an understanding of the national and even universal in existence.
Therefore, men and women, trained in schools where this inspira-
tion abides, themselves imbued with the spirit of altruism, wise as to
the purpose in life, inspired and inspiring; only such as these should
be given charge of the new farm schools.
Inspirational lectures and extension courses. — Tlie \^Titer believes
that there should be at least one inspirational lecture by teachers
and others daily in all the consolidated rural schools. There is need
of real thought food for the daily appetite of adolescent boys and
girls. To argue that there is no time for these things in the schools
would be much the same as to say that we have not time to live our
lives. If teachers are incapable of giving heart-to-heart talks
intended to make the pupils pause and seriously seek the purpose
of life, it is quite sure that they are out of place in the schoolroom.
The Danish folk high schools are centers from which all kinds of
extension work sprmgs. To begin vnth, gvo\vn-u]) people of the
community take advantage of the noonday and evening lectures
in the regular lecture halls; and in summer they attend numerous
88 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
meetings in the groves near by the schools. Finally, the high-school
leaders organize lecture courses in the assembly halls, far and wide,
over the country. Some such work is being done in our country
now, but it is only a meager beginning. Every consolidated and
other farm school must become the social and intellectual center of
the community. Stated lecture courses — both inspirational and
practical — should be offered the grown people of the school
community.
Short courses for all wTio need help. — Nothing in the plans of the
folk high schools and their auxiliaries appealed to the investigator
more strongly than did the continuous short courses. At the small-
hold schools, for example, new courses begin each first and third
Tuesdays of the month and continue 11 or 12 months in the year.
The time spent in school is short, but it is long enough to give an
abundant store of inspiration and much practical knowledge.
Annual short courses are now a part of the established work of
most of our agricultural colleges, and even the local village and
country schools in a few States have begun to offer this work. But
the work has not yet been carried so far that people beyond school
age, as ordinarily understood, feel that the school is intended as
fully for them as for the children. It will be a great day in the life
of American country communities when the schools shall see their
way clear to labor continuously for the whole community — to seek
to solve the life problems for all the people, whether young or old.
The preceding paragraphs have merely suggested the application
of Danish folk school spirit and matter to the new farm schools that
are gradually superseding the older smaller schools. The remainder
of the section is devoted to the possible establishment of the school
as a whole— in a modified form — in certain sections of the country.
Why there is need of schools for gronm-wps in the United States. —
When the Federal Census for the year 1910 was taken, there were
in the United States 5,516,163 persons 10 years of age and over who
could neither read nor write, including 2,273,603 who were 21 years
of age and over, "Of these illiterates, 3,184,633, or 58 per cent,
were white persons; 1,534,272, or 28 per cent, were native-born
whites; and 1,650,361, or 30 per cent were foreign-born whites;
2,227,731, or 40 per cent, were negroes. The rest, 2 per cent, were
Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and others."^
More than two-thirds of all the illiterates come from rural com-
munities. These illiterates are not now limited to race or section
of country. The colored illiteracy of the South is almost balanced
by the ignorant aliens of the North; and the illiteracy among the
' .Soo Illiteracy in the United Slates and An Experiment for Its Elimination. U. S. Bureau of Education
Bulletin, 1913, No. 20.
ADAPTING TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS. 89
remote parts of the soutlicrn mountain plateau is scarcely greater
than the illiteracy in rural life in the nortliern Appalachians.
All this illiteracy is found very largely among persons above 20
years of age — men and women who can not be expected to get their
education from the ordinary school. The Nation has its choice
between letting this generation of illiterates continue to live and
die in their ignorance at a fearful cost to national life, or it may
organize schools especially adapted to their needs, in which they
may get the rudiments of learning, and in addition to this, some
inspiration to do better, some insight into the highest good in life,
something to lift them out of the deadening materialism and indiffer-
ence for country and their fellow men.
