THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO BISHOP N. F. S. GRUXDTVIG. This represents him as taken in the full vigor of manhood. From a painting. RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS SPECIALIS W. FOGHT SCHOOL PRACTICE, NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN RURAL SCHOOL," ETC. Wefo f0rfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1915 AB rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1915, , BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1915. NorfaooU J. 8. Gushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PHILANDER PRIESTLEY CLAXTON UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION THAN WHOM NO ONE IS A TRUER FRIEND OF OUR RURAL SCHOOLS THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 2052613 PREFACE RURAL life in our country is undergoing a most remark- able though very natural transition. The day of pio- neering is at an end, and the period of land exploitation, in the midst of which we have been living, is likely to yield soon to genuine husbandman farming. Indeed, new adjust- ments in national life are forcing the changes upon us. We must either become a nation of scientific producers from the soil or we shall soon find ourselves reduced to the condition of older nations whose civilization has long suffered from the effects of diminishing returns. The United States is no longer solely agricultural. In fact, we are to-day half agri- cultural and half industrial, and our organized industrial cen- ters will probably continue to outgrow the rural communities. The immediate proof of our unbalanced national life can be seen in the fact that the agricultural production does not any longer keep pace with the demands made upon it. The Federal Census for 1910 shows that in the ten years from 1899 to 1909 agricultural production in the United States increased less than 10 per cent, while the population in- creased all of 21 per cent. The American boast has been that we can feed the world. And yet, during the past year our imports in meat products have far exceeded the exports. To be exact, on the basis of the Census of 1910 and the vii VU1 PREFACE estimated population in 1914, American farms are short 18,259,000 meat animals to put the country in the same condition as regards its meat supply as it was in 1910. During the decennium the United States' exports of food- stuffs fell from $251,000,000 to $136,000,000 and the imports of foodstuffs showed an increase of $13,000,000. In spite of our enormous area of arable land and favorable natural conditions, the United States has come face to face with the question of how to feed its increasing millions. From this it will appear that the great problem of Ameri- can rural life is tied up closely with agricultural production. It is not so much a question with us of a largely increased number of producers although this, too, is desirable as it is a question of a largely increased production. Soil exploitation must be put to an end and scientific agriculture given its rightful day. Thinkers generally are becoming aware that one of our greatest national sins is this soil exhaustion that is actually threatening to undermine the greatest of all our heritages. How to change the prevailing indifferent system of agriculture is right at the bottom of the whole matter. Two things, at least, should receive our serious considera- tion; viz., to till the soil so scientifically that our agricul- turists may get better returns on their capital and labor expended than they have been getting ; and to make country life so attractive and wholesome that our farm population shall be eager to spend their lives in the open country in- stead of, as so many are doing at this time, leaving the farm just as soon as they have laid by a small competence and moving to the country villages and larger towns where many PREFACE IX retire from active life, thereby adding little or nothing to the sum total of the productiveness of these centers. The factors in this agricultural reorganization are natu- rally many, but none is greater than the educational factor. Before much improvement can be made, rural communities must set up a leadership of their own, such as is now seldom found there. The demand is for men and women imbued with the spirit of masterful action and thoroughly prepared to cope with the difficulties of present-day agricultural life. Properly directed education can best furnish this leadership. If we have educated men and women, the other great prob- lems cannot resist solution. The farmers will then come to realize with Moses that the soil is holy, and that to treat it properly they must put back into it at least as much as they take out of it year by year. The right kind of education will help the farmers to become organized and so enable them to hold their own against the centralized interests of city life. In fact, every phase of social, economic, and spiritual retar- dation in agricultural districts may be expected to yield to such a new educated leadership. A number of real farm community schools are beginning to spring up here and there over the length and breadth of our country, which are making themselves felt in this agri- cultural reorganization. But all this is just a beginning. Our rural schools, as a whole, have been unusually slow to find their bearing in the new transition, and many of them have become retarded in the process and have dropped out of the vanguard of progress so that they may justly be blamed for much of our ineffective agriculture and the mov- ing away from the land. X PREFACE American people, naturally enough, would not care to transplant to western shores the school systems of Europe nor would this be either practicable or desirable. But we should be willing to profit by whatever is good in the older systems of the long-established agricultural nations. With this in view the story of rural Denmark and its schools is written. Denmark found itself in dire distress, both of political and social-economic nature. The discredited country sought the panacea for its ills in a remarkable school system which furnishes a broad culture and thorough technical preparation to every man, woman, and child living in its rural districts. The results have been marvelous. A war-crippled and al- most bankrupt nation has, within two generations, taken an honorable place among the producing nations of Europe. Its agriculture is unexcelled, both as to the matter of pro- duction from the soil and distribution of the manufactured products to the markets of the world. The story of Denmark is told in these pages because the writer sincerely believes that many of the blessings that have come to Denmark through its schools can be ours if we take heed of some of the things that we, in our greater industrial hurry, neglect ; but which to the Danes have held the key to all success. This need not call for any violent reorganization of the schools as they now exist. It would face them more directly towards the soil and give them a new spiritual uplift; and it would, at one and the same time, provide the broadest kind of culture and supply the required technical skill for scientific farming. The materials made use of in the book were gathered by PREFACE XI the writer a year or more ago while studying the schools of Denmark and other European countries for the United States Bureau of Education. Much of it has appeared, in a some- what modified form, in three bulletins recently issued by the Bureau of Education under the titles : " The Educational System of Rural Denmark " ; " Danish Elementary Rural Schools"; and "The Danish Folk High Schools." All this material has been rewritten and considerably enlarged. General acknowledgment for assistance in gathering data is due to a great many Danish educators and other gentle- men ; but such acknowledgment was made in the bulletins mentioned above and need not be repeated here. H. W. F. WASHINGTON, B.C., January 1, 1915. CONTENTS PART I THE RECENT DANISH AGRICULTURAL REHABILITA TION CHAPTER PAGE I. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS . . 1 II. THE STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAND . 21 III. THE IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATION IN THE DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 37 IV. THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK , , . 57 PART II THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS IN THE NATIONAL REORGANIZATION V. THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE . 68 A. THE ELEMENTARY RURAL SCHOOLS VI. THEIR ORGANIZATION, ADMINISTRATION, AND MAINTE- NANCE 78 VII. THEIR MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION . 91 VIII. THEIR BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 118 IX. PREPARATION, SALARIES, AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 131 X. APPLICATION OF THE DANISH SYSTEM TO AMERICAN SCHOOLS 149 xiii XIV CONTENTS B. AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS CHAPTER PACK XI. THE WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS . 157 XII. SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLS OF HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS 174 C. FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS XIII. THEIR EVOLUTION . 188 XIV. THEIR ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 215 XV. TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 243 XVI. THEIR TRANSPLANTATION TO OTHER NORTH EURO- PEAN COUNTRIES 272 XVII. DANISH-AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES . . . . . . . 292 XVIII. FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS 303 APPENDIX. A BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE RURAL LIFE MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES . . 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY , , * 346 INDEX . 351 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Bishop N. F. S. Grundtvig Frontispiece FACING PAGE Ordinary Specimen of Red Fyen Cow 1 1 Good Type of Jutish Sorrel Mare . . . . . .11 Askov, the Peer of Folk High Schools 18 Svend Hogsbro, the Father of Danish Cooperative Enterprise 19 Reforesting the Heather 27 On the Way to the Creamery . . . . . . -41 A Typical Farmers' Cooperative Creamery ... . .41 A Large Danish Farmstead 51 Smallhold Farmstead (Rear View). A Farm of Seven Acres 51 Dalum Agricultural School near Odense . . . . 159 Small Agricultural School at Lyngby 159 Interior of a One-teacher School 175 Lecture Hall at Kasrehave School for Smallholders . . 175 Group of Summer Students at Kaerehave .... 175 Gymnastics at Vallekilde Folk High School 253 Gymnastics at Vallekilde 253 Teacher Seminary at Haslev, Zealand . . . . 255 Ryslinge, an Historic Folk High School .... 261 Teacher's Cottage 261 Danebod Folk High School near Tyler, Minnesota . . 298 North Carolina Mountain Folk . . . . .314 Presbyterian Mission School in the South Atlantic Highlands 314 One-teacher Rural School ....... 341 Larger Rural School 341 Rural Church near Horsens, Jutland 344 Rural Manse at Vallekilde, Zealand 344 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS PART I THE RECENT DANISH AGRICULTURAL REHABILITATION CHAPTER I RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS The Land and the People. Denmark is a very small country, embracing, all told, less than 15,000 square miles. It is cut by sinuous arms of the ocean which have left it one prominent peninsula and more than 500 islands, some of which are mere sand bars of little eco- nomic value. The small kingdom has considerably less than one half the area of Maine, and about one eight- eenth the area of Texas. The country forms a part of the North-European Lowland and is marked for its low rise above sea level. Indeed, the average elevation is only about ninety-five feet. The surface soil is, on the whole, light and in some regions very poor. It com- 2 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS prises, in the main, moraine clays, strong in lime and mixed with pebbles, with here and there moraine sands ; and in central Jutland, great stretches of heather sands belonging to the Glacial Period. Of more recent origin are the peat bogs common to most of the islands, the marshlands rising out of the sea at Ribe, and the sand formations heaped up along the northwestern shore of Jutland. Taken as a whole, nature has treated Denmark in a stepmotherly fashion so far as riches of soil are con- cerned. The fact that the country is producing great crops from the land is not because of any fresh, virgin fertility or other natural resource; but because of the application of a broad, general intelligence to the work of building up a naturally meager soil, forcing it to pro- duce more and more. The climate, while never extremely cold, is raw and inhospitable the greater part of the year. This is due to the damp and chilly winds which blow almost inces- santly from the ocean. The average annual precipi- tation is 24.94 inches. Fog prevails ninety-four days out of the year, and Copenhagen in a favored loca- tion has only fifty days of sunshine annually! As a result of this it is often difficult to harvest the crops, and the cattle must be stall fed nine months out of the year. This much handicapped land has waged a mighty RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 3 struggle against nature; and in less than two genera- tions a poorly ordered agricultural system has been changed to the best on the European continent. The soil has been made to yield abundantly, and these prod- ucts are being placed upon the world's markets by the farmers themselves, as a result of being trained especially for this purpose. Nothing can speak in stronger terms for the success of Danish agriculture than such figures as the following, which show the surprisingly rapid in- crease in the amount of annual exports: In 1 88 1, just before cooperative enterprise among the farmers had begun to be felt, the net export in the three farm staples butter, bacon, and eggs was valued at $12,010,000. In 1904, it had increased to $68,070,000, and only eight years later had reached the surprisingly large sum of $125,000,000. Such figures as these can be explained only in a rapidly grow- ing knowledge of agricultural production and a scientific handling and marketing of the products all of which has come to the people through a system of schools peculiarly adapted to rural needs. The total population of Denmark is a little less than 3,000,000. Of this number, fully 61 per cent may be classed as rural. One hundred years ago practically the whole of Denmark was devoted to agriculture. In 1 80 1, the rural districts numbered 733,000 people, while the Capital and provincial towns had only 102,000 and 4 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS 94, coo respectively. Then gradually there came a change. The great industrial revolution which had already seized upon England and other European coun- tries began to be felt in Denmark also. Copenhagen and the provincial towns soon outgrew the rural dis- tricts. Agricultural life felt the loss of its attractions in proportion as the glamour of city life increased. A movement away from the land was soon under way, and the little country had its cityward exodus of country population. This phenomenon is clearly illustrated in the following figures: between the period 1801-1840 the Capital showed an annual increase of only forty- eight persons per ten thousand ; for 1840-1880 this had increased to one hundred and ninety ; and for 1880-1890 it had reached the large figure of three hundred and twenty-five. The same rapid increase marked the pro- vincial towns. Meanwhile, the rural districts which had increased at the rate of eighty-five persons per ten thou- sand for the period 1801-1840 showed an increase of only eighty- two persons for the period of 1840-1880; and then there came an appalling drop to twenty-one persons per ten thousand for the decade 1880-1890. At this point the change set in. Between 1800-1901 the increase for the Capital dropped to two hundred and fifty-nine; between 1901-1906, to one hundred and fifty-two. Meanwhile, the rural increase was changed from twenty-one in 1880-1890 to twenty-eight in RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 5 1890-1901, and to the large increase of ninety-nine for 1901-1906. From this it is clear that the cityward tide grew for a time at an appalling rate. The close of the 8o's marked the lowest ebb in rural growth. In the decade 1880- 1890, during which cooperative enterprise got its first real hold upon the farmers, the tide began to turn again, and the cities ceased their rapid strides. It is a signifi- cant fact that the rural population increased from twenty-eight per ten thousand to ninety-nine persons per ten thousand between 1901 and 1906, a time since which there has been a steady gain. At that time just 60 per cent of all the people lived in the open country and in rural-minded villages. Since then, according to unofficial figures, the rural population has increased to fully 6 r per cent. The shift in the population of Denmark is interesting and significant when it is compared with the similar movement away from the land in great sections of the United States. In 1790, according to the Federal Census, only 3.4 per cent of the people in the United States lived in cities. In those days the nation was provincial. In 1900, 33.4 per cent lived in places of four thousand and upward, and by 1914, just about one half of the whole nation had become industrialized at the organized centers. In the United States we may expect the great industrial centers to continue to grow for many years 6 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to come. This is inevitable. At the same time, this growth should not be at the expense of the country districts. We should so organize our agricultural affairs that American rural districts might hereafter re- tain a majority of the rural-minded people who now live upon the soil as well as their natural increase from year to year. This would mean the gradual or- ganization of a natural agricultural population, capa- ble of greatly increased production. Then would cease the beguiling call of " back to the land " of those who have already moved away from the land, and who had just as well stay away because they are not by nature rural minded. A Marked Reclamation Service. The fact that the cityward tide has been stemmed in Denmark indicates that a larger degree of prosperity and contentment is coming to rural communities. As a matter of fact, the old Denmark is being made anew by the industry of man. The sand dunes that have been heaped up by the North Sea along the western shore of Jutland are being checked in their inland drift. Great windbreaks of pine and spruce are beginning to check the force of the north- west winds. Vast plantations of evergreens and decidu- ous trees are reclaiming the heather regions at the heart of Jutland, where nothing save ling could grow before. The very waters from the inland bogs are utilized to irrigate the dry upland heath and turn it into productive RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 7 meadow. Everywhere the fields and meadows are kept in a high state of production through careful tilling and fertilization. All barnyard manures are carefully hus- banded and utilized. Great quantities of marl are dug at great labor from deep beds and sprinkled over the fields. Rock phosphates from the United States and elsewhere are also used to coax the soil to produce. Great macadamized turnpikes have drawn the farmsteads close to the markets and made the large traffic in raw materials from farm to town possible and convenient. Free rural delivery and parcels post have long since become indispensable. Rural telephones are common, and in many regions the farm homes and farm schools are lighted with electricity generated by wind power. Remarkable Growth of Cooperative Enterprise. To produce much from the soil is but one side of agricul- ture ; to be able to take these products and place them upon the world markets to the best advantage is quite another matter. But the Danish farmer has solved both the production and the distribution sides of his ag- riculture. In the first place, as will be shown later, the schools, and especially the folk high schools, teach a mutual trust and confidence which have made possible this remarkable development in cooperative enterprise. And no one thing has played a greater part in the agri- cultural prosperity than the spirit of cooperation which prevails on every side. 8 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS More than one thousand and four hundred cooperative stores with several hundred thousand members sell more than $20,000,000 worth of goods annually. In addition, many scores of societies are formed for the joint purchas- ing of feeding stuffs, fertilizers, and such materials, and tools. The selling associations are organized on plans, in many respects, like those that govern the English Rochdale system of stores. The cooperative dairies and cheese factories were the first to give Danish farm industries a name abroad. The first cooperative dairy was started as late as 1882. At the beginning of 1913, no less than eleven hundred and eighty-eight such cooperative plants were busily at work. To those may be added three hundred and twenty-eight private dairies, which makes the total num- ber fifteen hundred and sixteen. About 2,700,000,000 kilograms of milk, making fully 96,500,000 kilograms of butter, are handled in the cooperative plants. One dairy alone " Trifolium " at Haslev, Zealand receives the milk from 12,000 cows, treating at least 28,500,000 kilo- grams of milk. Forty thousand cheeses of fifty varieties are usually stored in the curing cellars of the dairy, which, if put end to end, would cover fully thirteen miles. The small kingdom boasts sixty-four well-established bacon factories of which forty-two are cooperative and managed by the farmers themselves. Practically every farmer belongs to one or another of these enterprises. