The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-01-15

the national treasury. Deserving
students who are not able to bear
their own expenses while attending
high school may receive assistance
from fund appropriated by the
government for that purpose. The
maximum amount of assistance al
lowed to a student is rs kroner
($6.75) per month. Students pay
35 kroner ($9.45) per month in
winter and 80 kroner ($8.64) per
month in summer for tuition, board
and lodging. The accommodations
provided are plain but comfortable.
The influence of the folk high
schools upon the life of the people
of rural Denmark has been remark
able. Bjornsen spoke of the Dan
ish peasantry as "the most intelli-
gent in the world" This is general
ly accepted as true; and their en-
lightment is in no small measure
the work of the popular high
| schools. These schools have taught
the Danish farmer to think and to
apply science to the cultivation of the
soil. They have brought together
numbers of young men from all
parts of the country and have Great
! ed among them a spirit of mutual
trust and confidence. The influence
of those schools reaches practically
all the people of rural Denmark.
Each autumn meetings are conduct
ed by most of the high schools that
continue for three or four days and
are attended by hundreds of people
from the neighboring farms and viii
lagos.
Everywhere in Danish education,
as in agriculture, there is the clos
est cooperation. In this co-opera-
tive movement for education among
the rural population many of the
cities and towns unite. In Copen-
hagen. for instance, there is a So
ciety that arranges excursions from
the country to the capital for educa-
tional purposes. The excursionists
are conducted by members of the So
ciety to the great museums, art gal
leries, botanical gardens, and other
institutions of the city, where lee
lures are given concerning these i'll
situations and what they contain.
In the national theatre at Copenhag-
en- plays are sometimes given espec-
tally for the country people. On
such occasions merely nominal adj
mission fee is charged.
Turning Out Real Leaders.
High school men play an impor-
tant part in government affairs and
in other fields Of activity in Dem
mark. Five members of the present
Danish cabinet are from the folk
high scnools-the Prime Minister,
the Minister of Education, the Min
lister OF the Interior, and the Traffic
Minister, and the Minister of Agri-
culture. Four of these are farmers.
Many mem bers of the lower house.
of the Danish Parliament are also
high school men. OF those who fill
positions as superintendent, manag-
agricultural societies and enterprises,
80 per cent have been in the folk
high schools.
| The great work that the folk high
schools are doing for the people Of
| rural Denmark can not be summed.
up better than in the words of one
of the foremost Danish high school
principals. The mission of the,
folk high schools" he said, lis not
to give the people few facts of this,
science and a few facts of that sci
ence, so much as to awaken the
minds Of its pupils, to arouse in them.
a feeling of brotherhood, to give
them a knowledge of themselves
and of life, to help them to realize
their worth. We want our pupils
to say when they leave, Now l will
60 back to my work and more clear
ly see the meaning of it and more.
deeply feel the dignity of it.