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Folk Schools
By Kay Parke

As a SCHOOL, it is a cooperative community of learners, some of whom are also teachers. In Scandinavia, where these schools have flourished and contributed to a vibrant society for well over a century, they are deliberately small- usually from 35 to 150 students- and residential. The AIM is optimum individual development, always within a community framework and with regard to community welfare. Vocational competence is not its primary purpose, though such competence may be a byproduct. It is a school for learning to live a good life, not for making a livelihood. It is "a school that is a home, and this home is a school."

In ORGANIZATION, it minimizes the effect of authority, instead developing responsibility to the greatest extent compatible with the maturity of the students. It depends on cooperation, encouragement, and the natural interest in learning, rather than on such artificial stimuli as grades and credits. It does not use test scores to classify or discriminate against students.

Its METHOD is "the living word," meaning in general the oral word as it is used in everyday life. N.F.S. Grundtvig, the Danish philosopher who founded the folk-school idea, said- with perhaps characteristic overemphasis- that the written word "is dead, even though I myself am a bookworm." Perhaps one might say more fairly that the written word is sleeping. To be effective, it must be "awakened" by passage through discussion, interpretation, or though the mind of a rarely creative reader in speech or action.

And what, then, is FOLK? Grundtvig saw this as a group of people bound together by common values, assumption, experiences. In his time (early 19th century), such commonality occurred in geographical, political, historical terms. To a significant extent, this continues to be true, though it increasingly assumes a more global character. A "folk" might also consist of those who share a religion, a common world-view. The term might even be applied to those who are devoted to a certain way of making a living, perhaps even to those who share a common absorbing interest. Nevertheless, shared geographical, historical, cultural-historical experiences and assumptions continue to be a major strength (and limitation) for each individual person. The exploration and recognition of "national" or ethnic backgrounds continue to be a curricular topic peculiarly appropriate to a "folk" school.

In summary, the folk-school is a cooperative community of learners and teachers, promoting individual growth in a community matrix. It emphasizes awareness of and appreciation for a shared background, through direct, person-to-person interchange.

A Brief History of Folk Education
By Mark Ribble

The folk education movement has played a vital role in the history and culture of Scandinavia. Folk education has also had an important -- though less recognized -- impact on people’s education in North America.

The folk schools of Scandinavia are intimately tied up in the history of Denmark. The folk schools are particularly associated with the work and writing of NFS Grundtvig (1783-1872), a Danish "poet, educator, theologian, translator, mythologist, mythmaker, composer of hymns, prophet, protester, and social critic." Grundtvig perceived a widening gap between life and learning within Danish formal education, particularly in the classical Latin schools which prepared the elites to step into the privileged roles waiting for them. Within this educational system, the Danish language was seen as rude and ignorant, suitable only for the peasants (the educated and elite spoke German). Grundtvig was especially concerned with the development of a school that would give dignity to the life of the small farmer who made up a significant segment of Denmark’s population in the nineteenth century.

The rise of the folk schools, beginning in 1844 based in the ideas of Grundtvig and instituted by Christian Kold and others, is seen by scholar Steven Borish as an important part of Denmark’s non-violent transition from monarchy to parliamentary democracy -- which stood in stark contrast to the bloodshed that was seen throughout Europe in this transition. Grundtvig favored the moves toward parliamentary democracy, but worried that a war of "egoistic pressure groups" would replace the monarchy rather than any conception of the common good.

Grundtvig believed that only through the establishment of the residential folkehøjskoler would the future generations be able to acquire the foundations for enlightenment and a peaceable, just society. The folk schools would be a place where young adults from all regions could meet and live together to study their mother tongue, the history and present condition of Denmark, and feel pride in its culture. The original folk schools were based in a number of beliefs about human identity: The individual was seen whole only as a part of a community, connected to a time, place, and culture. This education was for the purpose of responding to the needs and struggles of the common people, and knowledge and enlightenment was to be found in the common people. This education was to happen collectively and would embrace the heart, mind, and body. And perhaps most importantly, the basis of this learning was the living word -- that word spoken by and between teachers and students.

Frederik Christensen describes Grundtvig’s orientation to folk schools as the ‘indirect method,’ and advocates a return to this method in contemporary folk schools. Whereas most schools and educational philosophies believe that you must first change the world, then you can be enlivened and love life, folk schools believe you must be enlivened -- you must love life -- before you can change the world. The strength and knowledge for social transformation cannot come from hard facts or complex understandings of the social world. It is from the irrational areas of life -- primarily community, culture, spirituality -- that one finds the strength, the courage, and the deep understanding to make change happen. Christensen writes "There are hundreds of . . . teachers who know thousands of facts about our wretched societal conditions, but do not know a single story which can lift the heart, which can tell us that life is larger than we thought" (Christensen 1987:18).

There has long been a North American interest in Scandinavian folk education. The most notable example being Highlander Folk School (now, Highlander Research and Education Center) , inspired by the Danish model but developed within a uniquely American Southern context. Folk schools in the US and Canada have had a hard time surviving within a very different cultural, historical, and financial context (the State of Denmark picks up 50-90% of the tab on the folk schools).

The Folk School Association of America was founded in 1976 as a way to promote folk education and build connections between North American educators interested in the concept.

For more information about folk education and Grundtvig, check out our People's Education BookShop.