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 9 It matters not whether he is a small holder and produces only half a dozen pigs a year, or is a big estate owner with his three or four hundred. Last year about 2,000,000 pigs were slaughtered in the cooperative bacon factories, representing a value of fully $31,000,000. This does not take into consideration the slaughtering of beef cattle, which is quite a side industry. Every pig killed for export is carefully inspected by government veter- inarians and must be absolutely free from every trace of disease, or it cannot receive the red government export stamp. This bacon is sold on the English markets in successful competition with the products of the Western Hemisphere. All this work of preparing the pork prod- ucts for the markets, from raising the pig to selling it in London, is done by farmers trained in special courses in the rural schools. Even the exportation of eggs has been organized as a powerful cooperative enterprise. This began in 1895 and is now carried on from five hundred gathering centers. Danish eggs control remarkably high prices abroad because they are scientifically handled and sold under absolute guarantee of being fresh. This is made possi- ble by the branding system in vogue, and the severe regulations under which the eggs are gathered, candled, and packed. Control Unions and Government Breeding Centers. Agricultural effort is systematized and kept at a high IO RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS point of perfection by an army of control union assistants or local agricultural experts, trained in special courses at the rural agricultural schools. These men test the milk for butter fat, instruct in feeding, make soil analyses, and give advice on how to fertilize; they instruct in farm accounting, test cattle for tuberculosis, and in other ways lend a direct assistance to farming. Five hundred and twenty-four such unions are organized at the present time. The importance of this work may be seen in the fact that during the year 1911, the total number of milk cows belonging within the unions gave on the average six hundred pounds of milk, or twenty-three pounds of butter, more each than did the cows not so owned. To systematize, to perfect, and to remove all waste is the endeavor of the control unions. It is a happy indication of an improved agriculture to know that in the United States, too, agricultural advisers are being appointed in many progressive communities. The Danish national government takes an active part in agricultural progress by training large corps of addi- tional experts who do their work at the many experiment stations of the country or out among the farmers. Of great importance are the efforts of the government in operating, or at least giving state aid for, the main- tenance of breeding centers for choice stock. Thus great work is being done for the perfection of the two types of Danish native horses : the heavy Jutish sorrels ORDINARY SPECIMEN OF RED FYEN Cow. GOOD TYPE OF JUTISH SORREL MARE. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS II and the lighter Fredriksborg bays; likewise, the fine black and white Jutish cows and the smaller red Fiinen cows are receiving much attention, as are also the large, white Danish " land swine " the perfection bacon hogs. Nineteen hundred and eleven stock breeding societies have been organized between 1890 and 1913. Their value to agricultural progress can scarcely be overestimated. Parceling Out the Large Estates. The day of land- lordism absentee or otherwise is a thing of the past in Denmark. Since the farmers have learned to direct their own government they have passed laws which forbid the joining of several farms already established. On the other hand, the partition of larger farms or estates into small parcels is encouraged by legislative enactment. The government encourages industrious farm laborers to become landowners, by making direct long-time loans for this purpose at 3 \ or 3 per cent. Local credit unions of farmers are also organized to assist members of the unions to borrow money to invest in land or farm improvements, which money can generally be procured at 4 per cent on the several credit of the organ- ization. This solution of rural credits makes it possible for men of small means to become independent, an opportunity which would be an impossibility under other conditions. Only one fifteenth of the Danish farmers are now tenants or leaseholders, which is quite a re- 12 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS markable condition. At this time 116,614 farms con- tain seven and one fifth acres or less ; 28,992 farms con- tain from eleven and one fourth to twenty-two and one half acres ; 35,257, from thirty- three and three fourths to sixty-seven and one half acres; 6502, from one hundred and thirty-five to two hundred and seventy acres ; and 22 con tarn five hundred and forty acres and over. The latter are the old entailed estates which have not yet been reached by the new land laws. It should be added, however, that during the last few years several of the large estates have been voluntarily parceled out into small holdings. In this way intensive small farming is ever on the increase. Rural Social Life. Two things at least are necessary if one would hold a strong farm population on the soil : one is returns from the soil commensurate with the labor and money invested; the other pertains to the social existence in rural communities. Without the former, no one can be contented to remain there. Denmark has solved this side of the problem. As for the latter, even if agriculture is made reasonably profitable as a calling, such alone will not be sufficient inducement to hold a large productive population on the farms. Daily life there must be kept both humanly interesting and attractive. If the open country cannot offer at least simple social attractions, people will go where they can get them. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 13 In these respects, too, Denmark has been fortunate. There is really no longer any danger of a movement away from the land. Many of the social problems con- fronting us in American rural communities have been cleared away. First of all, the great working factors in country life the school and church have been able to hold their own against urban influence. Strong churches and well-organized schools in charge of devoted and well-trained men who are giving their lives to the work hi the open country, live there as permanent cita- dels against any outside aggression. Much of the social life in the community is inspired by these institutions. Pastors and teachers have their share in the remarkably effective extension work emanating from the folk high schools and local agricultural schools. Because the social and recreative life is in the main directed from these sources, it is generally wholesome. Each country parish has its own assembly hall and gymnasium. The former is used for extension-course lectures, by the local singing union, and for matters of a similar nature. The latter holds high place hi Danish rural life. The gym- nasium, in fact, is the center of the athletic and play activities of the community. Gymnastics is compulsory in all the rural schools, and is continued at home after the close of school life. It is not uncommon to see graybeards among the drilling youngsters, turning hand- springs and vaulting the horse with the best of them. 14 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Such activities keep the farm hearts eternally young! Another unique organization of the farmers is the so- called skytteforeninger or sharpshooters' associations. These were founded years ago as patriotic volunteer organizations, to hold themselves in readiness for the eventualities of war. With the passage of time these clubs also have become centers for much of the commu- nity's social life. Last of mention, the schools are training young men and women for a varied rural artisanship. The small- holders' schools, especially, are doing a good work here. Carpenters and masons who take special interest in rural architecture, weavers, cobblers, and others who live and do their work in the country or rural hamlets, all add their fraction to rural life betterment. It is well to remember that in the United States we had at one time a twofold social life in rural districts. There were the soil tillers, pure and simple, and the group of artisans down at the crossroads the blacksmith, wheelwright, cabinetmaker, cobbler, weaver, and so on who repre- sented an important part of our early social life. These have long ago disappeared, being forced to the cities because of inability to compete with the ma- chine-made wares there. Whether our schools or other forces shall be able to reconstruct such an artisan- ship, or whether this is at all desirable, is quite another question. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 15 A Correct Outlook on Life. Danish farmers have learned to take the right outlook on life. They have learned in a generation that agricultural life need not be complementary of city life ; but that it can be complete in itself. Such farmers are no longer subject to news- paper cartooning or witty lampooning. They have found their strength and are exerting it in a wholesome way for national improvement. With the conquest of the soil came new, hitherto unknown, powers. The schools pointed the way. In order best to handle the products of the soil, good laws were necessary. This led the way to politics. The radical or left party, which is composed mainly of small and middle- class farmers, is now in full control of the government and the Rigsdag. Practically the entire cabinet, from the prime minister down, are men from rural communities. And most of the progressive agricultural and social legislation enacted in recent years can be traced to the radical party. In order fully to make clear the remarkable changes that have been wrought in recent years, the beginnings of the agricultural evolution must be told at this point. The Changes of a Century. The middle of the eight- eenth century found Danish agriculture in a deplorable condition. The bulk of tillable lands had, down through the times, become centered in an arrogant, landholding nobility or in the Crown. Not many of the one-time powerful free landed peasantry had been strong enough 1 6 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to survive the changeable times of the Middle Ages as independent landowners. A majority of them had been forced into a condition of serfdom, under which they must remain on the estate where they were born from the age of four to thirty-five. After this period of bondage had expired they were obliged, under law, to rent land lots from their recent overlords on conditions most intolerable. Among other burdens, they were subject to Hoveri, or working a specific number of days weekly at the head estate. In addition, they were ground down by heavy tithings. And personal initiative was curbed by the system, then hi vogue, of working the soil in com- mon. The soil was poorly managed, and science in agriculture unknown. Even the national government seemed deliberately to discriminate against the struggling peasants through unfair legislation especially hi the form of exorbitant export duties. To fill the cup of the peasants' despair, a virulent cattle plague swept the country and closed the markets of Hamburg against live cattle, their one chief export. In the middle of one of Copenhagen's most prominent thoroughfares stands a rather plain obelisk called Friheds Stbtte or liberty monument. It was erected to com- memorate the freeing of the serfs in 1788. On the one side it bears the inscription : " The King Saw that Civic Freedom Fixed in Righteous Law Gives Love of Country, Courage for Its Defense, Desire for Knowledge, Longing RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS 17 for Industry, Hope of Prosperity " ; and on the other, " The King Bade that Serfdom Should Cease ; that to the Landlaws Should Be Given Order and Might, that the Free Peasant May Become Brave and Enlightened, Industrious and Good, an Honorable Citizen, in Hap- piness." These words of wisdom and prophecy have been fully justified by a century of attainment on the part of the freedmen. The first reforms had already come in 1781, when communism in landholding was abandoned. Three years later the great Crown estates were parceled out ; then, in 1788, serfdom came to an end. Export duties were lifted on corn and cattle, and the government established a credit fund to help the new smallholders get on their feet. This period of reform wrought wonders in the life of the people. Much progress was made in agriculture. The public schools were improved and intelligence grew apace. Then came the Napoleonic wars, carrying with them widespread national ruin. The war left Denmark politically crushed. Its fleets were gone and with them its power at sea ; Norway was lost for good, leaving a shrunken geographical area and a discouraged people. As soon as the embargoes on foodstuffs were lifted, grain prices fell below the cost of production. The period 1823 to 1825 saw a great crisis in the agricultural life of the nation. More than one third of all the big estates went under the hammer and l8 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS changed hands. Once more patriotic leaders came to the rescue and brought about additional reforms which gave gradual relief. The second great national shock came with the dis- astrous German war of 1864. A struggle, long drawn and embittered by national differences, had culminated in 1848 in a desperate war between Denmark and the rebellious duchies of Slesvig and Holsten. For the time being, Denmark came out victorious. But the fires of bitterness fed by race differences were kept alive. In North Slesvig, where an overwhelming number of the people were Danish-speaking, the officials were German sympathizers and did all they could to stir contention and strife. At this critical time the first folk high school in history a kind of school which, as will be shown later, has been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the rehabilitation of rural Denmark was established at Rodding (1844), just a few miles south of the present boundary between Germany and Denmark. Thus we see the first of these schools took root in patriotic seed- ground. Around it was waged a bitter struggle for national existence ; and when Slesvig became foreign soil at the close of the war, the school was moved bodily from Rodding to Vejen on the Danish side of the border, where under the name of A skov Folkehojskole it became the alma mater of the folk high schools of the land. MINDt OH A-NDJCLSSACEKSTROOLSTL VtU RtlJT AEDANSKC AHPCL^fORCNINGER SVEND HOGSBRO, THE FATHER OF DANISH COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE. Monument erected to his memory by Danish cooperative associations. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING RECENT YEARS IQ But when all seemed lost and the nation was sinking in a lethargy of despair, new voices were heard in the land. A new philosophy was being promulgated; it taught that education must become universal, practical, and democratic, and that hereafter Denmark's defense must be built on the foundation of broad intelligence rooted in the love of God and home and native land. The father of the new philosophy was Bishop Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig. Aided by Kristen Kold and others, he laid the foundation to the folk high schools, mentioned above. The elementary schools, too, felt the new influence and strove to answer the needs of the new times. The people were eager to listen and to act. The new spirit expressed itself in more ways than in schools. E. M. Dalgas and his co-workers began the gigantic task of reforesting the heather lands of Jutland and of draining the bogs and irrigating the upland heaths. In a lifetime almost as much tillable land has been re- claimed as was lost to the enemy. C. F. Tietgen became the chief spirit in a movement to reorganize commerce and manufactures; and Svend Hogsbro, more recently, and others with him, have drawn the farmers into a remarkable system of cooperative buying, producing, and selling associations, which are now the envy and marvel of the world. A new era of national prosperity came into being in which a scientific agriculture is the most important economic factor. Indeed, fully 88 per cent 20 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of the country's export trade falls under the head of " agricultural produce," while manufactures, other than farm products, represents only 8 per cent, and fishing 4 per cent. CHAPTER H THE STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAND A Conservation that is remaking the Nation. The previous chapter gave, in general terms, the history of the Danish agricultural transformation, and hinted at the part played in this great work by the unique school system of the land. In the following pages it is the purpose to give some of the details of the splendid enter- prise and stubborn perseverance that is gradually reclaiming for civilization hundreds of square miles of land that had for ages been considered irretrievably lost. When Slesvig and Holsten passed from the nation, in 1864, it became clear to all who loved the dismembered fatherland that now every foot of untilled land must be reclaimed and put under the plow. What had been lost could be regained by making heath and moor and sandy dune bear their share in sheltering and feeding the nation. And all this has come to pass. For half a cen- tury the work has gone forward, carefully and effec- tively, without any blare of publicity. Private phi- lanthropy has vied with public liberality in being the first afield and doing the most. Some of the choicest 22 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS spirits of the land have given their time and substance in the great cause. In places where the heather held sway only two score years ago proud monuments are now being reared to these heroes in the midst of splendid green forest and fertile meadow and who would exchange such a memorial with that of the greatest war hero of all time ! These men have done their work well they have remade the soil and have at the same time taught their fellows that the land is holy and must be treated as such ! The truth has gradually taken root that the fundamental wealth of the nation must come from the soil, and that to conserve this wealth and add to it, is the sacred duty and privilege of every free-born man and woman ! The Jutish Heath in Olden Time. Before the work of reclamation began Jutland was a land of barren heath, of moor and bog, of great stretches of sand, with here and there an oasis of fertile soil, especially where the fjords penetrate to the heart of the land. The east third of the peninsula only had a better soil and was reasonably well protected from the bleak winds sweeping the heath. But Jutland was not always bleak and sere and poor. Two or three thousand years ago it was populated by a numerous folk belonging to the Stone Age and, later, to the Bronze Age. Their burial mounds and works of war and peace lie in continuous chains from coast to STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 23 coast. At that time the heath was covered with great forests of fir and oak, where the prehistoric people hunted, and under their shelter tilled the soil and raised herds of cattle and sheep. This early race has passed away, but mounds of stone and earth stand to tell the story. Later civilization followed the path broken by the Stone Age men. When Christianity came, churches sprang up in the heart of Jutland, close by the ancient tumuli. But Jutland was the battle ground of the cen- turies. Here German and Dane met in bloody combat, and here, for ages, feuds and civil wars of Danish chiefs were fought. When the distress was at its greatest and the people least able to make successful resistance, the Black Death invaded Denmark. The pestilence at one fell stroke changed the whole of central Jutland. Towns were emptied of human inhabitants and the fields went uncultivated. The heather sprang up and choked out the work of human hands. Where there were populous towns at one time, dim outlines only of foundation walls may now occasionally be found deeply hidden under the heather. The work of destruction begun by the Black Death was later completed by man and the elements. The ax and the keen west winds aided one another in completing the devastation. Thoughtless man, eager for gain, hewed down the forest and neglected to replant it. The winds swept triumphantly across the land ; the heather closed 24 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS in upon the roots of the remaining trees and killed them. Then the last of the grass and corn plants had to retreat and the curse of barrenness was upon the heath. Indeed, thereafter, for centuries no man would cross its far- stretching desolation who could escape it. The land had become the abiding place only for outlaw and wild beast. First Attempts at Reclaiming the Soil. During the eighteenth century the friends of conservation made several attacks on the heath, but it proved too strong for their crude methods. The most interesting as well as most