Our visit to the Sports Folk High School in Vejle, Denmark
Americans experiencing Bildung and folk high school education first hand.
On a recent trip to Denmark my wife Tamar and I were fortunate enough to spend a lovely day with Lene Rachel Andersen discussing, among other things, various topics related to the Bildung movement. During our conversation, Lene offered us the opportunity to visit a folk high school where she planned to speak later in the week at an educators’ conference. We eagerly accepted the offer, and Lene personally arranged for us to stay at the school to experience this foundational vehicle for inculcating and fostering civic engagement. The folk high school has its roots in folk-Bildung, which helped transform Danish society from an agrarian one with a largely uneducated population to the thriving technological society it is today.
We arrived in the evening at the suburban community of Vejle and took a taxi to Vejle Idraetshojskole (the Vejle Sports School), located on a lush, spread-out campus, with several well-lit and inviting buildings. Upon entering the main building, we were warmly greeted by two vivacious young women, who told us that they would be assisting us during our stay.
As Americans, we were totally unfamiliar with the concept of a folk high school…
Both were alumnae of the school, working as conference assistants. When we arrived, the conference staff and attendees were participating in various sports-related activities, so we were able to spend about an hour talking to the women, who answered our many questions about themselves, folk high schools in general, and this school in particular.
As Americans, we were totally unfamiliar with the concept of a folk high school, which does not correspond to what in the U.S. would be called “high school.” The closest analog would be a gap year program after high school (but even that lacks some of the key elements of the Danish experience). Although a growing number of U.S. high school graduates are taking a gap year before going on to college or starting a job, the proportion of Danish students attending a folk high school is considerably higher. According to the school’s website, “A stay is about challenging and developing yourself. Mix your classes or go in depth with subjects within OUTDOOR, FITNESS, BALL GAMES, ENDURANCE, MINDEDNESS. Furthermore, we seek to enhance your personal competencies, skills and knowledge in areas of your choice — clarifying or motivating you for further studies.”
Students attending Danish folk high schools have no required curriculum… They live together in dormitories… This allows for community building among the students and teachers and fosters an increased sense of responsibility.
The young women with whom we spent the evening emphasized on several occasions that a significant benefit of attending the folk high school was the opportunity to take the time to explore whether their current career objectives were really the right choice for them. It turned out that both of them discovered that they wanted to do something different from what they originally conceived, albeit still within the realm of sport. They both felt their time at the folk high school was so valuable and productive that each had returned at least once for another semester. Especially cherished were the strong friendships and mentor-mentee relationships they developed with fellow students and teachers, respectively.
Students attending Danish folk high schools have no required curriculum; they choose from a variety of different types of classes. They live together in dormitories on campus for the length of the term, which is three-four months in either fall or spring. This allows for community building among the students and teachers and fosters an increased sense of responsibility, as they all participate in chores to maintain their living spaces. In addition to their classes, they engage in communal activities every day, including discussions of their life trajectories.
Our guides took us on a tour of the school, which encompassed the gymnasia, weight room, a brand-new, fully-mirrored exercise/dance studio, and the “Globe,” a silver-coated spherical meeting room situated in the middle of the campus where assemblies and other communal events are held. It’s a warm and inviting space and no matter where one is seated, the view is perfect. When the lights are out, it can almost double as a planetarium. The conference plenary sessions were held there on the following day.
The folk high school students were not in attendance during the three-day conference, but on our tour we encountered a group of younger students who are in a year-long “After School” program for those who have completed Intermediate School (what would correspond to 8th grade in the United States) prior to entering high school. These students live in a separate building where they attend classes and other activities. Most of the campus facilities are connected by a series of hallways, so even though the students are in separate programs, they do cross paths.
We emerged from our visit to the folk high school even more enthusiastic about the prospect of such Bildung-inspired educational institutions spreading more widely around the world.
