My Family Moved From Denmark to America, and Here’s What They Learned
And what America can learn from them
A little over a year ago, my husband and his two daughters moved from Denmark, voted the second happiest country in the world, to America, the eighteenth country on that list.
Here’s what they think so far.
American schools look like jails
When my 10-year-old step-daughter joined a (well-ranked) public school in Brooklyn, she asked me why schools in New York looked like jails. I got defensive, but I knew what she meant. Bleak corridors, colorless rooms, barred windows, lack of fresh air, metal fences around the building — nothing about her school was “cozy,” the word so loved in her home country.
Back in Denmark, famous for its architecture, the girls’ public school looked like a building out of a design magazine. It wasn’t a repurposed structure, as it’s often the case in America, but a well-thought-through environment, meant to stimulate children’s development and growth. It provided more than just desks. The rooms were airy and filled with light. There were areas for play and relaxation, nooks for reading, and various outdoor spaces for play and studying.