expensive of these experiments was the calling in of one thousand German colonists, in 1759. These people were taxed with the stupendous task of putting the land under cultivation again, by marling and planting, draining and irrigating. Everything was furnished them by the government ; colony towns were built, and churches with German pastors were opened. But it was all in vain. The climate was inhospitable and the soil unyielding. By degrees the disheartened colonists drifted back to Germany or to more friendly regions in Denmark. In 1790 the Government began systematic experiments in tree planting, but little came of the work because no one yet understood how to treat the soil and just what trees to plant. The Government used the common Danish firs, but these could not thrive under the present hard conditions. During the first half of the nineteenth century, Steen STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 25 Steensen Blicher, the Danish heather poet, roamed the length and breadth of the ling with dog and gun. In those days he could go for miles without seeing a human being, and would be alone with the skylarks and his dreams of how Denmark should once again populate the dreary wastes. When he died in 1848, the saga of the heath was almost complete. A new generation of men, and chief among them Col. E. M. Dalgas, well versed in all that recent science had to offer, began a well- planned attack against which the heath could not make successful resistance. Dalgas and the Danish Heather Society. In March of 1866, Col. E. M. Dalgas and a small group of other national-spirited men, among whom might be mentioned Mourier Petersen, Drewsen, and Morville, met and organized the Danish Heather Society (Det Danske Hedeselskab), which had as its sole purpose to redeem for the fatherland, through works of peace upon the land, the humiliating losses of the recent war. Thoughts of personal gain had nothing whatever to do with the stu- pendous undertaking and that is the right term to use, for these men had taken upon themselves the con- quest of a land area that, if successful, would add fully one fifth to the tillable area of the nation ! At the time of writing the society has a membership of sixty-five hundred and draws from State subsidies and private sources aid to the amount of 450,000 kroner 26 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS annually. The work is very comprehensive and is di- rected in many channels. A certain section of the soci- ety devotes all its energies to reforestation ; a second sec- tion concerns itself with making the heath arable through the application of marl, lime, fertilizers, and proper cul- tivation ; a third drains the bogs and curbs the overflow of the rivers and develops the peat industry; and a fourth looks after irrigation and the height of the surface water. The association holds about seven thousand hectares of plantation in its own name and supervises the development of 73,000 hectares of privately owned land. A number of important experiment stations are main- tained where the public may seek assistance on any phase of reclamation work desired. When the society was organized in the 6o's, Jutland alone had two thousand and sixty-five square miles of barren upland heath, three hundred and sixty-five square miles of bog, and two hundred miles of sand dunes. In 1896, this area had already been reduced to twelve hundred and seventy-five square miles of heath, one hundred and fifty square miles of bog, and one hundred and forty-two square miles of sand dunes. This means that in thirty years almost one half of the entire area had been reclaimed a remarkable showing, indeed. Since then even more rapid progress has been made. When Dalgas died a few years ago, twenty-five hundred square miles of land in Jutland and the islands hitherto REFORESTING THE HEATHER. A twenty-eight-year-old heather plantation at Birkebaek, Jutland. The nurse growth of mountain fir has been cut away to give the red spruce a better chance for life. STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 27 dominated by " the evil principle " had been reclaimed and converted into forest, field, and meadow, and new industries established in naval stores, wood gas, and lumber results which challenge the world. Reforesting the Heath. It is of especial interest to Americans to know just how the Danes got their forests to grow. Our own Government, it may be recalled, recently threw open to settlement large tracts of land in the State of Nebraska, which had for some years be- longed to the National Forest Reserve. The ostensible reason for doing this was that evergreens could not be made to grow on these sandy hills. The experiment at reclamation was given up as a failure because results were slow to come. If the Danes had been no more per- severing than we have been in this experiment, the west winds might have been allowed to blow forever un- hindered across the heath. Red spruce is the desideratum of all the Danish tree planting. But it cannot be coaxed to grow in the raw heath alone. It must have a nurse tree. Hard experience has taught this. Mountain firs are the har- diest of all evergreens. They will grow in the sand and in the sour turf. The procedure is briefly this : the heath turf is broken, and then plowed a second time. This gives it a chance to air out, and nitrogen becomes avail- able. Then the whole is thoroughly subsoiled with a Hanoverian subsoiler. It is quite desirable to marl 28 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS the surface in order to neutralize the acidity of the soil. In many places, indeed, this is essential to success. The whole is now ready for the planting to begin. A few years ago it was customary to plant the whole in red spruce ; but after a few years they would become stunted in their growth, making no perceptible headway. The red spruce, for some cause, did not have the power to gather from the atmosphere and heather soil the neces- sary amount of nitrogen to make them thrive. They were, accordingly, planted in a mixture with French mountain firs which were known to have a remarkable nitrogen-fixing capacity. The experiment proved success- ful so far as infusing new life into the red spruce is con- cerned. The starved plantations turned green and flour- ished. An examination of the root structure disclosed the fact that large masses of bacterial nodules similar to those on the mountain firs were forming at the roots of the red spruce, which had none such while growing alone. But the mountain firs were fast outgrow- ing the red spruce and threatened to smother them. Then the query rose, Would the spruce now continue to grow if the firs were cut away ? After due experimenta- tion this proved to be the fact. The red spruce could get along without its nurse tree once the start had been made. It is now customary to cut down the firs as soon as they begin to crowd the spruce noticeably. But they are not permitted to go to waste, as they are ad- STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 29 mirable for naval stores, wood gas, charcoal, mine props, and posts. In 1862, the total forest area of Jutland was two hun- dred and eighteen and four tenths square miles. At the present time it comprises seven hundred and two square miles. This takes into consideration compact areas of plantation chiefly. Then there are windbreaks and hedges of mountain fir and hardy white and Sitka spruce, which form a continuous checkerboard on the surface of the heath. A few years more and the open heather will have passed for good. An interesting fact is this, that an association of Danish- Americans recently collected, in the United States, a fund which was used to purchase a tract of the old Jutish Heath to be set aside and pre- served for coming generations. This bit of sentiment shows that the Danes themselves feel that the end of the struggle is almost at hand. Reclamation by regulating Height of Surface Water. It was stated in the last chapter that all Denmark rises only a few feet above the ocean level. As a natural consequence of this, its rivers are sluggish and tortuous in their windings, and the peninsula and islands have many lakes, marshes, and fens. To straighten the rivers and, by science, regulate the height of their water so as to reclaim for cultivation bordering lowlands and marshes has been another of the interesting works of the Danish Heather Society, which has extended its 30 work in recent years to embrace the islands as well as the peninsula. Annually recurring high water has been the cause of much loss to crops along the river courses. To remedy this condition, the Heather Society has undertaken and carried to successful execution no less than one hundred and twelve such projects to regulate the height of the surface water, thereby reclaiming immediately 54,460 acres of excellent bottom land. This is usually done by straightening the river bed to increase its fall and by deepening the channel to lower the height of the water, which is kept normally as near as possible three to five feet below the level of the adjacent land. The great value of this water to the process of surface evaporation and capillarity is well understood. To keep it from falling too low at certain seasons, substantial retaining locks are built at stated intervals. For every such new conquest in land there is rejoicing throughout the kingdom. When Skals River, or, as the Danes call it, Skalsaa, was regulated in this way several years ago, the daily press had this to say about the opening : " One of the happiest events that we ever have to record in the acquisition of fresh territory within the boundaries of our native land. Barren heaths are brought under cultivation. Useless pools and swamps are turned into pastures and arable land. This means that in the future more men can find a home and earn STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 31 their daily bread in their own country. Such an increase of territory has taken place during the last two years as a result of the regulation of the course of Skalsaa." This small river leaves Lake Tusing near Randers and winds along almost imperceptibly for some forty-four miles, emptying into an arm of Limf jord. The method of procedure has been to clean out and deepen the channel and to cut through the excessive windings. By this process the river bed has been shortened by almost ten miles, and its surface level has been lowered between two and five feet. The width of the river has been re- duced to a channel ranging from twenty-five to fifty feet, its depth is from five to eight feet. Twenty-seven retaining locks regulate the height of water. At an outlay of 250,000 kroner an area of 14,500 acres has been reclaimed, giving an increase in value of at least 4,000,000 kroner. In other parts of Jutland the lowlands are being protected against floods by river dikes similar to the Mississippi levees. The most recent project of this kind now getting under way is a redoubtable one to wrest the old tidal meadows near Ribe in southwest Jutland from the North Sea by erecting great dikes for miles along the shore line. So the work goes ever onward and in a short while even the ocean storm flood will be denied and held in check by the prowess of man. Irrigation and Drainage. Two hundred and twenty- five miles of irrigation canals the work of a few years 32 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS penetrate into the heart of the upland moor. Many thousand acres have thus been transformed from barren- ness to great fruitfulness. The author had the pleasure to see the work of transformation at Hesselvig near Hern- big, where a one-time desolate heath has been changed to beautiful meadow, field, and forest in a surprisingly short time. Nearly all the irrigation projects take ad- vantage of gravity for conducting the water. In some instances water wheels, windmills, and even steam en- gines are used to lift the water to higher levels. There are even cases in which bog water from draining proj- ects is used to irrigate the moor. Bogs and marshes which have no natural outlets are pumped dry and then kept free from water by a series of windmills of great power and occasionally by steam and petroleum engines. Making the Soil. To drain the lowlands and irrigate the upland moors is only the first step in the reclamation process. The " evil principle " must be removed. This means that the sour lowland soil must be given the necessary treatment to make it fit for cultivation by neutralizing its acidity and adding such soil ingredients as it may lack. The higher and drier uplands generally are in need of most of the great elements of fertility, which must be brought to them before they are fit for use. The lowlands are rich in nitrogen, but have prac- tically no potash and phosphorus. Of these, the former STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 33 is imported from the kali mines of Germany, and most of the latter come from the mineral phosphate beds of Florida. Lime and marl come from native supply. The barnyard fertilizers are carefully husbanded in large cemented reservoirs, and the liquid manures are kept in underground cisterns. The latter is carefully sprinkled in due season over the meadow and plowlands, so that nothing is lost. Without marl or lime the heath cannot become arable. Fortunate, therefore, are the heath dwellers who chance to live close to good marl beds. If the marl proves of poor quality or in scant quantities, life cannot thrive. The Heather Society and similar organizations have men the so-called marl seekers who devote all their time to finding new deposits. The author was crossing the heath on one occasion, when he chanced upon an excited group of men at work, drawing a long, slim auger from the ground. They were the marl seekers. One of them poured a few drops of acid on the fine core of soil that had just been raised from the ground. All with one voice exclaimed : "It bubbles, thank God for that ! " Yes, if it bubbles, it is marl and means inexpensive fer- tilization of the soil. The Heather Society has found fully seventeen hundred marl deposits, and the Government lends its aid by transporting it at very low cost over the state-owned railways. The Society also owns many miles of movable roadbeds and hundreds of cars, using steam, petroleum, and horse power as motive force. If the heart of the heath is to be attacked and no marl can be found there, one of these narrow-gauge movable tracks is laid in ready-made sections, and the life-giving sub- stance is soon at hand ready for use. In the islands the soil is better than in Jutland, as most of it has been under cultivation for ages. Even here soil experiment stations are found in large numbers. Every man learns to take advantage of this scientific assistance and early in life learns just what his land requires. The average Dane knows the significance of the phrase, the soil is holy. For every crop taken from it he strives to put back into it fertilizers at least equal to what was taken out. In Denmark, he is con- sidered the best farmer who hands over to his children his acres stronger and better than he got them from his own father. Lessons for American Agriculture. The Danish motto is to use all the land, abuse none of it, and treat it well because it is holy. Our forefathers who settled along the Atlantic seaboard may have been religious men in their own way, but they certainly did not apply the teachings of the Pentateuch in the way in which Moses had in- tended they should be applied ; for in New England and the South alike they drew the virgin fertility from the land without putting anything back into the soil. Perhaps in those days it was impracticable to do otherwise, as new STRUGGLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND 35 lands cost little or nothing, and could be taken into use as soon as the older ones were worn out. At any rate it is high time now to conserve what we have left and reclaim and remake what has been worn out. The old Northeast has its thousands of deserted farms and the cotton kingdom has hundreds of square miles of land at one time rich plantations, now overrun by jack pines and sassafras. These must be reclaimed, all of them. We have exploited the riches of nature in the past. But now there is a marked sentiment that all this must end, and a distinct movement is already under way, North, South, East, and West, to usher in this period of real husbandry farming which is at our doors. This new period will demand masterful men with the desire for real conquest in them. Scientific farming is not a simple business and needs well-prepared men and women. With the ordinary chance farming, and blind resignation and fatalism, of which there has been too much in the rural communities of all countries and of which the United States has its full share little headway can be made. Denmark was no exception to the rule. But in the fullness of time the country saw the fatal mistake or was forced to see it and the great change came. The American nation can well profit by the lesson that little Denmark teaches. It will be a great thing to meet these agricultural needs now while we yet are a young people and the virgin 36 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS wealth of the soil is still in great measure unexploited. In the United States, too, properly applied education will play the master rdle in this greatest of human enterprises. CHAPTER III THE IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATION IN THE DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM General Statement. When one takes into considera- tion the deplorable conditions under which the Danish peasantry formerly lived, the arrogance with which the land-owning nobility treated them, the injustice of the land laws, and their own lack of education and scientific train- ing, it is hard to realize how they should have become, almost over-night, the leaders that they are in scientific agricultural production and distribution. And, assuredly, this could not have come to pass had it not been for the leavening and elevating influence of their remarka- ble rural schools and especially of the folk high schools. Many European nations have excellent rural schools; but few, if any, can boast a system which reaches and benefits all classes without distinction so thoroughly, in just such a way as does the Danish. The folk high schools have disseminated among all the country folk a broad general culture which has enabled them to rise out of self and local trivialities to see the world in large perspective. The schools have helped them to think and 37 38 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS reason for themselves and have called forth a strong unifying fellow feeling, which has made the people trust one another, which in turn has made it possible and easy for them to work together in common purpose. Extreme Thoroughness of the Preparatory Steps. - The entire agricultural reorganization has been accom- plished by these intelligent farmers themselves. To be sure, scientists among them have been responsible for many great forward strides ; but even they belong to the agricultural class at the same time that they are their representatives, paving the way for new things in the agricultural schools, in the laboratories, or at the experi- ment farms. " One is struck," says Jessie Brochner, " by the extreme thoroughness of all preparatory work, by the variety of fields that have been made subject to practical and exhaustive investigation. Comparative tests in almost every department of agriculture and dairy farming have tended to show the true merits of methods, of breeds, of machinery, of seeds, etc., and have enabled the farmer to apply the rational rule of three to many an old routine. The Danish farmer not only knows what he is doing, but he knows why he is doing it." l American Agricultural Schools have up to very re- cently devoted their energies to the production side of agriculture almost exclusively. There has been and 1 Jessie Brochner, "Danish Life in Town and Country," p. 204. COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 39 still is a great need of intelligent production from the soil of our country. But it is quite noticeable that the leading schools are beginning to lay considerable stress on the preparation of farm products for the markets and the actual marketing of them. This is indeed a happy sign. Before the American farmer can hope to get much more for his labor than he is now getting, he must learn the role of handling his own products. But this lesson will come hard. It is certain to be a slow one. It will likely begin as a leaven and work its way outward from a few especially favored centers. The American nation lacks the homogeneity of the Danish people. The comparative newness of the land and its plenty, the long distances between farms, and the natural wanderlust towards the setting sun all these must be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, it is interesting to see what agricultural Denmark has been able to accomplish in the field of cooperative enterprise. Buying and Selling Societies. The Danish system of cooperative societies is very much like the English Rochdale enterprises, with this marked exception, that while the English societies are almost wholly confined to the towns, in Denmark the opposite is true. Of the 230,000 members all but about 2 per cent live in rural districts. This means that practically every farm house- hold is vitally interested in one or more such stores. If 40 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS the Danish farmers did not purchase direct their fodder stuffs, fertilizers, seeds, machinery, and such