Tlie South Atlantic Higliland a good place to hegin. — The most
natural section of the United States in which to begin the organiza-
tion of schools for gro^vn-ups, modeled after the Danish schools, is
the great broken upland region that usually goes by the name of the
South Atlantic Highland.^
This comprises a total area of 108,164 square miles, with a popula-
tion of 5,085,736. One whole State and parts of seven others have
been carved out of the South Atlantic Highland, which really embraces
the three well-marked geographical areas known as the Alleghany-
Cumberland plateau belt, the greater Appalachian valley belt, and
the Appalachian Mountain belt, or, as it is also called, the Blue Kidge
belt. It includes the whole of West Virginia, 42 counties in western
Vu'ginia, 23 in western North Carolina, and 4 in western South Caro-
lina, 25 in northern Georgia, 17 in northeastern Alabama, 45 in
eastern Tennessee, and 36 in eastern Kentucky.
While large ar'eas within this highland are no more backward
educationally than the rest of the country, all are included here for
convenience of statement. Adult illiteracy in these mountain regions
is surprisingly large, and duty demands that educators face the facts
as they really are in order that relief may come. The Federal Census
for 1910 gives the illiteracy per thousand in the total population 10
years of age and over in these States as follows : West Vu'ginia, 83 ;
Kentucky, 121; Tennessee, 136; Virginia, 152; North Carolina, 185;
Georgia, 207; xilabama, 229. The figures for adult males 21 years
of age and over are even more startling. For the same States they
are: West Virginia, 104 for each thousand in the total population;
Kentucky, 145; Tennessee, 157; Virginia, 177; North Carolina, 213;
Georgia, 228; Alabama, 243; and South Carolina, 271. These figures
are for the entire State and would in some cases be increased if applied
to the highland area only, while in others, on account oS the large low-
1 For the map and daia as to area and population of the South Atlantic Highland, the writer is indebted
to John C. Campbell, Secretary Southeru Highland Division, Russell Sage Foundation.
90
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
land negro population, they would be somewhat diminished. The
figures are, however, sufficiently correct to emphasize the urgency of
the need.
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THE SOUTH ATLANTIC HIGHLAND.
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i^chools."
The ''moonlight'^ schools of Kentucky, an experiment in the elimina-
tion of adult illiteracy. — Attemjits have been made from time to time
hy church organizations and individuals to reach the illiterate adults
ADAPTING TO AMEKICAN CONDITIONS. 91
of the southern highlands. Some of these attempts have been more
or less abortive, while others have proved a great blessing to limited
communities. A most notable illustration of what can be done —
showing also the startling need of what must be done — is the work
of Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart and her associates, in the so-called
''moonlight" or night schools for illiterates, which were begun in
Eowan County, Ky., in the fall of 1911.
Mrs. Stewart made a careful study of local conditions and
decided the most feasible plan to be to open night schools on moon-
light evenings in the public schoolhouses over the county. The
regular teachers all responded to the call and made their preparations
and issued their invitations. We read:
It was expected that the response would be slow, but more than 1,200 men and
women from 18 to 86 years of age were enrolled the first evening. Thej' came trooping
over the hills and out of the hollows, some to add to the meager education received
in the inadequate schools of their childhood, some to receive their first lessons in
reading and writing. Among them were not alone illiterate farmers and their illiterate
wives, sons, and daughters, but also illiterate merchants or storekeepers, illiterate
ministers, and illiterate lumbermen. Mothers, bent with age, came that they might
learn to read letters from absent sons and daughters, and that they might learn for
the first time to write to them.^
This remarkable experiment grew rapidly in popularity. In 1912
the enrollment of adults in Rowan County reached nearly 1,600 and
the movement had meanwhile spread to eight or ten other counties.
Of the 1,600 mentioned above, "300 entered the school utterly unable
to read and write at all, 300 were from those who had learned in
September, 1911, and 1,000 were men and women of meager educa-
tion."
The work of such schools as these must naturally be limited to the
merest rudiments of education. To learn to read and write, to spell
and figure, with brief drills in the essentials of language, histor}^,
geography, civics, sanitation, and agi'iculture — this is the most that
can be expected. But the mountain districts crave vastly more than
reading, writing, and arithmetic. The fatalism of retardation engen-
dered by centuries of isolation, poverty, and civil war has placed
a peculiar stamp upon the civilization there which mere academic
schools will find it difficult to remove, at least in the present generation.
The inspiring work of the folk high school, it would seem, should
be able to reach these people more fully and place them in their
rightful 25lace in the nation more quickly than might other schools.
