Scandinavian Folk High Schools
How does one describe the Folk High Schools of Scandinavia? Recently my wife and I spent three months visiting and observing some of these schools in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. When we tell people what we have been doing, they ask: “What kind of schools are they?” Our dilemma: how do you describe an educational system that seems to have no equivalent in our country?
I was introduced to these schools four years ago during a summer institute at the University of California Santa Barbara. At that time, we visited the Danish community of Solvang, California where some of the old-timers shared their “dream which had not come true” with our class. This early settlement of Danes, hoping to teach their children “values” of life other than the materialism they found in America, established a Folk High School. That Folk High School did not survive. One elderly woman cried as she talked about the irony of the Solvang dream-the dream to keep themselves and their children free from materialism. “But look at what Solvang is today,” she said, “It is one of the main commercial attractions in California.”
It was here that I came across some of the educational ideas of N.F.S. Grundtvig, the Danish priest, historian, poet, and public educator. I became intrigued with his ideas on teaching and learning, especially with his dream of an “academy for the people.” He saw learning taking place, not so much in the classroom as in the “living interaction” among students and teachers, over a cup of coffee, perhaps, or while sharing work duties in the kitchen. Though Grundtvig never organized or directed a school himself, his ideas became the basis for the popular Folk High School program in the Scandinavian countries. As I began to read about these schools, I became more interested.
Grundtvig said, “Life cannot be described until it has been lived.” I realized that the Folk High Schools could not be truly understood until they had been experienced. So, when I was given a sabbatical leave for the second semester of this past school year, I was off to Scandinavia to study the Folk High Schools. We visited thirteen schools.
The Historical Background of the Folk High Schools
The first Folk High School was organized in Denmark in 1844. The date is significant. These Folk High Schools grew out of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century and the political, social and religious turbulence that accompanied it. In rural areas these revolutionary tendencies were expressed, in a large part, in spiritual and religious revivals. People gathered in small groups to listen to the reading of the Bible and, perhaps, to a sermon of Luther and to sing simple, religious songs. These gatherings, or conventicles, gave the lowly peasant opportunity to speak to and with his peers—usually in the form of a testimony of his or her religious ideas and experiences. The peasant was no longer speechless (this reality did not go unnoticed by the political leaders in these countries who instituted restrictions such as the Swedish Conventicles Edicts). Besides the religious revival movement, three other important movements provided education for the working class: the Labor movement; the Temperance movement, which protested against employers for paying their workers in spirits and which cooperated with the Labor movement to give many people their first education; and the Cooperative movement.
Throughout the 19th century the Nordic countries, except for Sweden which had been victorious in the Napoleonic wars that ended in 1815, were in a state of national peril. Denmark was threatened by Germany, Finland was politically controlled by Russia, Iceland was a Danish colony, and Norway had been forced into union with Sweden. During this time, a new national consciousness arose in the Nordic countries sparked by the desire for independence, freedom, and an independent cultural identity. In these turbulent times Grundtvig began to teach his new educational idea. He believed in the Danish character and had confidence in the ability of the ordinary person, when placed in a caring and stimulating environment, to discipline himself and to work toward the common good. To enable the peasant to take political and cultural power in the new democratic society, Gruntvig dreamed of establishing a “school for life.” The aim of this education was not to “mold the masses into pre-determined shapes,” but to challenge and help ordinary people find their own identity and to take responsibility for their own lives and for the good of society.
Grundtvig was disillusioned with the teaching methods of the typical European school—predominantly lecture with its built-in separation between teacher and student. While studying in England, he found the tutorial method much more inviting and envisioned his “school for life” as a “living interaction” between teachers and students. He conceived the school as a community where all lived, worked, studied, and played together giving much opportunity for this kind of interaction.
Folk High Schools Today
What did we learn about Folk High Schools from our study? Did Grundtvig’s dream come true? Yes. Today there are about 400 of these schools in the Nordic countries. Although each is fiercely independent and unique, all seem to share the same mission: “to fight for democracy, for the rights of all, and for discussion and dialogue of equal men and women for building a more righteous society.”
The dilemma of describing these schools remains. They are neither high schools nor colleges, not even community colleges. Though a part of the adult education system, they differ from the traditional public schools in that they give neither tests or grades.1 Students come voluntarily. With desire and involvement and the teacher’s ability to inspire, they create an atmosphere of learning that is neither examination-directed nor grade-conscious. The crucial question for the students in these Folk High Schools is not, “Of what are you capable?” but, “Who are you?”
In a real sense, the Folk High Schools are independent schools. They are owned and operated, with government stipends and general rules, by trade unions, cities, churches, political parties, provinces, temperance organizations, etc. This means that an individual school can form its own educational profile and offering of classes as long as it adheres to the general perspective demanded by the legislature. It is difficult to comprehend that the legislatures of each of these Nordic countries give sizable grants to a school form specifying that it should not have a particular training or occupation in mind.2 Strange as this sounds, it actually is that way. This is precisely what gives the Folk High Schools their strength and charm.
North Park College, Minnehaha Academy, and the Folk High School Model
In each country, Folk High Schools are organized around areas of specialized study. For instance, a school might offer lines in Youth leadership, Music, Media/Journalism and Ecology. Students would choose one of these lines as their main course of study.
It is interesting to note that when the Covenant school (later known as North Park College) began in the basement of the Minneapolis Swedish Tabernacle in 1891 it offered three lines: the Seminary line, taught by David Nyvall; the Commercial Department, taught by J.A. Lindblade; and the Academy or High School course (which had no students until the winter term), taught part time by A.L. Skoog.
After this school left Minneapolis for Chicago, the Covenanters in the Twin Cities decided to organize their own school. Minnehaha Academy was begun in 1913. This too was organized and functioned for many years on this same model of the Swedish Folk High School. From its beginning into the 1940s, Minnehaha had four departments: the Bible Institute, the Business Department, the Music Department, and the Academy. Although Minnehaha has kept only the Academy line, and neither it nor North Park (which has, since 1976, had an exchange program with SVS) has followed the Folk High School tradition of no tests or grades, one aspect of the Folk High Schools remains. Both schools continue in the tradition of being “schools for life.”