things, but should have to pay a middleman's profit, their whole system would collapse. There are great numbers of these societies some large, others small. The largest, The Joint Cooperative Society for Danish Cooperative Stores, which has thirteen hundred auxiliaries, turned over, last year, goods to the amount of $16,000,000. Another The Jutish Cooperative Society for the Purchase of Fodder Stuffs has a membership of 34,000 and purchased, hi 1913, goods amounting to $7,500,000. A third, The Danish Cooperative Society for the Pur- chase of Fertilizers, with six hundred and seventy auxiliaries, imported from Germany, the United States, and South America, 47,000,000 kilograms of chemicals and mineral fertilizers, during the same period. The success of all such societies in Denmark is trace- able to their practical organization, and the intelligence and general integrity of their management. They are all genuinely cooperative, being based on the man- vote principle explained below. Importance of Cooperative Dairying. All Danish cooperative dairies are founded on the rock of faith in one another's word of honor. When the farmers organize a dairy, they pledge themselves to furnish a given amount of milk annually for a specified number of years. This pledge is never broken. The association borrows its ON THE WAY TO THE CREAMERY. A loaded double decker and a triple decker of empties. A TYPICAL FARMERS' COOPERATIVE CREAMERY. Nearly seventeen hundred such creameries are in operation at this time. COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 41 capital on the joint credit of its members who severally sign the obligations of the association, each limiting his responsibility to a specified amount. A board of mana- gers is then chosen, which elects directors and the chief " butter maker." The enterprise is cooperative in the truest sense of the word, being based on the man-vote principle that is, each man has only one vote whether he furnishes much or little milk, whether he has obligated himself for much or little of the indebtedness. The members receive semi-monthly pay checks for milk supplied. Semi-annual dividends are declared on actual profits. When a specified number of years has elapsed generally not more than twenty-eight the accumu- lated property may be divided among the stockholders according to the amount of original liability undertaken by the various members; or the business may be con- tinued for another twenty-eight years, and so on. Of the cooperative dairies, which came under the writer's notice, the largest, though in some respects not the most typical, was the Trifolium Dairy and Butter Factory near the center of Zealand. This is a very large plant, beautifully kept, supplied with all the latest mod- ern machinery and many new contrivances which are con- stantly being made in Denmark to supply dairy needs. Trifolium receives the milk from 12,000 cows, treating at least 28,500,000 kilograms of milk; 40,000 cheeses of fifty varieties were stored in the curing cellars of the 42 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS dairy at the time of the visit. These, if put end to end, would cover something like thirteen miles, which should give one a good idea of the size of the plant. Besides making butter and cheese this plant sends specially bottled milk to the great Copenhagen Supply Company and furnishes other associations as far south as Berlin pure milk for young babies. About five thousand pounds of butter are churned daily. It was of great interest to watch the manufacture of Swiss cheese. Many of these weigh from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds, needing at least nineteen hundred pounds of milk for a single cheese ! The whey from this cheese is passed through a separator, which takes out whatever butter fat is left over ; and it is considerable. This is then churned into a second-grade butter. The remaining whey is thereupon made into a peculiar brownish sweet cheese called in Scandinavia " Myseost." In great heated caldrons, the whey is stirred and gradually evaporated, leaving a thick brownish mass, which is sweetened and pressed into cheese forms. This shows how carefully everything is managed so that nothing shall be wasted. The farmers of this association borrowed the original capital from savings banks at 3! per cent, the plant, at the time of the visit, representing an investment of one million kroner. The expectations are that in twenty years from the time of its founding the enterprise will COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 43 have paid out the original investment. Then the plant will belong to the organizers to do with as they please. Not a single instance has ever come to notice in the history of Danish dairying wherein those who helped to organize it did not get a reasonable semi-annual dividend, besides a good market price for their milk. In addition to this, most of them will have the plant clear of all encumbrance within a score of years. In this way they are paid liberally for their risk and trouble. In 1909, the country's collective number of milk cows was 1,282,254, of which 83 per cent, or 1,059,956, were cows on farms delivering milk to the cooperative dairies. The total milk production was 3,400,000,000 kilograms, making an average of twenty-five hundred and seventy kilograms per cow. The milk production proved to be considerably larger per cow on the small farms than on the larger ones. It is interesting to note the strict regulations under which the milk is prepared for the dairies. These demand that the utmost care be taken during the process of milk- ing, and that the milk be perfectly clean and properly chilled. The managers will discard all milk that shows the slightest degree of impurity or uncleanness. All the milk is pasteurized to assure the destruction of germ life. Cooperative Bacon Factories rapidly Increasing. Scarcely of less importance than the dairy industry is the bacon production. The bacon factories are organized 44 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS generally by the farmers who form man- vote associations. This organization is very similar to that of the dairy. At the annual or semi-annual meeting, whatever profits are made during the year are divided among the members according to the number of pounds of pork, dressed weight, furnished by each. Very often these factories are able to give their members not only the highest market price, or something more than the regular market price, but give besides, in the form of dividends, three and one half ore, or about one cent per pound for their products. All this is in addition to setting aside a considerable reserve to take care of the original funded indebtedness. Practically all the fine bacon goes to England, where the Danish inspection stamp is accepted without question. The writer visited a typical bacon factory of this kind at Haslev, Zealand. The association has a membership of thirteen hundred and fifty, drawing support from a radius of ten or twelve English miles. The members range from large owners who furnish several hundred head of hogs per year down to the smallholders with their two or three. Any one may belong by solemnly giving his word of honor to furnish all or a certain per cent of his annual output of hogs. The organizing capital of the Haslev plant was borrowed in part from members who had money to lend. This does not, how- ever, give these men more control in the association than the smallholder with his two hogs. When we begin COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 45 to organize our cooperative concerns on the man-vote principle in the United States instead of the old joint stock company idea, which so often ends by one or more enterprising geniuses forcing the small members out, these enterprises will prosper better than they do now. The actual number of hogs handled by the Haslev farmers last year was 24,433. They sold meat products to the amount of 1,848,582 kroner, most of which was placed upon the English markets. The organizers received the highest market price for these products in addition to which 19,326 kroner was distributed as profits, and nearly four thousand kroner set aside for the sinking fund. This factory also handled, free of charge to its members, 170,000 pounds of eggs, yielding on the mar- ket 98,000 kroner. The Danish bacon swine must not weigh more than one hundred and eighty pounds dressed weight. At the Haslev factory the average for the year was just one hundred and thirty-three and two tenths pounds. A premium of one ore per pound is paid for hogs weighing between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and forty pounds, dressed. The inspection is especially thorough. Expert veteri- narians, trained and appointed by the government, have absolute charge of the factory. Every carcass exported must be entirely free from disease, no matter how trifling. During the year, thirteen hundred and eighty-one seem- 46 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS ingly good hogs were refused the exportation stamp in this factory. Of these, one thousand and fourteen received the blue stamp which signifies a minor ailment that does not interfere with domestic use ; two hundred and seventy-eight received the black stamp and were condemned except for specific purposes; eighty-nine were condemned as entirely unfit for food. This rigid inspection, together with the fact that only the finest young swine, fed according to the rules of the National Swine Association, are used, explain the great popularity of Danish bacon abroad. Science in Egg Exportation. The exportation of eggs is the last of the three most important Danish agricul- tural industries. Almost every man and woman in the country belongs to one of the many gathering associa- tions. At the time of becoming a member, each one is pledged solemnly to furnish only fresh, candled eggs. If the pledge is broken, the member may be put under arrest and severely fined. The result is that no bad eggs are ever brought to the gathering stations. The Danish exporter has long ago learned that large white eggs are the most popular abroad. At the large breeding centers of poultry the effort is now being made to produce a cross between the black Minorcas and the Leghorns to supply this demand. Every member of a gathering station has his own number or mark ; the station, also, has its number. The gathering stations send all their COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 47 eggs to one of the great export centers at Copenhagen, Esbjerg, or elsewhere. Here the eggs are carefully classified according to size, shape, and color, and placed in nice boxes containing a dozen or a score. They are trademarked and shipped to the English markets and sold to the best hotels and private families at surprisingly large prices. Indeed, this enterprise has taken on such proportions that very few eggs produced in Denmark are consumed at home. It is common to import eggs from Finland, Scandinavia, or Russia to supply home con- sumption. In other words, the Danes have developed this enterprise to such limits that it actually pays to send the home product out and bring the foreign product in, paying transportation charges two ways, and yet having a wide margin for the trouble. Just how have the Danes been able to control the markets wherever they have seriously tried ? No doubt the answer is this : through the excellence of the product offered for sale and the attractiveness with which they have been marketed. The determining factor, more than anything else, is the guaranty of quality which may always be relied upon. In the matter of bacon products, for example, the Danish government is never known to have permitted unsound hogs to pass the gauntlet of its veterinarians ; the national reputation and honor is staked on these things, hence the popularity and high place of Danish agricultural products abroad. 48 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Satisfactory Rural Credits. It is often pointed out that short- time tenantry is one of the greatest banes of modern agriculture. One of the many reasons for loss of agricultural population in the United States is the fact that many boys who are really steeped in a knowledge of the soil, find themselves forced to desert the country community because of the increasing difficulty of pro- curing land, due to rising land values and particularly to high interest rates. Many of these are of too big a caliber to be satisfied to remain on the land as tenants. They consequently move to town, where opportunities for leadership are more promising. Judging by the present activity in many circles of government, the American people may expect very soon to get substantial relief in the form of satisfactory rural credits for the sturdy, rural-minded youths who are eager to remain in the open country, if conditions for land ownership can be made more tolerable. Denmark has a system of rural credits that has made it possible for more than 75,000 families to become free- holders, who would otherwise have remained day laborers in the country or else would have been absorbed in the city maelstrom. Besides this, the system makes it easy for any farmer, be he big or small, to borrow funds at such low rates for long-time periods that he can afford to develop his holdings to the highest degree of efficiency. COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 49 The State Smallholdings. At this point it is well to consider briefly the Danish " Law for the Creation of Smallholdings." Who may take advantage of it? Just how does it operate ? Any person, twenty-five years of age or over who has had five years' experience in farming and can satisfy the government as to his character, may under the law of 1909 select a piece of land then upon the market, not less than three acres, the farm, including stock and other equipment, not to cost in excess of eight thousand kroner and preferably not above six thousand five hun- dred. Of this amount the government will lend, up to nine tenths, money which is to be repaid within ninety- eight years (interest at 3 per cent). Applications are considered in the order in which they are filed. The number of loans made depends upon the amount annually made available for this purpose. At this time, the government actually pays 3^ per cent for the money lent to the smallholders at 3 per cent, but the general feeling is that the nation at large can well afford to pay the difference in order that " all men may get their legs under their own table." To date, the national govern- ment has loaned in all $25,000,000, of which it has lost less than $10,000. The Danish Credit Unions. In all instances where the funds are provided by the Government, the bene- ficiaries are called " state smallholders." There are E 50 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS now many thousands of these in Denmark. But the country has also what may be termed " natural small- holders," being farmers of small means who are generally financed by some one of the many credit unions so common throughout the kingdom. These organizations are not banks as commonly understood ; but a number of farmers unite to form the " union," making use of their aggregate credit to help those of their numbers who may need funds. The borrower simply executes a mortgage on his land in favor of the credit union, which thereupon issues a bond to the borrower, who sells this upon the open market much the same as stocks and bonds are sold in our country. In such a way the funds are secured. These loans are for long time and draw 4 per cent interest. For the past fiscal year the thirteen most important Danish Credit Unions showed resources amounting to 1,764,200,000 kroner with liabilities of 1,617,000,000 kroner, leaving a reserve fund of 66,500,000 kroner. It ought to be stated, finally, that losses incurred under the system of credit unions have been trifling, the reserve fund being in every instance more than able to meet the losses. One credit society only Jydsk Kobstads- Kreditforening has been obliged to seek liquidation. " This liquidation," says Mr. M. P. Blem, President of the Credit Society of Estate Owners in the Danish Island Diocese Districts, " is soon to be finished, and A LARGE DANISH FARMSTEAD. Built in a quadrangle, the living house in the foreground. SMALLHOLD FARMSTEAD (Rear View). A FARM OF SEVEN ACRES. Dwelling house in central section, with granary and barn in wings. Well built, sanitary, and neatly kept. Seventy-five thousand families make good livings out of such larms. COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 51 with the gratifying result for the Danish Credit Societies, that the organization has been able to meet all its obliga- tions." Smallhold Farmers and What They can Teach. The following table is a classification of all Danish farms according to size, for the year 1912 : SIZE NUMBER TOTAL AREA 7^ acres and under 116,614 239 604 acres 7^ nj acres 16,988 159 832 acres nj 22\ acres 28,002 473,598 acres 22J 33$ acres . , 17,723 496,962 acres \\% 6?i acres . je,2C7 1,752,121 acres 67^155 acres 2?,6l? 2,346,295 acres 135270 acres 6 502 i 169 484 acres 270540 acres I.C7O 574,946 acres 540 acres and over 822 064.,? 27 acres The total number of farms is 260,083, with an aggre- gate acreage of 8,177,169, making the average-size farm in Denmark slightly above thirty acres. If from these figures the handful of large estates were subtracted, the average size would be materially decreased. This is mentioned here because of the marked tendency of recent years to parcel out these large estates so that every man may have an opportunity to live on his own land. This movement is entirely voluntary on the part of the estate owners, who often are the leaders in the reforms. The life of the Danish smallholders is so full of instruc- 52 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS tive teachings that the story of such a one is in- cluded here. The holding in question lies some three miles from Ringsted, Zealand, and the owner is Hans Nielsen. The author was driven to the stead in a quaint little carryall drawn by one horse, a small but well-built animal, seemingly a cross between the small Icelanders and the heavy Jutish sorrels. The road, like all Danish roads, was a well-rounded macadam with large, open gutters at the sides. Just on the edge of Ringsted lay the cooperative bacon factory of which Mr. Nielsen is a member and to which he annually sells some twenty odd bacon hogs. A little further out we passed Kaerehave School for Smallholders, one of a number of schools established here and there over the country to help farmers solve the problems peculiar to the successful tilling of smallholds. Our host pointed with much pride to the fact that both his wife and he had taken short courses at Kaerehave, a fact which was later at- tested by two small framed diplomas hanging over the lounge in the Nielsen living room. Arrived at the stead, we found it a place of seven acres, in rather light soil, though in a high state of cultiva- tion. The farm buildings lay back from the road several hundred yards ; but as the soil must all be used, the road was flanked by high- stemmed cherry trees instead of ordinary shade trees. The whole made a striking COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 53 object lesson. The living house, barn, and stable were all built together under one roof, according to ancient custom ; though the place was so beautifully clean that there was no seeming nuisance whatever. The house had four rooms, simply and comfortably furnished. Here lived Mr. Nielsen and his family of five, including the hired domestic. The cow barn was separated from the dwelling house by a solid brick wall. The entire structure, by the way, was made of brick with a stucco finish, and with thatched roof. The barn was the home of three fine red Fiinen cows for nine months out of the year. They certainly lived in comfort in their painted stalls and within freshly whitewashed walls. The floor was cement, furnished with a drain communicating directly with an underground cistern, where was stored the liquid manure for such time as it should be sprinkled over the clover meadow or the plow land. Another cemented reservoir contained all other manure from the barn and stable. Complimented on the care exercised in saving all fertilizers, Mr. Nielsen smilingly made answer, " Yes, it is the care of these small things, as you call them, that makes our success possible. Were we Danes to pitch our manure in heaps out of doors the way you are said to do in America, permitting the real manure to run off, and then scattering the straw over the fields, we should go bankrupt ! " Our attention was next called to the cows, and it soon 54 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS became perfectly clear to us that star boarders are un- known at the cow barns of Danish smallholders. A daily record of each cow is kept in a frame on the barn wall. If one of the cows should chance to fall the least bit below a certain standard in butter fat and milk, she would immediately be led away to the slaughterhouse. Such an inscription as this appeared over the head of each of Mr. Nielsen's cows: Rose Born 14/6, 1905. Sire L. VII. Dam B. 13. Calved 7/11 . . . Bred 16/12. Milk, 13, 563 Ibs. (Danish) Butter, 489 Ibs. (Danish). It appeared from the record that these three cows had yielded their owner 39,952 pounds of milk and 1447 pounds of butter during the year. The pigsty was an interesting place. At this time thirteen shoats were getting ready for market. They were of the Danish breed of whites, which grow rapidly, are very prolific, and well suited for bacon