The folk school would cause 'Hhe breaking through of slumbering
souls" and remove prejudices and give a national outlook, both of
which are needed in the mountains.
1 See Illiteracy in the United States, p. 28.
92 THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS.
How the schools wight he organized. — The schools must be able to
insph'e to an early coordination of head, heart, and hand. Real
inspircrs must be found to take charge of the schools. These should
offer a liberal number of lectures on historical, social-economic, and
local themes in connection \ni\\ the i:)ractical work in the rudiments
of learning.
The schools should receive all who are not now looked after by the
public schools. In some communities the schools would include
even the public-school children. There should be courses for those
who are entirely illiterate as well as for those who have had some
schooling. The schools must, in fact, be ready to meet the problems
of all the people without regard to age or preparation. The poor hill-
side farms have their problems — these must be looked after. The
mountains need their o^vn artisan class to rebuild the homes and
reestablish the household arts of the olden time on a modern footing.
There should be long courses for the youth and continuous short
courses for their parents and grandparents. There should be day
lectures open to the whole countryside, and extension lectures should
be carried into the remotest coves. The schools for small holders in
Denmark had conditions almost as difficult to meet. Wliat they did
Americans will not refuse to do.
The schools might or might not be State founded and State aided.
The most natural way to begin, and the most likely to succeed, would
be for some philanthropic foundation to furnish the funds for the
establishment of the schools at a few points of natural vantage as a
beginning. The work might be directed to some extent by the
National Government and be in time subsidized by National and
State aid. Tlie heads of the schools should have much the same
freedom as in the Danish schools. As a beginning, tuition and lodg-
ing should be entirely free and scholarships might include all expenses
in return for work done on the school premises.
Schools ill which to train the ^'insinrers." — But who shall tlie teach-
ers be in these schools? Whence shall come the inspirers able to
understand the needs of their people and willing to undertake the
work? Much the same questions are being asked throughout the
Nation to-day in regard to the supply of teachers for the modern rural
schools. It is easy to see that the trained leadership needed in coun-
try districts can not be realized until a staff of teachers, professionally
trained and with the right vision and power, establish themselves as
permanent teachers. Heretofore the schools have done little to
prepare rural teachers for their difficult tasks. A most encouraging
sign of the times is this, that normal schools, colleges of agriculture,
and even schools of education in the universities have come to see
their opportunity in trainhig teachers for the new farm schools.
ADAPTING TO AMEEICAN CONDITIONS.
93
With all tliat is being done there is need of one or more central
schools to devote all their energies to the preparation of rural-life
leaders of all kinds — teachers, local agricultural experts, rural com-
munity organizers of various kinds, including the men to take charge
of the transplanted folk high schools. The Seaman Knapp School for
Country Life, at Nashville, is promising to train men for rm'al leader-
ship. This school, or a school similarly situated, might undertake to
prepare the first Icadei-s for the folk schools in our southern highlands.
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.
[Note. — With the exceptions indicated, the documents named below will be sent free of charge upon
application to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, 1). C. Those marked with an asterisk (*)
are no longer available for free distribution, but may be had of the Superintendent of Documents, Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington, D. C, upon payment of the price staled. Kcraittanees should be made
in coin, currency, or money order. Stamps are not accepted. Documents marked with a dagger (t) aro
out of print.]
1906.
tNo. 1. Educationbillof 1906 for England and Wales as it passed the House of Commons. AnnaT.Smiih.
*No. 2. German views of American education, with particular reference to industrial development.
William N. Hailmann. 10 cts.
*No. 3. State school systems: Legislation and judicial decisions relating to public education, Oct. 1, 1904,
to Oct. 1, 1906. Edward C. Elliott. Ij cts.
1907.
tNo. 1. The continuation school in the United States. Arthur J. Jones.
♦No. 2. Agricultiu-al education, including nature study and school gardens.
tNo. 3. The auxiliary schools of Germany. Six lectures by B. Maennel.
tNo. ■!. The elimination of pupils from school. Edward L. Thomdike.
James R. Jewell. 15 cts.
1908.
tNo. 1. On the training of persons to teach agriculture in the public schools. Liberty H. Bailey.
♦No. 2. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1S67-1907. 10 cts.
