The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1913-07-18

tact with work. They read and
study and work on the farms.
Education in Denmark is compul-
sorry. The boy begins his farm
work as soon as he can handle a
spade or feed the chickens and
his school education goes right
along with his work. He does
not waste much time on things
that can not be correlated with
his work. 1t is to the high
school that the Danish farmer
owes most.
Our minister, Hon. Maurice
Francis Egan, says of Danish
in despair this wise clergyman,
Bishop Gruntvig, looked into the
future and saw that the Danes, to
be kept in their country, must
love it, and in order to love it
they must be taught to work
with cheerfulness on it's soil.
He struck the first note in the
modern progress of Denmark
education adapted to the souls,
hearts and bodies, not mere in
struction. Gruntvig was a poet
as well as a clergyman. He. wrote
stirring songs and hymns. He
knew well the educational value
Of music. you must use the
talents God gave you,' he said,
you must realize the value Of
the life He gave you by educat-
ing yourselves. He cut loose
from the sixteenth century tradi-
tions that the written word was
all and harked back to the point
Of view Of the days before the
art Of printing had closed the
eyes Of SO many people to the
value of nature and the teach
ing of visible objects. Gruntvig
believed that while a child's
body is growing it may be taught
habits Of mind but that to ask
it to use both the vitality Of the
mind and the body at the same
time is to defeat the end of
, education, which is to make it
sane cheerful, well balanced and
desirous of living upon the land.
In 1874 a farmers high school on
Gruntyig's. plan was opened in
Schleswig. In 1848 war distract
ed the country but afterward
the high school multiplied
The wealth of the Danish
! farmer is a thing inherent in him.
It lies in his healthy active body
trained to useful work. It lies
in his normal, we'll developed
brain, trained to think, reason
and observe. It lies in his inti-
mate knowledge Of his own af-
fairs and in his education having
been Of such nature that he
was given to believe that to make
clovers grow is a work in which
one may well take honest pride,
to which one may well give
deep serious thought. He has
been taught that the cow, mar
velous and intricate machine that
she is, is well worth not only
his deep study but his constant
and loving care as well. The
Danish people have true perspec-
tive, true knowledge of values,
Not distaining any knowledge Of
books, they are nevertheless
taught and led to see that the
things nearest are the things Of
highest value, that the right OF
man is to labor, to think, to
sing, to laugh, and to have a
humble reverent attitude toward
nature and the soils, plants, flow
ers, fruits and animals. With;
that attitude men will succeed,
put them anywhere, on a sand
bank or a peat bog. So it is that
the Danes are making farms
where were heaths and wastes
but yesterday.
Trained by this fine dual sys-,
TEN Of the books of the school
and the plain teaching Of out
door work, the Danish farmer has
emerged into nearly ideal rural
existence. Egan says: There
are few farmhouses that have
not in them a piano or some mu-
steal instrument and everywhere
you find upon the walls prints Of
.,he masterpieces of painting. :
The Danish farmers knowledge
!of history is extensive, he reads
modern literature and knows
what is going on in the United
States as well as what is happen
ing in Europe. Yet he works
with his sons and daughters il the
fields and among the COWS and
iss happy He has been taught
the dignity and worth Of labor.