purposes. Mr. Nielsen boasted of having his hogs ready for the cooperative slaughterhouse when they were no older than three months. They would then weigh from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty pounds, dressed weight, and therefore draw the additional price of one ore per pound offered for this class of hogs. They COOPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 55 are fattened on sugar beets ground up with corn and oatmeal, to which is added a little finely chopped clover hay. This particular holding emphasized, as side lines of production, apple growing, egg production, and bee culture. The yield in apples was particularly remark- able. Because the land is so limited, dwarf trees are grown, set from nine to ten feet apart. Thus Monk's Codlin trees planted in 1908 yielded, in 1912, at the rate of 1274 kroner, or $344.60, per acre. Denmark, by the way, has recently developed an apple of its own which promises to strike the American importer a serious blow. This is the famous Pettersen's Reinette, which combines many of the fine qualities of our Stark's Delicious with the keeping qualities of the Gravenstein. Mr. Nielsen's farm was a money-maker because it was scientifically handled. In front of the house were beauti- ful flower beds in the midst of which stood a number of beehives. Immediately at its rear was an interesting kitchen garden. The fields received every ounce of manure produced on the place and, hi addition, a small amount of Florida rock phosphates. One half acre was devoted to apples and small fruit, an acre and one half to mangolds, rutabagas, and sugar beets; the re- mainder of the land comprised clover and meadow, barley, oats, and a mixture of legumes. The rotation employed was the following: (i) barley, (2) mangolds 56 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and sugar beets, (3) legumes for fodder, (4) barley, (5) rutabagas, (6) oats, and (7) clover. At the house, over a cup of excellent coffee, Mr. Nielsen gave his life story. Born of poor parents agricultural day laborers on one of the large estates he had known considerable want in his early years. He, himself, following in the father's footsteps, had become an agricultural laborer, accumulating a small sum of money. He had been able to take advantage of the good rural schools, which placed him in line for land ownership when the first Danish smallhold law went into effect in 1899. With a government loan of five thousand kroner he had purchased his seven acres, paying four hundred and twelve kroner per acre. The buildings had cost him three thousand kroner, and the stock and other equipment seventeen hundred kroner. The total initial outlay was seventy-five hundred and eighty-four kroner, or $2049.70. His balance sheet for the current year showed that, aside from giving a good living to the family, he had taken in above expenses two thousand and sixty-six and five tenths kroner, equivalent to $558.51, which must be considered good returns on an investment of only $2049.70. It is but fair to add, how- ever, that Mr. Nielsen's balance sheet showed up better than the average. CHAPTER IV THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK Economic Prosperity and Satisfactory Social Life. It is well to realize that two things at least are necessary if we would hold a strong population on the soil : first, the returns from the land must be commensurate with the money and labor invested ; second, the daily life on the farm must be made socially attractive and wholesome. Without these no man can really feel content to remain there all his life. This condition is universal. Denmark has solved this side of the question largely through its schools. In our own country many farmers are becom- ing wealthy and are freer from care than are their city brothers ; but the fact remains, nevertheless, that if one leaves out of consideration the unearned increment in land values, American farmers are not, on the average, getting as large returns as they should have on the invest- ment made. This has caused considerable shifting about from place to place, often leading to the abandonment of the farm for town. Even when agriculture is made more profitable than is usually the case now, this alone will not be sufficient inducement to keep people in country districts. The 57 58 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS social life of the farm must contain all the elements that normal human beings crave. If the simplest social sat- isfactions are wanting, country people are sure to go where they can get them. This is, perhaps, one of the most aggravated causes for much moving away from the farm in some sections of the United States to-day. Denmark is centuries old and has either long ago mastered, or perhaps never had, many of the problems of everyday social life that American farmers must contend with. The American people have settled an empire in a few short generations, bringing, as it were, an old civiliza- tion with them. The European nations have evolved slowly and painfully, checked first by the beasts of the forests, then by human enemies, plagues, and what not. The United States has become settled in spite of, or, at least, unchecked by, all such enemies. But we are young upon the prairies, and plains, and mountain sides ; and vast distances, and comparative isolation, family from family, make the task of thorough socialization comparatively slow and difficult. A Social Life in Harmony with its Natural Environ- ment. The first thing to strike one forcibly in the study of Danish rural life is that this life accords and harmonizes with the environment in which the people live. Our great country life worker, L. H. Bailey, says in one of his books that " the country man must be able to interest himself spiritually in his own native environment as his THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK 59 chief resource of power and happiness." l This is what Danish country folk do. Their first love is for the soil. They understand in good measure the meaning of the phrase that the soil is holy. Whether it is on account of the forethought of their leaders or just because the world moves more slowly on that side of the Atlantic, it is hard to say which, at any rate, we could find none of your enthusiasts over there trying to transplant every form of city entertainment to country districts, to keep farmers from moving to town. There is often grave danger of overdoing country life affairs by trying to transplant bodily as some of our reformers would do - the cheap social life of the town to the open country. This Danish love of nature takes form in flowers and shrubbery, in small formal gardens with their graveled walks and vine-clad arbors. Life is not so strenuous as with us and this has both its good and bad sides ; but, at any rate, the farmer finds time for more than merely work from starlight to starlight to accumulate an abundance of this world's goods. With his wife he has time for more than ' a wearisome round of labor, of eating and drinking, of saving and skimping, of doing without farm conveniences and household helps solely to make money.' Not that this is intended as a general charge against the American farmers, for no farmers in the world live better than ours, wherever 1 "The State and the Farmer," p. 65. 60 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS they have the right outlook on life; but it is a great thing, after all, in the midst of the workaday struggle, to be able to sit down in the midst of one's flowers and rest, without worrying about the cabbages and the pigs all the time and this is true of the average housewife in rural Denmark. Feast Days and Hospitality. The country home is made as attractive as the owner's means will permit. If anything, many Danish rural folk stretch their incomes to the breaking point, in order to show their hospitality. Such seasons as Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, are celebrated with great festivities, never to be forgotten by those so fortunate as to be partakers. Seed time and harvest, also, have their own rollicking merry- makings. The hearth is no longer the literal fireplace, but it is still in spirit the center of the rural home. Of an evening one can still hear song and folklore dispensed as of old. Many of the household industries, which with us have long ago passed away, are still doing much to hold the family group together and are still giving the head, heart, and hand education that we have begun to reintroduce through such school subjects as manual training and household economics. Trained Artisans Important Factors in Rural Social Life. Rural Denmark has, as was stated above, a double social life. First, there are the fanners who devote their time to the soil; and, second, the country THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK 6 1 artisans such as blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cobblers, weavers, and short-time laborers who are trained in the schools for country occupations. This really gives a twofold social life to the country. Some of the folk high schools and local agricultural schools offer carefully planned courses for young men who will cast their lot as builders and small-scale manufacturers with the villages and open country. But the special schools for smallholders offer, perhaps, the most attractive and practical courses for this group of workers. Some of the smallholders who have secured their few acres through government or credit union assistance combine some form of artisanship with small farming, thereby enhanc- ing their incomes materially. The artisanship influence has certainly tended to keep the rural social life from becoming monotonous through one-sidedness and same- ness of routine. One cannot help but believe that there was more real sociability in our American farm communities in the early times than now at the time before the passing of the barn raising, the quilting, the husking bee, the singing school, and the folk dance. These have gone for good and always, and the trouble is that the schools and the other organizations which must furnish the modern substitutes have not yet been able to do so. Significance of Church and School. All of the every- day life of the Danish country people is lived around or 62 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS at the common community center ; that is, their every- day activities, their thoughts, their life plans, are all centered in the work of the two great country institutions the school and the church. And, when the term " centered " is employed, this embraces not alone the immediate work of the church and school, but all the in- fluences for better life that indirectly emanate from them. At the crossroads or on the edge of the quaint old hamlet lies the schoolmaster's house, a rambling place, neatly kept without and within. Flowers, graveled walks, and rustic seats fill the front yard. To the rear, are a vegetable garden and an experimental plot, in which the schoolmaster and the children work from day to day, side by side, while the earth preaches sermons for their ears, making them love to live close to nature's heart. Then there is the schoolhouse, in ample grounds, just beyond. Here, too, the love of nature is apparent, both in planting and in growing things. The school- master dwells in the midst of his people twelve months out of the year. In this way he learns to know them, becoming a more and more useful community force, able and competent to give assistance in practical farm life affairs. Just beyond the schoolyard lies the fine old manse or parsonage and the century-old stone church, which is never lacking in a Danish rural community. Just as the schoolmaster lives in the midst of his people, honored THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK 63 and revered, so the pastor dwells in the midst of his flock, ministering to them, baptizing them, marrying them and, finally, burying them in the graveyard out beyond the church. There can be no question of dying country churches in a community where such a pastor labors. He is a scholarly man ; he has studied the needs of his people ; and now he has rightfully taken his place as spiritual leader and adviser who, together with the schoolmaster, gives the country community the high level of idealism necessary in order to keep pace with the progress made at the industrial centers. One often hears the statement that " the Danish farmer leans for support with one shoulder on the school- house and the other on the church while plowing his fields." For all this he is not much of a Puritan. He attends church zealously enough on Sunday morning, but follows the continental European custom of making the afternoon a time of amusement and entertainment. Most of this is devoted to innocent neighborly calls. Many spend the time in field and forest with lunch basket on one arm and the family, figuratively speaking, on the other. In a few backward places one can still find drinking and carousing; but this is less frequent than it used to be. Wholesome Recreative Life. It may be well at this point to be more specific as to what Danish country people do for recreation. 64 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS First of all, they sing. The music is not classic by any means ; but it keeps alive an emotionalism and love of rhythmic movement that saves the somewhat phlegmatic Scandinavian farmer from his own mysticism. Folk songs and patriotic songs are sung everywhere and are known by heart. Even the long, slowly swinging church hymns are favorites at all sorts of gatherings and speak well for the religious tone of the community. Athletics are next held in high esteem. The schools, as has been said, all teach physical education in the form of gymnastics and play, from the first years of the elemen- tary schools up through the entire system. The young men and women who have graduated from the advanced rural schools continue these physical activities all their lives, hi the community gymnasium. Nothing can be more striking than to see, as one commonly does in rural districts, white-haired old men turn somersaults and handsprings as limberly as the young folks. And why not? Is it not true that a man is young just about as long as he acts young? These farmers seem to have the same love of personal prowess that marked their Viking forefathers of some centuries back. Ring rid- ing a form of horseback tourney is a favorite pas- time, especially during Lenten week. Each season of the year, indeed, has its favorite pastime. Of the seasonal gatherings none is more enjoyable than the Host Gilde or Harvest Festival. When the last sheaf is tied, the THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK 65 harvesters, both men and women, march in triumph to the largest granary on the place, which has been made festive with garlands and flowers. Here the good house- wife has a great feast spread for them. Later comes sing- ing of folk songs, with dancing and play games on the green. Occasionally a little discord may be injected into the rollicking fun by the dispensing of intoxicants, but this is getting less and less frequent. The monthly market day plays a great r61e in the recreative life of the country folk. It is much like the annual country festival day that is now being introduced so successfully by country life leaders in some of our states. The chief difference is, in Denmark the gatherings come twelve times a year. First of all, the market is the " clearing house " for the extra stock that may have accumulated at the farm place. Long lines of horses, cows, and sheep may be seen, up and down the village street, under the inspection of critical buyers. But there are sports and games, feasting and dancing, and meeting of old friends, and, occasionally, too much drinking of beer. With all due allowance for the latter the market gatherings do much to bind the coun- try folk in common ties and to satisfy the many soul cravings which nothing short of city glamour and glajre could otherwise fill. Aside from what has been mentioned here, the rural teachers and pastors do much for organized recreation, 66 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS which tends to offset many counter attractions away from the soil. Lecture courses, extension courses, gatherings of young and old people at the assembly halls for such occasions as the narration of Norse myths and fairy tales, all come within this field of work. Dearth of Rural Recreation in the United States. At this point it is well to consider a law of labor and recreation which must always be reckoned with, whether one lives in country or town. It can be stated briefly in these words : Systematic labor must always react in organized recreation. That is to say, whenever the human being is tied down to hours of self-repression, his body craves a certain amount of relaxation to be sought in play or amusement of some sort. If this is wisely pro- vided, all will go well; if ignored as unnecessary and wasteful, the person affected will be sure to seek relief or an outlet for his pent-up desires in questionable ways and places. Acting upon this principle, factory owners and other great corporations in the United States, employing many laborers, are beginning to furnish their employees attractive recreation, such as individual gardens, play- grounds equipped for baseball, volley ball and croquet, swimming pools, reading rooms and social chat rooms. Now our country folk have had no such organized recrea- tion to speak of, to offset their natural cravings. As a result, great numbers of young men and women of the THE SOCIAL LIFE OF RURAL DENMARK 67 convivial type and strongly developed social instincts have abandoned the country for the towns and cities in search of just these things. Let us remember, it is generally the lack of spiritual things as much as a lack of material things that attracts the youth to the city glamour. How often could not the condition that the poet here besings have been escaped had we only recognized the fundamental craving of the youthful soul for recreation : " The old farm home is Mother's yet and mine, And filled it is with plenty and to spare, But we are lonely here in life's decline, Though fortune smiles around us everywhere ; We look across the gold Of the harvests, as of old The corn, the fragrant clover, and the hay ; But most we turn our gaze As with eyes of other days, To the orchard where the children used to play." PART II THE WORK OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS IN THE NATIONAL REORGANIZATION CHAPTER V THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE The Schools that have made this Agricultural Pros- perity Possible. To say that the rural schools of Den- mark, unaided by other forces, are solely responsible for this great measure of agricultural prosperity might, perhaps, be difficult to substantiate. The spur of necessity, we have learned, had a great deal to do with making the beginnings of the movement. Patriotic men rose up and organized the forces at their disposal as best they could ; but, without the broad general intel- ligence furnished through the remarkable system of new rural schools, the peasantry would have been hi no condi- tion to receive and profit by the progressive propaganda of their leaders. These schools are, indeed, organized as a part of the movement and stand, therefore, in the relation both of cause and effect ; for, while brought into being 68 SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE 69 or at least revitalized and perfected through the same necessity which made patriotic men and women come to the rescue of the fatherland, the schools alone could bring the system to full fruition by making education available to every man, woman, and child in rural districts. The schools that brought all this to pass may be classified as rural elementary schools, folk high schools, local agricul- tural schools, rural schools of household economics, and special schools for smallholders. The rural elementary schools of Denmark emphasize to a remarkable degree the fundamental school subjects and do the work in them in a most thoroughgoing fash- ion; but at the same time they have seen the -way clear to root the entire course of study to the soil in such a way that they are able to inculcate in the pupils love of soil tilling as a life calling. The folk high schools, which are Denmark's unique contribution to education, have gone farther by actually disseminating a peasant culture throughout the agricul- tural communities which has freed the peasantry from city domination until they now practically control the country both economically and politically. According to the testimony of prominent Danish leaders, the great agricultural victories of modern times were won through the work of these so-called schools for grown-up people. Their finest work is the development of character which, these leaders find, forms the basis for the whole future 70 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS development of the nation. The mutual trust that the schools teach has made the entire movement of coopera- tive enterprise in the kingdom possible. Without this trust in one another the farmers' credit societies could not exist; nor could the thousands of bacon factories, dairies, and buying and selling associations carry on their splendid work. The folk high schools, then, accomplish their ends through the building of noble character and stimulating it to the loftiest idealism. Still other institutions, under the name of rural agricultural schools and rural schools of household economics, lay their emphasis more particu- larly on the theory of scientific agriculture and