*No. 3. Bibliography of education for 1907. James IngersoU Wyer, jr., and Martha L. Phelps. 10 cts.
tNo. 4. Music education ia the United States; schools and departments of music. Arthur L. Manchester.
♦No. 5. Education in Formosa. Julean H. Arnold. 10 cts.
♦No. 6. The apprenticeship system in its relation to industrial education. Carroll D. Wright. 15 cts.
♦No. 7. State school systems: II. Legislation and judicial decisions relating to public education, Oct. 1,
1906, to Oct. 1, 1908. Edward C. Elliott. 30 cts.
tNo. 8. Statistics of State imiversities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by the
State, 1907-8.
1909.
♦No. 1. Facilities for study and research in the offices of the United States Government in Washington.
Arthur T. Iladley. 10 cts.
No. 2. Admission of Chinese students to American colleges. John Fryer.
*No. 3. Daily meals of school children. Caroline L. Ilunt. 10 cts.
fNo. 4. The teaching staCE of secondary schools in the United States; amount of education, length of expe-
rience, salaries. Edward L. Thorndike.
No. 5. Statistics of public, society, and school lib'-aries in 1908.
*No. 6. Instruction in the fine and manual arts ia the United States. A statistical monograph, Henry
T. Bailey. 15 cts.
No. 7. Index to the Reports of the Commissioner of Education, 1867-1907.
♦No. 8. A teacher's professional hbrary. Classified list of 100 titles. 5 cts.
♦No. 9. Bibliography of education for 1903-9. 10 cts.
No. 10. Education for efficiency in railroad service. J. Shirley Eaton.
*No. 11. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by
the State, 1908-9. 5 cts.
1910.
tNo. 1. The movement for reform in the teaching of religion in the public schools of Saxony. Arley n.
Show.
No. 2. State school systems: III. Legislation and judicial decisions relating to public education, Oct. 1,
1908, to Oct. 1, 1909. Edward C. ElUott.
tNo. 3. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1SG7-1910.
♦No. 4. The biological stations of Europe. Charles A. Kofoid. 50 cis.
♦No. 5. American schoolhouses. Fletcher B. Dresslar. 75 cts.
tNo. 6. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by
the State, 1909-10.
I
n BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.
1911
*No. 1. Bibliography cf science teaching. Sets.
*No. 2. Opportunities for graduate study in agriculture in the United States. A. C. Monahaa. 5 cts.
*No. 3. Agencies for the improvement of teachers in service. William C. Ruediger. 15 cts.
*No. 4. Report of the commission appointed to study the system of education in the public schools of
Baltimore. 10 cts.
»No. 5. Age and grade census of schools and colleges. George D. Strayer. 10 cts.
tNo. 6. Graduate work in mathematics in universities and in other institutions of like grade ia the United
States.
*No. 7. Undergraduate work in mathematics in colleges and universities. 5 cts.
*No. 8. Examinations in mathematics, other than those set by the teacher for his own classes. 5 cts.
No. 9. Mathematics in the technological schools of collegiate grade in the United States.
t^o. 10. Bibliography of education for 1909-10.
fNo. 11. Bibliography of child study for the years 190S-9.
•No. 12. Training of teachers of elementary and secondary mathematics. 5 cts.
*No. 13. Mathematics in the elementary schools of the United States. 15 cts.
*No. 14. Provision for exceptional children in the public schools. J. H. Van Sickle, Lightner 'Witmer,
and Leonard P. Ajtcs. 10 cts.
*No. 15. Educational system of China as recently reconstructed. Harry E. King. 15 cts.
*No. 16. Mathematics in the public and private secondary schools of the United States. 15 cts.
tNo. 17. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, October, 1911.
*No. 18. Teachers' certificates issued under general State laws and regulations. Harlan Updegraff. 20 cts.
No. 19. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by
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1913.
*No. 1. A course of study for the preparation of rural-school teachers. Fred Mutchler and W. J. Craig. 5 cts.
*No. 2. Mathematics at AVest Point and Annapolis. 5 cts.
*No. 3. Report of committee on uniform records and reports. 5 cts.
*No. 4. Mathematics in technical secondary schools in the United States. 5 cts.
