The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-05-07
DENMARK, pgo0LIAR scHcoL
No Examinations Required and Open
to All Corners.

-
No Examinations Required and Open
to All Corners.
The Danish "high school, was the
outcome of a recent period in Dan
ish history when the nation passed
through a crucial period of trouble,
loss and humiliation, when its Ian
guage and even its nationality were
threatened from without and when it
seemed fer a time as If even its in
tellectual and spiritual independence
might be destroyed or absorbed, says
the London Post. During such periods
when "the reproof of chance lay
heavy on one of the smaller nations,
the true proof of its men and women
was tested to the utmost, and Dem
mark at this crisis In her history
was not found wanting. After the
storm had passed and the province OF
Schleswig-Holstein had been wrested
from the nation, Grotwig and other
patriots conceived and carried out the
thigh school" scheme and finally sue
ceeded In attracting to these schools
all that was best and most aspiration
al in the life of the peasantry and peo-
pie. The aim of the teachers was not
SO much to impart knowledge as to-
stimulate the reflective powers. so as
to arouse in the minds of their pupils
thoughts IN the value and purpose Of
life.
With this object in view the found
ers of the scheme took into special
consideration when choosing their
teaching staff the personal qualities
of the teacher, the amount Of mag
netism in his personality, SO to speak,
and placed these qualifications above
those Of academic attachments. The
warden or head of each school is the
host and the head OF the family gath
cred together under his roof; for the
students board in his house during
the school terms. As most of the
pupils are drawn from the class of
agricultural laboreTs and small farm
ers. the men take the winter term
from November till April, and the
women the summer term from May
to August. The course is really a
two years one, but it is at the OPP
ton OF the pupils to attend for a
term only. The inclusive cost for
board and teaching is thirty-thr,. mil
lings a month, -nd the poorest of the
students who cannot save enough to
pay this sum, or who cannot afford
to spend so much time away from
their farms. without ~pecuniary assist
ance, are helped by the State with
about two-thirds of their expenses.
No examination is required Of pupils
either on entering or on leaving the
schools, and as the principal aim in
teaching is to arouse the intellectual
life, the course OF study consists of
lectures on history, poetry and biog-
raphy. The high schools" in which
there are now altogether over 6,a0O
students, have taken as their motto
the quotation, Il am q man; there
fore everything that concerns a man
is of interest to me-" Before each
lecture a national or religious song
from the rich stores of the Danish
language is sung r. the pupils, and
the spiritual life that is inculcated by
example even more than by precept
is not one of asceticism or Of self
denial, but of full, ~well-balanced de-
vclopment and self-expression.
The Danes themselves attribute the
marked rise and intellectual develop
,ment of the ~peasantry and the power
of combination displayed by the tillers
Of the soil to ever-increasing influence
OF the high school, movement. The
agriculturists save money and make
sacrifices in order that their sons n
daughters may enjoy the intellectual
and spiritual culture that the thigh
schools" offer. The only analogous
movement we have in Great Britain is
the burning desire on the part of tine
Scotch p%easantry and small Scotch
farmers for education. In England
it would appear difficult to create q
similar demand among our rural pop
ulation. This may be because in the
past country life has not been synony-
nous with intellectual life. except for
the rich and we'll placed.
Now that the intellectual needs of
various classes are being more scien-
tiically studied, an intimate knowl-
edge Of the working of these Danish
schools, which have been so success
full In revolutionizing Intellectually
and spiritually the rural life of Dem
mark. might be of special value to
members Of rural educational councils
in England. Mrs. Browning wrote:
ut takes a soul to move a body" In
Denmark Of today the body, through
its steadily growing cooperative un-
dertakings, can be seen moving and
gaining In strong and healthy national
life. 1t is claimed by the more patri-
otic and intelligent among the Danes
than the soul which moves and quick
ems this body was reborn in the daily
life and aspiration Of the high