practical home making, thus preparing the way for the applica- tion of these theories at home on the farm. These schools may be considered, in a way, as continuation schools for the folk high schools, since practically all accredited schools of this kind demand attendance at one of the folk high schools as a requirement for entrance. Finally, a special kind of school is organized for smallhold farmers to aid them in the difficult problem of making a living out of a few acres of land a thing which would be utterly impossible were it not for the well-systematized training offered in these schools. The Free Elementary Schools. The scheme of education for farm life begins with the free elementary schools, and is, thereafter, continued part of the time in SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE 71 the classroom and part of the time in practical outside work until all has been mastered that is essential to suc- cess in agriculture. The elementary schools are com- pulsory from the age of seven to fourteen, although many children enter school at six. The compulsory attendance laws are enforced under such rigid regulations that practi- cally no children of school age evade them. The schools are taught by mature, professional teachers who devote their lives to work in the country. The uniform thoroughness which marks the elementary rural schools is clearly explainable in well-trained teachers of long tenure in the same community. These teachers are well paid and content with their lot ; they rank high socially and in most instances make use of their opportunities to become community leaders and organizers. Under such teachers a large majority of them are men the children complete the first seven or eight grades of school work, in which great emphasis is laid on the mother tongue, mathematics, and other essential subjects, to- gether with religious instruction, nature study, music, and gymnastics. At fourteen or fifteen years of age most Danish children are confirmed in the State Church, ending the responsibility of the State so far as free in- struction is concerned a fact which would seem a great weakness in the system were it not for the many Govern- ment-aided continuation schools open to every worthy farm boy or girl. 72 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS The Period of Physical Growth. After leaving the free elementary schools a few of the children immediately enter the Middle Schools, which are found in every one of the organized towns ; and those children eventually make their way through the Gymnasia and Real Skoler to the National University or the National Polytechnic Institute. But the rural children who go the so-called learned way are not many compared with those who remain on the farm. And yet, the latter are not left without further opportunity for study. While it is true that some of the laborers' children go to work immedi- ately upon leaving the elementary school or have to be satisfied with evening school instruction, nevertheless a much larger number, relatively, take advantage of continuation schools than in the United States. This is borne out by statistics which for 1906 show that 33 per cent of all young men and a slightly smaller num- ber of young women of eighteen years and over attend the folk high schools for a longer or shorter period, while 14 per cent of the young men attend special agricultural schools in addition to the agricultural studies offered in many of the folk high schools, and a considerable number of young women attend special schools of domestic science. All of these institutions are situated in the open country. Pupils are not accepted at the above-mentioned schools before the candidate for admission has reached eighteen SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE 73 years of age. There is then a period of four years after leaving the elementary school for which an accounting must be made. Danish thinkers are pretty well satisfied that these years of adolescence should be devoted par- ticularly to physical development and practical tasks rather than to classroom routine. They call attention to the fact that during this period of growth of change from youth to young manhood the physical in the human being seems to have the upper hand, and intellec- tual attainments are acquired under compulsion chiefly and often at the sacrifice of health. Therefore, with them this is essentially a period of work and play. The children then learn practical agriculture and household duties at home ; or, better still, are apprenticed to learn these at recognized model farms, where they get the benefits of the knowledge of " control assistants " or specialists in farm science, maintained in the field at State and local expense. It is quite common to pay for the privilege of working on these model farms. But time is also given for play and gymnastics. It is compulsory to give instruction in gymnastics in the elementary schools. This is con- tinued in all the folk and agricultural schools. More- over, almost every country community has its local gymnastic organization and usually its own assembly hall and gymnasium. Here the youth while out of school, and their fathers for that matter, assemble fre- 74 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS quently and take their physical exercise under able leaders. In this way the years pass, and the youth are ready for the folk high schools. The Folk High Schools and the Culture Period. The folk high schools are essentially schools for mature young people. The Danes speak of them as schools for " grown-ups," and the term is appropriate, since one finds there students from eighteen to twenty-five and even older. The schools are not high schools in the American sense of that term, nor are they " poor men's universities," as some writers have denominated them, for the students, while mainly from farming communities, come from every walk in life and from the homes of the well-to-do and the poor alike. In general, they are schools for mature young people, whose main object is development of personal character rather than the giving of specialized instruction. To these schools come the young people after a period of rest from intellectual labor, strong in body, full of hope, and eager to learn. They are zealous to realize the best in life to know themselves and the purpose of life. To be more specific, the aims of the schools are : (i) To make a broad-minded, moral citizenship; (2) to foster a deep-seated love of the soil and native land ; (3) to give a correct outlook on agricultural life ; (4) to free the people from class domination and show them how best to utilize their growing political power : (5) to lay SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE 75 a broad cultural foundation for the technical subjects to be pursued in the local agricultural schools ; and (6) to prepare the young people to face intelligently the great struggle for existence that presses hard on all alike in the older European countries. Very few of the schools are coeducational. The schools for young men are in session for five or six months, usually beginning with November. The young women then attend the same schools from three to five months during the summer season. The work is based upon lectures rather than textbooks. The success of the school is therefore dependent upon the ability of the teachers to inspire and instruct ; and this calls for carefully trained teachers. The Local Agricultural and Household Economics Schools and Scientific Training. The young people spend one, two, or even more terms at one or another of the local agricultural schools or, in the case of young women, the rural schools of household economics. Young men who have had practical experience in farm pursuits before entering the folk high school usually go immediately from the latter to one of the agricultural schools, of which there are twenty-nine scattered over the country. In case such practical training is lacking, it must be secured at one of the Government-recognized model farms before they can matriculate at the agricul- tural schools. These latter teach primarily the theory 76 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of agriculture, land surveying, agricultural chemistry, and the other sciences which underlie the practice of agriculture. Since the students are already what might be called practical farmers, the aim of the agricultural schools is "to connect the principles of agricultural science with practical facts and to render their daily work more attractive to them than before by trans- forming their ' knowing how ' into ' understanding why.' " Strong schools of household economics, located in the open country, furnish young women a counterpart of what the agricultural schools are doing for the young men. It is conceded that the women who are destined to become helpmeets for the scientific young farmers must themselves understand how to manage the farm households economically and scientifically. Such de- mands the schools strive to supply. The folk high schools have long taught these subjects as incidental to genuine farm culture, and particularly have they laid great stress upon needlework and embroidery. But the new schools of household economics address them- selves exclusively to the science of housewifery. Special Schools for Smallhold Farmers. Peculiar schools organized particularly for the smallhold farmers are the so-called Husmandsskoler. These combine the most valuable features of the folk high schools with those of the agricultural schools and make a strong SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL OUTLINE 77 point of short courses for smallholders of any age or preparation, no matter how old or how poorly prepared. The side lines of agriculture such as bee culture, chicken raising, rabbit breeding receive much atten- tion. Indeed, any smallholder with a problem, it matters not what, may enter these schools and obtain the desired assistance. Young men who desire to join the large class of Govern- ment experts in dairying, swine culture, and like occupa- tion, may procure their final preparation by spending one or more years in study and experimentation at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute located in Copenhagen. The most important task performed by educationists in Denmark has been to impart a remarkably large store of culture without giving the people a contempt for work with the hands. The system outlined above has done much to ennoble manual work in the estimation of the people and to heighten their ability to do the work. A. THE ELEMENTARY RURAL SCHOOLS CHAPTER VI THEIR ORGANIZATION, ADMINISTRATION, AND MAIN- TENANCE History of the Elementary Rural Schools. The common people of Denmark had only the most meager opportunities for schooling prior to the seventeenth century, when the great " pietistic " reform movement forced the organization of a free public school system. At that time, it has been estimated, 80 per cent of all the people living in the country and 40 per cent of those living in town could neither read nor write. Now, on the other hand, less than one tenth of one per cent of all the people are illiterate. The year 1739 marked the first definite steps in public school organization. In accordance with Royal promulgation of that year schools were to be opened in every commune, and parents and legal guardians were admonished to send the children to the schools. King Frederik IV erected some two hundred and forty schools for this purpose ; but trained teachers were scarce and times were hard so that much less came out of the law than had been hoped. 78 THEIR ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 79 The first real advance in educational affairs came through the Ordinance of 1814, which immediately raised Denmark as a model among European nations in educa- tional affairs. The new law made school attendance compulsory between the ages of seven and fourteen and enforced attendance through a system of fines. Definite salaries and pensions were provided. Steps were taken to give the teachers a reasonable professional training, and these, in turn, became assured of permanent " calls " to long-tenure positions. The schools were maintained en- tirely by the local communes. Instruction was obliga- tory in the religious subjects Bible, Bible history, cate- chism, and religious hymns in reading, writing, arith- metic, singing, and gymnastics (for boys). The supervision of the schools was ineffective until after 1848, when the Ministry of Education and Ecclesias- tical Affairs became the central authority in all educa- tional affairs. In 1856 a new law was passed under which the state began to defray a part of the school expenses, such as salary increases and direct aid to weak communes. In 1899 teachers' salaries were materially increased and teacher training greatly improved. The inner management of the schools and course of study were also bettered. In 1908 still another new salary law went into effect. This was so liberal as to make the position of rural teacher very attractive and sought after. In most particulars the management of the elementary 8o RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS schools is left to the local communes under state super- vision. The following table gives numbers of children of school age, school enrollment in public and private schools, and number and sex of teachers.. It is compiled from the latest official data, January i, 1911 : TABLE I IN RURAL SCHOOLS ONLY, 1910 Public schools 23O.3 & J3 B CK Other Languages Mathemat above arit metic Hygiene ai Sanitation Farm Acce ing o & c/5 to 1! o-S Adv. grades (5-8) 196 57 61 9 4 25 99 90 II 146 Elementary grades (I-A) 7 10? ^_ 6 Continuation schools IS 14 IS 5 2 13 IS 2 ii Total 218 74 79 14 6 38 217 QO 13 163 Natural science with special reference to agriculture receives more and more emphasis. Nature study is taught informally in all the lower classes (Forskoler), although not as a separate subject, but rather as a leaven in all the subjects. German and English are prominent on account of the close commercial relations with these countries. The mathematics of Table V is algebra and geometry as applied to mensuration. Hygiene is given in the primary grades through informal discussion. MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION IOI This is found in most of the schools. Sloyd is not found in many rural schools, although it is on the in- crease. The larger towns and cities, on the other hand, are far ahead of the rural districts in this respect. Class Organization. In very few rural schools is all the teaching left to one teacher. In such rare cases that teacher must be a man. But, as a rule, the district has a Forskole or school for primary pupils, in charge of a woman teacher. This is often entirely separate from the regular school, in its own building, and generally more centrally located, because of more recent origin than the main school. The primary schools teach reading, writing, arithmetic through whole numbers, and singing of children's songs and hymns. Much of the work is based on object lessons. The narrative method is used largely in teaching the outlines of Bible history, Danish history and mythology, geography, and natural history (nature study). Gym- nastics and play, especially the latter, receive much atten- tion in the Forskole. This work ends with the fourth year. In the regular one-teacher districts the children are under the care of the man teacher from the beginning of the fifth school year, unless the district offers no Forskole work when, of course, the children enter the regular school from the first. But it must be kept in mind that very many of the Danish rural schools are regularly graded 102 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS schools of two or more teachers, all working in the same building. In such cases there are no separate Forskoler. The School Subjects. A point of note is that read- ing and spelling are not mechanized and treated as arts complete and separate. They are taught rather as means necessary to higher educational ends. Spelling is taught as a part of the reading process. Consequently separate spelling books are not used. Under the experienced teachers usually found in the schools, the mechanical and technical phases of language, such as reading, spelling, and grammar, are handled in such a way that the children show a good ability to apply the language of the classroom to the language of the playground and the home. Danish language is taught largely through " doing " - i.e. through composition and dictation exercises. The teacher may give dictation from some simple reader or classic. This is studied and analyzed, and rules of grammar are applied as needed. The work is largely of an inductive nature. The religious subjects such as Bible history, cate- chism, sacred music are strongly emphasized in all the schools. Bible history is given orally in the lower grades and is studied from textbooks in the upper grades. As taught it furnishes an excellent foundation for general history. Catechism is taught from textbooks, much of it verbatim. History and geography hold high place in the course MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 103 of study. All school work, in fact, is given an historic background. History study is not limited to Denmark and Scandinavia alone. It is true Danish history receives special emphasis, but the course is rooted intelligently in the general history of all Europe and the Orient. A certain amount of church history is taught in the religion classes ; this supplements the work in the history of the Middle Ages. Scandinavian mythology is studied as one of the history foundations. The geography classes devote much tune to the Scandinavian countries, though the course covers the physical, mathematical, and polit- ical history of the entire globe in a reasonably thorough manner. The methods employed in teaching history and geography do not seem always of the best. In a few schools too much of the old memoriter processes pre- vail, and some of the teachers are inclined to lecture on history instead of teaching it. Children in the primary grades are early made ac- quainted with nature ; in part through stories and nar- ratives dealing with natural history, illustrated by means of charts and colored pictures, and in part through a study with their teachers of the school environment. The upper grades get a pretty thorough course in nat- ural history, or biology, covering a general outline of botany and zoology and ending with a study of man, and hygiene and sanitation. The amount and thoroughness of the work varies greatly with the schools. 