*No. 5. A study of expenses of city school systems. Harlan Updegrafl. 10 cts.
*No. C. Agricultural education in secondary schools. 10 cts.
*No. 7. Educational status of nursing. M. Adelaide Nutting. 10 cts.
*No. 8. Peace day. Fannie Fern Andrews. [Later publication, 1913, No. 12.] Sets.
*No. 9. Country schools for city boys. William S. Myers. 10 cts.
*No. 10. Bibliography of education in agriculture and home economics. 10 cts.
tNo. 11. Current educational topics. No. I.
tNo. 12. Dutch schools of New Netherland and colonial New York. William H. Kilpatrick.
*N;). 13. Influences tending to improve the yJhik of the teacher of mathematics. 5 cts.
*No. 11. Report of the American commissioners of the international commission on the teaching of mathe-
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tNo. 15. Current educational topics. No. II.
*No. 16. The reorganized school playground. Henry S. Curtis. Sets.
*No. 17. The Montessori system of education. Anna T. Smith. 5 cts.
*No. IS. Teaching language through agriculture and domestic science. M. A. Leiper. Sets.
*No. 19. Professional distribution of college and university graduates. Bailey B. Burritt. 10 cts.
*No. 20. Readjustment of a rural high school to the needs of the community. H. A. Bro^vn. 10 cts.
*No. 21. Urban and rural common-school statistics. Harlan Updegraff and William R. Hood. 5 cts.
No. 22. Public and private high schools.
No. 23. Special collections in libraries in the United States. V/. Davv'son Johnston and Isadore G . Mudge.
*No. 24. Current educational topics. No. III. 5 cts.
tNo. 25. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1912.
tNo. 26. Bibliography of child study for the years 1910-1911.
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*No. 28. Cultivating school grounds in "Wake County, N. C. Zebulon Judd. 5 cts.
No. 29. Bibliography of the teaching of mathematics^ 1000-1912. David Eugene Smith and Charles
Goldzihcr.
No. 30. Latin-American universities and special schools. Edgar E. Brandon.
No. 31. Educational directory, 1912.
No. 32. Bibliography of exceptional children and their education. Arthur MacDonald.
tNo. 33. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by
the State, 1912.
1S13.
No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1913.
*No. 2. Training courses for rural teachers. A. C. Monahan and R. H. Wright. Sets.
*No.3. The teaching of modern languages in the United States. Charles H. Handschin. 15 cts.
•No. 4, Present standards of higher education in the United States. George E. MacLean. 20 cts.
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. Ill
•Xo. C. Agricultural instruction in high schools. C. n. Robbon and F. B. Jcnks. 10 eta.
*No. 7. College entrance requirements. Clarence D. Kingsley. 15 els.
*No. 8. The status of rural education in the United States. A.C. Monahan. 15 cts.
*No. 9. Consular reports on continuation schools in Prussia. 5 cts.
*No. 10. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1913. 5 cts.
*No. 11. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1913. 5 cts.
*No. 12. The promotion of peace. Fannie Fern Andrews. 10 cts.
*No. 13. Standards and tests for measuring the efficiency of schools or systems of schools. Report of the
commitlee of the National Council of Education. George D. Strayer, chairman. 5 els.
No. 14. Agricultural instruction in secondary schools.
*No. 15. Monthly record of cirrrent educational pulilicat joils, May, 1913. 5 Cts.
*No. 16. Bibliography of medical inspection and health supervision. 15 cts.
*No. 17. A trade school for girls. A preliminary investigation in a typical manufacturing city, Worcester,
Mass. 10 cts.
*No. IS. The fifteenth international congress on hygiene and demography. Fletcher B. Dresslar. 10 cts.
*No. 19. German industrial education and its lessons for the United States. Holmes Beckwith. 15 cts.
tNo. 20. Illiteracy in the United States.
fNo. 21. Monthly record of current educational publications, June, 1913.
*No. 22. Bibliography of industrial, vocational, and trade education. 10 cts.
*No. 23. The Georgia Club at the State Normal School, Athens, Ga., for the study of rural sociology.
E.C.Branson. 10 cts.
*No. 24. A comparison of public education in Germany and in the United States. Georg Kerschensteiner.
5 cts.
