The Parker post., 1914-07-25

His teachers were mature, Well-trained
men Of good intellectual ability, we'll
paid, and, in most cases, community
leaders and organizers.
From fourteen to eighteen is an age
when Danish boys and girls are grow
ing physically and working at prac-
tical things, for the young Dane can
not enter the folk high school until he
is eighteen.
Farm Apprenticeship.
The prospective farmer, however,
has not stopped his educative proc
esses during this period. There is in
Denmark a recognized system Of farm
apprenticeship for the future farmer.
1t is a common practise here for the
father who wishes his son to become
a farmer to put him for a period of
three years upon some Of the accredit-
ed model farms of the country. Gen
orally he stays on one farm for one
year, moving on to a second and then
a third in order that he may get diff
ferent and broader points of view and
may see agriculture specialized along
different lines upon the different farms.
On these farms he is given an oppor-
tunity to learn, but for the most part
his time is spent in hard labor. He
learns to farm by farming.
Folk Schools and Patriotism.
After his apprenticeship is complet-
ed he goes for at least a few months
to one of the folk high schools, which
are in the broadest sense schools Of
patriotism. Inspiring lectures are
used for instruction more widely than
are text books. The history and liter
ature of the country is the theme of
many an hour. Every class is opened
with a song, either patriotic or re-
ligious, and each day extensive read
ings upon patriotic and religious topics
are given. Practical political economy
and sociology are included in the daily
work. No one under eighteen may at
tend these folk high schools, but many
an older man or woman in later life
finds there that for which there was
no opportunity in youth. The schools
are co-educational, but are co-educa-
tional in a thoroughly segregated
way, for the men attend in winter and
the women only in the summer
months.
These schools are privately owned
and not absolutely free. The cost of
five months instruction and board for
the men for the winter months is
about sos, while the women, who gen
orally attend these schools in summer,
pay only about $50 for three months
instruction, including board and lodg-
ing. Small as these fees seem to be,
the state has various ways Of re-
ducing the fees, especially for the sons
and daughters of the small holders.
summer and winter schools the last
few years has never been less than
ten thousand.
University Extension.
These folk high schools have, too,
an extension form of education some
what similar to the university exten-
sion courses given by some OF our
American colleges. The high school
professors frequently go out to the
schoolhouses for popular lectures upon
history and literature, and upon soci-
illogical subjects. Generally a little
association is formed for the course of
from six to ten lectures. Possibly one
crona (twenty-seven cents) for the
year is charged, or there may be q
charge of twenty ora (four cents) for
each lecture. Here at the high school
building they also hold in the fall q
special community meeting for three
or four days during which three leo
lures per day on subjects similar to
those taught in the school are given,
and In addition men of learning or re-
nown from the outside are brought Ia.
At this folk school the young farm
er who has had his common school
realities of life, and who has learned
in three years apprenticeship how to
farm, has an opportunity to learn how
to be a citizen and patriot. But he
has not yet completed his school work.
Upon the farm he has learned how to
do things. He has yet to learn why.
So he goes to an agricultural college
and learns the theoretical and scien-
tifc why which is back Of the prac-
tical how. This is the story of Den
marks farmer in the making, through
common school, apprenticeship, folk