104 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Very few rural schools offer courses in manual training or sloyd ; but indications are that such work is getting popular in the larger schools. Some of the night schools do good work in sloyd. The village and city schools have, many of them, excellent courses of this kind. Handwork, such as sewing, knitting, darning, and embroidery, is required in all rural schools where women teachers are employed. In some of the one-teacher schools with men teachers in charge, the wife of the teacher gives instruction in handwork, for which she receives a little pay. Singing is taught in all rural schools. All teachers must be able to instruct in music whether they can sing or not. The teacher almost invariably accompanies the song on a violin, which all teachers know how to use. Patriotic and religious songs, folk songs, and nature songs are sung remarkably well. Even part songs are common in many schools. Drawing is popular and well taught. Accuracy and neatness are watchwords hi the drawing classes. Much the same can be said for the writing classes. Here, too, the children display much painstaking care and neat- ness. It is true the writing seemed to lack somewhat in rapidity. Our " muscular movements " in writing have little or no hold on the schools. Much more attention is paid to mental arithmetic than in American schools. The quickness and accuracy dis- MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 105 played by the younger children in analyzing mental problems is quite remarkable. Enough of plane geom- etry is included in the highest class to furnish an intelli- gent foundation for problems in mensuration. Gymnastics is compulsory in all the schools for boys. The older girls generally take the work as a " special " after regular hours. In the first three or four grades the boys and girls take the work in mixed classes. Later the sexes are drilled separately. The newer rural schools are supplied with indoor gymnasiums. Where these are lacking, a suitable plot of ground must be prepared out of doors, sanded, and supplied with suitable apparatus. The work in gymnastics is uniformly good. It is later taken up where elementary schools have dropped it and continued in the various folk high schools and local agricultural schools. Methods of Instruction. Danish schools depend more upon the ability of the teachers and less upon the textbooks than is the case in American rural schools. The teachers are professionally prepared and con- sequently know how to draw upon their broad general reading and experience for much of the classroom ma- terials, instead of depending upon the textbooks to fur- nish everything required. The latter are mere " leading threads " in the school work, containing only the funda- mental processes, if in mathematics, or outline studies, if in history and like subjects. The teacher supplies 106 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS the rest. This means that the average teacher is free from too much enslavery of books and can give more of himself and his individualism to the work. Where the books do not furnish everything, both teachers and children make larger use of the constructive and inven- tive ingenuity. On the other hand, it is true that some of the Danish textbooks are too meager and are of rather poor mechanical construction. In the hands of inex- perienced teachers they would be of little value. School Work as observed in Some of the Schools. It is thought best at this point to give with some detail work as it was actually observed in the Danish rural schools. For this purpose, the brief story of five schools is told. These are not selected because of any marked excellence above any other schools visited, but are taken as the first five schools that chanced to lie in the path of visitation. Ryslinge Rural School. The teacher in charge of this school is Mr. P. J. Winther. He was just complet- ing the thirteenth year in the district, and previously he had spent nineteen years in another parish before coming to Ryslinge. The school lies high on a rise of land from which can be seen miles of beautiful South Fiinen land- scape. It is surrounded with garden and parking, and at one side and at the front with well-sanded play- grounds. The whole is surrounded by well-kept living hedge, outside of which forest trees are planted. Imme- MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 'IOJ diately beyond the school lie the country church and the manse with its gardens and fields. This is a one- teacher school, having a Forskole at a distance of one mile. The building is modern and well built. But this will be dwelt upon later in this book and may, therefore, be passed by here. The teacher has his abode in the school building. The main classroom is well lighted and heated by a jacketed ventilating stove. There is an abundance of illustrative materials of all kinds, such as geographical and historical maps ; biological, physio- logical, and other charts. A good collection of physical apparatus is used as the basis for simple experiments in natural science. A small chemical cabinet contains what is necessary in milk testing, working with soils and the like. Good geological and ethnological collec- tions are seen neatly arranged in cases at one side of the room. A circulating library of six hundred volumes is available for the children and their parents. The deep windows are filled with house plants and nature study materials. The schoolroom is, in short, a good working laboratory for a genuine country school. The time spent at Ryslinge School was devoted mainly to a study of classes in gymnastics. The gymnasium is indoors. It is a model for simplicity and neatness, being square, having a good floor, and being equipped with all the inexpensive apparatus required in the Ling system of gymnastics. Mixed classes of boys and girls from eight I08 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to eleven years of age gave an interesting exhibition of their everyday work. Before this began, the floor was carefully mopped to keep down the dust. Then the windows were thrown wide open, in spite of the chilling March wind blowing out of doors. All the children wore slippers on the feet and the girls had short skirts like bloomers. The work included the Ling system of " setting up " exercises, marches, the use of the Swedish wall racks, arm beams, horse for vaulting, and such gymnastics. Boys and girls entered into the spirit of the work entirely unconscious of sex differences. Part of the exercises were accompanied by song a thing that is noticeable even in the gymnastics of the higher continuation schools. It is a common thing, for example, to hear large classes of husky young farmers in the gym- nasium of a folk high school burst suddenly into a rousing war song or patriotic lay. At this particular exercise the song suddenly changed in time and the march re- solved itself into a folk dance. This, again, changed to play. But at a signal from the teacher, the ranks were immediately reformed. Three quarters of an hour were occupied with exercises of similar kind. Grades five and six were called upon for song. Mr. Winther directed this and led the singers upon the violin. First scales were run for some five minutes. In the singing that followed the children had good opportunities to display their ability to read music. Several national, MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION IOQ folk, and religious songs were sung. What appealed to the auditors more than anything else was that every child took part. This is a test of thorough handling of the class. Opportunity was also given to examine specimens of writing by all the grades and original compositions by grades six, seven, and eight. The writing was ex- ceptionally neat and painstaking. The compositions showed considerable thought and knowledge of history, geography, and agriculture these being the most popular themes employed. The general impression carried away from this school was that Mr. Winther fully realized the needs of his school community and had shaped his school work accordingly. He presided over a school thoroughly organized, well disciplined, and harmonious with country life needs. Vor Frue Landsogns Skole. This school has been used to illustrate other points in this book, but can well be discussed a little further. The school lies just beyond the large provincial town of Odense and is attended by two hundred and ten children, most of them from the homes of small farmers, country artisans, and day la- borers. It is in a sense a consolidated school with three teachers in charge. Because the school uses the half- day system for all the pupils there is not that congestion which would otherwise be unavoidable in a school of more than two hundred and only three teachers. The 110 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS school building is modern and roomy. Mr. Hindse- Nielsen, the principal, and his two assistants have suites in the building. The table on opposite page is a reproduction of the daily program of six groups into which the classes are divided. It will be recalled (page 96) that groups one, two, three, and four correspond to years one, two, three, and four ; but that group five comprises years five and six; and that group six comprises years seven and eight. The inspection at this school covered classes in singing, arithmetic, and nature study. The singing did not differ much from what had been experienced at Ryslinge. The children sang from notes, running the scale remarkably true. They kept time with their arms as they sang. Songs of a religious, patriotic, and folk-lore nature were rendered with feeling and true- ness to note. Some of the part songs that were sung would be considered difficult for children of equal age in good city schools of the United States. The sixth grade gave an interesting recitation in mental arithmetic, about one half of the period for which is devoted to mental drills. The following com- mon and decimal fractions were placed on the board, one after another, by the teacher. Hands went up to indi- cate that answers were ready almost as soon as the figures were completed. A careful analysis was made MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION III DAILY PROGRAM GROUP HOURS MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY II 8-9 Danish History Geography Religion Arithmetic Geography STature study History Arithmetic Religion Writing 9-10 Arithmetic Danish Danish Danish Danish Danish IO-II Writing Song Arithmetic Mature study Writing Nature study Writing Danish Religion Song Story hour ii-ij I 13-1 Religion Writing Danish Religion Writing Danish Religion Writing Danish 1-2 Danish Nature study Song Danish Arithmetic Arithmetic Nature study History Arithmetic 2-3 Arithmetic History Danish Story hour Nature study Song Danish Writing Nature study V 8-9 leading Religion Geography Religion Natural history Religion 9-10 Arithmetic Writing Arithmetic Writing Arithmetic Dictation IO-II Dictation Song Dictation Reading Reading History 11-12 Gymnastics daily for seven months in ia-i Arithmetic Writing Religion Writing Religion Arithmetic Arithmetic History 1-2 Reading Reading Reading Reading Reading Writing 3-3 Composi- tion Composi- tion Song Composi- tion Geography Reading 3-4 4-5 Handwork for girls four hours weekly 5-6 VI 8-9 Religion Geography Religion Literature Religion Natural history 9-10 Writing Arithmetic Danish Arithmetic Literature Arithmetic IO-II Danish Danish Composi- tion Song Composi- tion History Literature 11-12 Gymnastics daily IV 1 2-1 Religion Writing Arithmetic Religion Arithmetic Reading Arithmetic x-2 Reading Reading Dictation Composi- tion Reading Writing Reading 2-3 Dictation Dictation History Geography Song Dictation 3~4 4-5 Handwork for girls four hours weekly 5-6 1 112 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of each problem. There seemed to be no laggards in the class, for all hands invariably went up : 9 - 7iV Si - 2 tt 31 X2| 7 i xit ii + if 13 *- 3* i| -s- 0.33 0.48 X 3i 6 s For rapidity and accuracy the exercise was quite remark- able. The three American visitors laid some claim to ability in " figuring," but found it pretty difficult to keep pace with these sixth grade farm children. More mental arithmetic in our own lower schools would probably be a good thing. The nature study lesson was in charge of the primary teacher a woman and was devoted almost wholly to the English sparrow. The class was the second grade. Colored charts, last year's nests, and blackboard draw- ings were utilized freely in the discussion. The children displayed considerable knowledge of bird lore and were given opportunity by the teacher to express this hi their own way. It became clearly manifest before the period closed that this young woman was succeeding in creating a love for nature in the breasts of the little ones who should later as scientific farmers become the wardens of this nature and its creations. Ejby Rural School. This is a consolidated school, and lies in the open country between the old hamlet of MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 113 Ejby and a new railway station by the same name. The fine brick building with its modern classrooms and homes for four teachers was erected in 1911 as a compromise after several years of pretty lively agitation. The following table gives the subjects of instruction together with the number of periods weekly hi each of the eight classes. There are three teachers in this school : TABLE VI. CLASS PROGRAM AT EJBY RURAL SCHOOL SUBJECTS CIA 5SES lA iB 2 3 4 5 6 7 Religion 4/7 4/7 7 i J Danish language and lit- erature Writing 6 t 6 2 7 2 7 2 7 2 7 i 7 i 8 i Arithmetic and farm ac- counting Special farm problems Geography , 3 3 3 2/2 4 I 4 2 4 2 3 i 2 3 2 2 History . 2 2 2 2 2 Biology and agriculture Nature study and sanita- tion I/a \h 2/2 I I 2 3 4 Song 2/2 2/2 2/2 I I I i i Drawing 2 2 Gymnastics I I I Gymnastics (boys) Handwork (girls) . . . I I I I I I I I Total Extra gymnastics (boys) 1 Extra gymnastics (girls) Extra handwork (girls) 18 18 18 21 2 2 2 24 2 24 2 27 2 30 2 1 Hours after regular school hours ; no credits given. i 114 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS The gymnastics and handwork will be seen to fall partly within and partly outside the regular daily pro- gram. Gymnastics is given in mixed classes for grades one A, one B, two, and three. The inspection here included classwork in natural history and advanced arithmetic. The natural history as studied in Danish schools is really elementary biology. It includes descriptive courses in zoology and botany, devoting considerable time also to physiology. The class at Ejby had for their lesson the general topic, " mammalia " and dwelt particularly on the domesticated mammals, making practical applications to the cow, horse, sheep, and like animals. Danish teachers are of the opinion that nature study (love for nature), natural history (acquaintance with nature), and agriculture (application of both love and knowledge of nature) can all be acquired in the rural schools that practical agriculture, however, should be studied in the continuation schools after leaving the elementary school. The class in advanced arithmetic was engaged in working out practical original problems in mensuration. Enough of plane geometry was used to make the rules of measurement intelligible. One half of the class was occupied with finding the contents of a seven-sided field, the actual dimensions of which they had from their own measurement of the field ; the rest were calculating the MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 115 water surface of a pond lying at some distance from the school. All this work was practical and far superior to what was observed in a number of other schools, some of which adhered too closely to the textbook. Hjortespring Rural School. The last school to be mentioned is a one-teacher school near the village of Herlov in Zealand. Mr. Johan Egeberg, the teacher, had been in the school seven years, coming to the com- munity from a school tenure elsewhere of nineteen years. His position was found to be that of unquestioned leadership among the intelligent people where he lived. His school building, too, was modern, and beautifully set on a ridge surrounded by living hedge, trees, and shrubbery. The comments on the school work at Hjortespring are given as a summary rather than as the result of observa- tion of single classes, because more time was spent here than in most of the other schools. Reading and Language. Reading as a fundamental art is strongly emphasized. A combination of several methods is used in teaching the younger children to read. Spelling is from the first a part of the reading. It is not considered an end in itself ; hence, no separate textbooks need be used. All the spelling grows out of the reading. The reading books are arranged in such a way that they can be used as language books also. The mother tongue is learned inductively through the reading and the ex- Il6 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS planations offered by the teacher. Very early the children are taught to copy small portions of reading matter from the reading-language book on paper or on their slates. This is analyzed and explained by the children with the teacher's assistance. Next follow dictation exercises by the teacher. The children are expected to write down correctly what is given, emphasiz- ing properly sentence structure, punctuation, capitali- zation, and like points of form. Rules are laid down for convenience, not before they are needed. By the time the children reach the eighth grade they have a good understanding of language usages without having used a specially prepared book. Now a compendium in grammar is used in order finally to clarify and sum- marize what has been learned. Arithmetic. The textbook contains the essentials only; the teacher supplies the rest. The thoroughness with which the four elementary processes are learned is striking. Rules play a very minor part. The children learn by doing. Mental arithmetic is popular and well taught. The textbooks contain considerable material with a farm " flavor." Farm accounting and farm problems comprise a big part of the subject matter in the books. Geography. A small textbook and a large separate Atlas are used. The historical and political elements are prominent; though most of all the commercial and MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 117 agricultural phases are emphasized. History and geog- raphy are taught as inseparable. History. The children get a large vision of the historic field before leaving school. To begin with, they are taught the history of Denmark, and this is insepara- bly connected with the history of Norway and Sweden thus giving them in reality the history of the North. It is also to a large degree rooted to England, Holland, Germany, and Russia, so that much of general history creeps in. All the children are taught Bible history. This is a simple narrative of Bible events from Hebrew and Oriental history. In addition, the highest class gets a simple outline of Church history. So, taken all together, these history courses furnish the children a good historical horizon. Natural history and nature study, music, gymnastics, hygiene and sanitation, and handwork (the last in charge of Mrs. Egeberg), are uniformly well taught, not differing materially from what had been seen in the schools already described. These may, therefore, be passed by at this time. CHAPTER VIII , THEIR BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS Schoolhouse Construction. The construction of all new school buildings and the modification of all old structures must be done in accordance with a circular issued by the Ministry of Education. Such important matters are not left entirely with the local commune and school board. And wisely are they not so left, for if they were the best interests of the school district would often be made to suffer from the selfishness and close- fistedness of a few influential individuals. As matters now stand, all building construction must comply with Ministerial regulation. The final plans and specifica- tions whether for a new building or for the reconstruc- tion of an old one must be inspected and ratified by the large deanery school directory before the local authori- ties can proceed to build. In specific cases the local board may appeal to the Ministry of Education for final decision on points in controversy. According to the circular of 1900, the building site must be large, sightly, and sanitary. Each classroom must be large, well lighted, and ventilated. The ceiling 118 THEIR BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS lip must be at a height of not less than ten feet. School- rooms in Forskoler and the regular elementary schools must contain a minimum air space of four thousand and five thousand cubic feet respectively. This is figured on the basis of a maximum of thirty-five pupils to the room. Each room shall have at least a ventilator shaft connected with a jacketed stove as means of ventilation. Many are supplied with racks and lockers, with at least three square feet of floor space for each child. Wherever practicable, new school buildings are to contain indoor gymnasiums, and equip them with all the apparatus required for the Ling system of gymnastics. When this cannot be done for good reason, as in the case of buildings constructed before such requirements were made, an outdoor gymnasium must be constructed to answer this need. This shall be laid off as near the school building as possible and is to contain at least six hundred and twenty-five square meters. The place must be reduced to a water level, properly drained and covered with several inches of screened sand. Perma- nent apparatus is to be erected on the ground, and such apparatus as cannot be exposed to the weather may be kept in a storeroom erected for that purpose, on the edge of the ground. Rules Governing Schoolhouse Sanitation. The rules governing the cleansing of schoolrooms are very per- 120 RURAL DENNARK AND ITS SCHOOLS tinent and suggestive. These are, therefore, given in some detail : 1. The floors must be kept perfectly tight and filled, varnished, painted or covered with linoleum, or otherwise protected from dampness. 2. The classrooms must be aired frequently both before the session begins and during all intermissions. 3. All school furniture and walls must be wiped with a damp cloth daily. All window panes must be polished at least once a week. 4. The floors must be washed daily, and scrubbed once a week with soap and warm water. 5. The water-closets must be kept scrupulously clean and the excreta emptied frequently. The urinals must be washed out daily. 6. The children shall not be permitted to remain in classrooms and halls during intermission except in in- clement weather. 