*No. 25. Industrial education in Columbus, Ga. Roland B. Daniel. 5 cts.
*No. 26. Good roads arbor day. Susan B. Sipe. 10 cts.
*No. 27. Prison schools. A. C. Hill. 10 cts.
*No. 28. Expressions on education by American statesmen and publicists. 5 cts.
*No. 29. Accredited secondary schools in the United States. Kendric C. Babcock. 10 cts.
*No. 30. Education in the South. 10 cts.
*No. 31. Special features in city school systems. 10 cts.
fNo. 32. Educational survey of Montgomery County, Md.
tNo. 33. Monthly record of current educational publications, September, 1913.
*No. 34. Pension systems in Great Britain. Raymond W. Sies. 10 cts.
*No. 35. A list of books suited to a high-school library. 15 cts.
*No. 36. Report on the work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska, 1911-12. 10 cts.
No. 37. Monthly record of current educational pubUcations, October, 1913.
No. 38. Economy of time in education.
No. 39. Elementary industrial school of Cleveland, Ohio. W. N. Hailmann.
*No. 40. The reorganized school playground. Ileiu'y S. Curtis. 10 cts.
No. 41. The reorganization of secondary education.
No. 42. An experimental rural school at Vv'inthrop College. II. S. Browne.
*No. 43. Agriculture and rural-life day; material for its observance. Eugene C. Brooks. 10 Cts.
*No. 44. Organized health work in schools. E. B. Iloag. 10 cts.
No. 45. Monthly record of current educational publications, November, 1913.
*No. 46. Educational directory, 1913. 15 cts.
*No. 47. Teaching material in Government publications. F. K. Noyes. 10 cts.
*No. 48. School hygiene. ~W. Carson Ryan, jr. 15 cts.
No. 49. The Farragut School, a Teimessee cour try-life high school. A. C. Monahan and Adams Phillips.
No. 60. The Fitchburg plan of cooperative industrial education. M. R. McCann.
tNo. 51. Education of the immigrant.
*No. 52. Sanitary schoolhouses. Legal requirements in Indiana and Ohio. 5 cts.
No. 53. Monthly record of current educational publications, December, 1913.
No. 54. Consular reports on industrial education in Germany.
No. 55. Legislation and judicial decLsions relating to education, October 1, 1909, to October 1, 1912.
James C. Boykin and William R. Ilood.
*No. 56. Some suggestive features of the Swiss school system. William Knox Tate. 25 cts.
No. 57. Elementary education in England, with special reference to London, Liverpool, and Manchester.
I. L. Kandel.
No. 58. Educational system of rural Denmark. Harold W. Foght.
No. 59. Bibliography of education for 1910-11.
No. 60. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported
by the State, 1912-13.
1914.
*Xo. 1. Monthly record of cturent educaf ional publications, January, 191 1. 5 cts.
No. 2. Compulsory school attendance.
tNo. 3. Monthly record of current educational publications, Fcbniary, 1914.
No. 4. The school and the start in life. Meyer Bloomfield.
49720"— 14 7
IV
BULLETIN OF THE BUEEAU OF EDUCATION.
No. 5. The folk high schools of Denmark. L. L. Friend.
No. G. Kindergartens in the United States.
No. 7. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1914.
No. 8. The Massachusetts home-project plan of vocational agricultural education. R. W. Stimson.
No. 9. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1914.
No. 10. Physical growth and school progi'ess. B. T. Baldwm.
No. 11. Monthly record of current educational publications, May, 1914.
No. 12. Rural schoolhouses and grounds. F. B. Dresslar.
No. 13. Present status of drawing and art in the elementary and secondary schools of the United States.
Royal B. Farnum.
No. 14. Vocational guidance.
No. 15. Monthly record of current educational publications. Index.
No. IG. The tangible rewards of teaching. James C. Boykia and Roberta King.
No. 17. Sanitary survey of (he schools of Orange County, Va. R. K. Flannagan.
No. 18. The public school system of Gary, Ind. William. P. Btirris.
No. 19. University extension in the United States. Louis E. Reber.
No. 20. The rural school and hookworm disease. J. A. Ferrell.
No. 21. Monthly record of current educational publications, September, 1914.
o
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