7. The expense incidental to the enforcement of these regulations shall be borne by the commune. It shall be the duty of the teacher and the local school commission to see that the regulations are enforced. Ordinarily, Danish teachers, even in the smallest country schools, have nothing to do with the actual work of cleansing the schoolrooms. Janitors often women are employed for this purpose. In a few districts, however, chiefly in the sparsely populated heather re- 121 gions of western Jutland, the teachers look after the cleaning of the schools. But they are, in every instance, paid for this work by the commune. Some Schoolhouse Plans. The Danish rural schools are substantially built. Many of them are very attrac- tive from the architectural point of view. And prac- tically all the new buildings are well supplied with modern sanitary conveniences. The building material commonly used is brick or reenforced concrete. Tile or slate roofs are in ordinary use. Occasionally one may find old schoolhouses covered with thatch ; but these are passing rapidly. The fearful spread of tuberculosis throughout the nation has furnished ample argument for sanitary building construction. Now the general government pays a part of the cost of new, modern schoolhouses, as an inducement to abolish the old. It even goes so far as to give state aid in the modernization of old buildings. Plan I. This shows the ground plan of Vor Frue Landsogns School which has been mentioned several times before. The building was erected in 1900, at a cost of 30,000 kroner. It has three classrooms and living accommodations for the three teachers. The upper grades have classrooms (A and B) opening upon the main hall (). The lower grades (C) have their own hall (D) from which their teacher a woman may reach her suite of four rooms overhead by her own separate stairway. The " first teacher " occupies 122 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS O 1 ) j 000 i vo t -Htl 7 V I i\ HI F II *i ^ I *< +H- 5 I t r--n >i IP ' 7>i/e /77- H H II II THEIR BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 123 the remainder of the first floor. The " second teacher " an unmarried man has four rooms above the princi- pal's suite. The fuel-house, including toilets (M), lies immediately to the right and to the rear of the main building. The gymnasium, which is also the social center hall, lies in a like position to the left of the school. The latter structure is used daily for gymnastics by the school children and during certain evenings of the week by the gymnastic association of the parish. It is used, more- over, as the rallying center of the community in its school extension courses and in many social gatherings. The yard is of good size, is well planted and protected by a strong hedge and picket fence. Plan II. This is a smaller school, being of one room only. The classroom (^4) has, contrary to Ameri- Gtrcfen Gardttt Flowers can ideas, its main window exposure towards the west. But this is easily understood when it is known that 124 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Denmark has very few bright sunny days and some- thing like ninety that are foggy. The teacher has an office and six living rooms down- stairs besides several others above. Almost all of the teachers in the rural schools, who were asked whether they preferred their present mode of living to separate cottages, made answer that present conditions were entirely satisfactory. The noise from the Ryslinge School seemed to be a small matter, especially as it, ;like all the modern buildings, is of substantial construction. In this case a heavy brick wall separates the classroom and gymansium from the teacher's home. In many of the schools, the teachers' entrance to the building is on the side opposite from the children's entrance. In this way there is little disturbance. It is of great advantage to the teachers to live right in their own great laboratory where they can always be handy to their work but where they can also have the necessary amount of privacy. Plan III. This is the largest of the rural schools visited. The main building is constructed of hard brick with tile roof, at a cost of 50,000 kroner. The gymna- sium, which lies to the rear and right, cost 10,000 kroner. It is to be noted that this school is planned on the quadrangle idea. The main building forms the fore- ground; the gymnasium (B), the right side; a proposed teachers' home (C), the left side ; and the fuel house with toilets (D), the rear. A good-sized sanded playground THEIR BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 125 M I 15 * .11 II 1 1 . 1 1 1. 1 i-u 1 .1- 126 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS (.E) lies within. The entire basement of the school building is cemented. The intention is to use a part for playroom in inclement weather ; the remainder will be fitted for manual training shops. This has not yet been done for want of funds. The first floor contains four classrooms, all lighted from the left and heated by means of very effective ventilating stoves. The halls are large, affording much space for wardrobes. Atten- tion is also called to the separate entrances leading re- spectively to the homes of the principal, " second teacher," and women teachers. The gymnasium is the most complete of its kind found in the rural schools. Besides the large floor equipped with the Ling system apparatus, the building is equipped with dressing rooms and shower baths, above which is a spacious gallery for spectators. The fuel house and toilets are all under one roof and substantially constructed of brick. In cold weather the toilet rooms are heated. Four complete gardens, one for each teacher, laid out and planted at com- munity expense, lie to the rear and flank the quadrangle. Plan IV. This shows the old inland hamlet of Gamborg in which a one-teacher school has been running for many years. A few years ago the railroad was built through the community; and a station town by the name of Kauselunde sprang up. The new town com- prised a part of the Gamborg school district and was, from the first, obliged to send its children to that THEIR BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 127 school. It is noteworthy that in Denmark the authori- ties are reluctant about cutting up school districts. But the time came when Kauselunde outgrew Gamborg and there were children enough for two teachers; a 128 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS compromise was agreed to whereby a nice new Forskole was erected on the highway between the two towns, leaving the original Gamborg school for the older pupils. At Ejby and Himmelev, and other places, large consoli- dated schools have been erected somewhere between the two hamlets, a way which appeared really more satis- factory to solve the school problem. Teachers' Gardens. The provision for free homes is a great stride in the direction of long tenures in the same district, whether it be in Denmark or in the United States. The addition to this of the permanent use of a piece of land would be another help in making the teacher a permanent community leader. In the olden time Danish teachers drew much of their income from the permanent school lot, which was a body of land, ranging from two to ten acres, attached to the school. The patrons and others who lived within the school district were even obliged, at one time, to furnish the school- master a certain amount of forage. Recently, the school lots are being sold off and the teachers' salaries have been increased with a money equivalent. A few are still in existence. But the teacher's garden has always been kept separate from the school lot. It goes really with the teacher's home and is considered as essential to happy, complete country living. Under the law, the first teacher must have at least one third of an acre; the other teachers THEER BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 129 are entitled only to one fourth as much. In case the land near the school is not adapted to garden use, the teacher may accept a money equivalent. But this arrangement is seldom made. The garden is much more than a vegetable garden. It is a permanent plantation. The community must stand the expense of planning and planting. It must be prop- erly drained and fenced; fruit trees and shrubbery must be planted. And in other ways it must be per- manent and satisfactory. Primarily, the garden is intended for the teacher and his family to give them pleasure and added income. But, as stated elsewhere, they are used for classroom purposes also not in all schools, though in many. In them, teacher and children dig and rake and hoe, side by side, learning lessons from blade and leaf and flower. It is here, close to the earth smells, that the children gain their first love of nature. Playgrounds. The Danish rural schools are not, as a rule, equipped with large playgrounds. This is quite natural in a country where every square foot of ground is needed in bread winning. The important thing is that they are properly utilized and well equipped to that end. The law forbids loitering indoors during inter- missions except in inclement weather. The children must be out on the playground and under the eye of the teacher. Nearly all the playgrounds are fenced. All x I 3 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS are well drained and some part of each is sanded and fit for use even in damp weather. Considerable play- ground apparatus is found at every school, particularly where there is an outdoor gymnasium. CHAPTER DC PREPARATION, SALARIES, AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS Preparation of Elementary Teachers. It is safe to place professional preparation of teachers first on the list in looking for the cause of the uniformly good work done in Danish rural schools. No person can receive a permanent call as teacher who is not a graduate from one of the twenty normal schools or who does not hold some university degree. Non-graduates may hold places such as those of apprentice teachers, hour teachers, substitute teachers, but such are not considered as teachers in the real meaning of the word. The table on following page gives a good idea of the preparation of teachers in the public rural schools. Conditions are much the same for private rural schools. Comments on the table are scarcely necessary. Out of a total of three thousand eight hundred and twelve men teachers only one hundred and forty-one are non- graduates ; of one thousand four hundred and fifty-three women teachers four hundred and thirty-eight are non- graduates. The men teachers are practically all gradu- 131 132 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS TABLE VH PREPARATION OF RURAL TEACHERS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ONLY MEN WOKEN Kinds of Schools al School lates Ij 'Z-^ ;raduatcs 1 \\ it -1 *1 L~* ;r:nlu;itrs I 11 fcO HI c z (A 3 fc I ~ _ i S ISO If -- * 5 sol on i V. o Z 1 "First teachers" I4S2 6 9 1467 Teachers in one- room schools 1590 13 48 I 1652 3 "Second teachers" 548 2 15 I 566 266 67 6 50 4 Primary teachers 23 2 25 21 602 ii 136 I Teachers in tem- porary schools 8 23 31 3 2 38 Other teachers 18 7 46 71 6 5 14 214 4 Total . . . 3639 28 141 4 3812 206 677 33 438 9 1453 ates. Fully one half of the woman non-graduates are assistants only, and are not counted as regular teachers. The Forskole diploma mentioned under " women " refers to a special training course for primary teachers. Now as a large majority of the teachers get their prep- aration in the teachers' seminaries or normal schools it is well to study the requirements of these schools more closely. Teachers' Seminaries : Course and Requirements. - The elementary school teachers of Denmark receive their professional preparation in twenty seminaries or normal schools, erected wherever needed throughout the SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 133 nation. Four of these only are state schools ; the other sixteen are privately owned or belong to some branch of the state church or the free church. The work in all of them is under strictest state supervision. The privately owned schools are practically maintained by the State, which furnishes liberal aid. Entrance requirements, course of study, final examinations, and similar char- acteristics are similar in all the schools. Candidates for matriculation must have satisfied the following requirements before they can enter upon study in the first year class : 1. Must furnish baptismal, confirmation, and vac- cination certificates. 2. Must have attained the age of eighteen before the expiration of the first calendar year in school. 3. Must show evidence of satisfactory moral charac- ter, and show, in detail, how their time has been spent since they completed the public school work. 4. Must produce a physician's attest to show that they are in good bodily health ; especially, that they are not suffering from any disease which would make them unfit for the teaching profession. 5. Must have devoted at least one full year as appren- tice in some school satisfactory to the Ministry of Educa- tion. (The presupposition is that all candidates have a good knowledge of the academic subjects. They are then placed for a year in the hands of an expert teacher 134 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to permit him to determine whether they have any natural qualifications to recommend them. In case these seem lacking the teacher may withhold the neces- sary credentials.) 6. Finally, the candidate for admission must pass a satisfactory test hi the following subjects : a. Arithmetic and elementary algebra; b. outlines of natural history ; c. geography with special reference to Denmark; d. history of the North and outlines of general history ; e. test in reading ; /. written composi- tion ; g. elements of Danish grammar ; h. Bible history and catechism ; i. test in knowledge of music must be able to play simple compositions on the violin ; j. young women must show some ability in sewing and knit- ting. The candidates for admission have for the most part pursued study in higher continuation schools since they left the elementary school. Or they have at least spent a year under a capable tutor preparing for the entrance examinations. The seminaries offer one year's study in preparatory work for students knowing themselves to be deficient in some of the entrance requirements. Very few stu- dents, however, take the preparatory studies, as nearly all who enter come with advanced standing. The following is the minimum course for teachers in the rural and other elementary schools : SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 135 SUBJECTS PREPARATORY YEAR SUBJECTS HOURS WEEKLY Religious 3 Danish 5 Geography 2 Natural History 3 Physics 2 Mathematics 4 HOURS WEEKLY Arithmetic (separate) ... 4 Writing i Drawing a Song and Music 2 Gymnastics 2 Handwork (women) .... 2 English i FIRST YEAR Religion : Bible History 2 Church History .... i Exegesis i Danish 5 History : Northern History : Norse and Greek Mythology ... 3 Geography a Natural History : Zoology and Botany . . 3 Mathematics : Geometry (Plane) .... 3 Arithmetic 2 Accounting (Mental Arith.) 3 Writing i Drawing (Free Hand) ... 2 Song and Music 2 Gymnastics : Men 3 Women .2 Study of Human Body . . i Handwork (women) ... 2 German . , i SECOND YEAR Religion : Bible History .... Exegesis Danish : Grammar and Literature Pedagogy Geography Natural History : Zoology and Botany Physics 3 Mathematics : Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry 4 Accounting 3 Writing and Drawing ... 2 Song and Music : Class Drills, Harmony . . a Gymnastics : Men 3 Women 2 Handwork (women) .... 2 German i English i 136 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS THIRD YEAR Houas SUBJECTS WEEKLY Religion : History (European) .... 4 Dogmatics, Church His- Song and Music : tory, Exegesis .... 5 Song Practice; Theory of Danish: Music; Harmony ... 3 History of Literature ; Gymnastics : Study of Classics ... 5 Men 3 Pedagogy 6 Women 2 Practice Teaching . . . . 10 Handwork (women) .... 2 (In the Seminary Practice Drawing i School, and Model School) The policy of Danish schools is to study a large num- ber of subjects at once by reducing the number of hours a week to a minimum for each study, where American schools would reduce the number of subjects and give a maximum number of hours weekly. Danish educators insist that better educational results are gained by " dove- tailing " the entire course into an educational whole, all parts of which are held constantly before the mental eye. On account of this belief subjects which could be com- pleted within the school year are drawn out over several. Students do not recite the total number of sixty-minute periods given above, each week. The course of study prescribes a certain amount of work to be completed annually in each subject. That particular class recites the prescribed number of hours while completing this work only. The actual number of hour recitations per week varies from about twenty-eight in the first year to eighteen or twenty in the third. It should be added that there is a movement on foot SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 137 to make the requirements for graduation considerably heavier than they are now. How One may become a Permanent Teacher. Graduation from one of the seminaries does not necessa- rily carry with it government appointment to a permanent position. The supply of teachers is normally larger than the demand. All are obliged to begin as assistants or substitutes, or as teachers in provisional, private, and special winter schools. The permanent positions in the country include places as principal teacher of one-room school, second teacher, and woman primary teacher. Permanent calls to fill vacancies in these schools may be issued only to teachers having all the following re- quirements : 1. Principals and teachers of one-room schools must have attained the age of twenty-five years; all others must be at least twenty-one years of age. 2. They must present an attest (not more than three months old) from a reputable physician that they are not afflicted with tuberculosis or other infectious disease. 3. Preparation must be as set forth above. 4. They must all have had experience in practical teaching i.e. as assistants, substitutes, and so on candidates for principalships, at least two years ; teachers in one-room schools, the same. All other applicants shall have had at least one year's experience. The important duty of issuing permanent calls to 138 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS teachers falls to the deanery school directory, upon the nomination of candidates by the communal council and local school commission. The procedure is briefly this : the deanery directory announces the vacancy and re- ceives all applications for the position. A complete list of all the eligible candidates is then sent to the communal council and school commission (the latter being present in an advisory capacity only). The communal council now nominates three candidates from the list. The one of the three seemingly having the best qualifications is thereupon chosen for the vacancy by the deanery council. Length of Tenure and Age of Teachers. The per- manently called teachers naturally hold office during life or good behavior. This has many advantages. The teacher from the first feels that he has entered upon a life in the community and finds it worth while to " grow up with the place." Such a position does not preclude the teacher, on the other hand, from later becoming a can- didate for a more desirable place, though teachers seldom remain less than seven to ten years in the same commu- nity. Teachers may be expelled from their positions only on account of gross immorality or misfeasance in office. The deanery council may also suspend them temporarily for neglect of duty, until an investigation can be made by the Ministry of Education. If it appears that a SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS teacher has outgrown his usefulness in a given community on account of incompatibility of temperament, or by having " got into a rut " or the like, he may be trans- ferred to some school where he will fit in better. The rural teachers are mature men and women, a fact which will appear from Tables VIII and IX. Prin- cipals and teachers of one-room schools show the highest age. " Second teachers " seem to reach promotion to these positions at the age of thirty to thirty-five. None of the assistant teachers is over thirty. A few irregular teachers in temporary schools are even below twenty; but these, it must be recalled, are not teachers as legally understood. TABLE VIII AGE OF MEN TEACHERS RURAL ONLY g g ^d ;f ff r S5 ? ? r 3 ? a t! 3 I* Q |/> 6 in Q A k 5 W W * * i0 >o K H Principals . . _ 12 96 173 211 I9O 222 168 153 141 87 14 _ 1467 One-room schools 26 179 267 226 213 228 175 143 120 71 3 I 1652 "Second teachers" X 175 193 91 36 16 20 14 IO 6 3 i - 566 Primary . . - 20 3 2 25 Provisional . . a 8 5 a 3 3 2 2 I 2 i - 31 Winter schools 5 25 6 s 4 6 5 4 I I - 62 Others . . . - 2 3 i i 2 - 9 Total . . . 8 266 484 539 479 428 479 364 3" 269 I6 3 19 3 3812 140 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS TABLE IX AGE or WOMEN TEACHERS RURAL ONLY ! 1 (k V) M * ! f 3> o> T n I I * I o> E >o i f 3 1 o t~ 9 1 I Principals . . __ _ _ One-room schools 2 I - - 3 " Second teachers" 5 85 S3 56 60 42 26 15 3 i 2 393 Primary . . . 2 144 217 163 99 59 43 28 4 8 i 3 771 Provisional . . 4 II 8 7 4 2 3 I i i i - 43 Winter schools 21 93 57 17 ii 5 8 2 i i - - 216 Others . . . 2 7 6 2 3 2 I 3 - i 27 Total . . . 2Q 37 373 242 170 129 9 8 59 24 13 3 6 1453 Practical Results. Professional training and long tenures have been wrought with great influence on rural community life. The teachers are trained for country life and understand its needs. They enter upon their tasks, knowing that they have time to rear well and fundamentally. This results in a community leadership which cannot be hoped from peripatetic teachers, as in the case with teachers in most American rural districts, who remain in country schools for a term or two, and use them as stepping-stones to town school teaching or other occupations. Danish rural districts can count hundreds of teachers who would not exchange their posi- tions for a first-rate inspectorship in Copenhagen all be- cause they have been enabled by these fortunate arrange- SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 141 ments to hew out for themselves, where they are, an im- portant niche in the educational life of the people. Rural Teachers are Well Paid : Reasons Why. In Denmark, as elsewhere in Europe, teaching is as much a profession as law or medicine or theology. Every teacher is a professional teacher. Eminent preparation is required of all ; but the state in return pays for the services in a way commensurate with the time and effort used in preparation. Every hamlet and city realizes that education is essential to success in life. Since the disastrous war with Prussia and Austria, in 1864, Den- mark has more than regained the population and wealth that were lost in that disaster, chiefly through its school- masters, who have been indefatigable in the educational campaigns which have placed the kingdom well in the forefront of nations intellectually and industrially. The teachers are rewarded furthermore with a high social ranking. Scholarship is respected and reverenced alike by high and low; all classes look up to the teaching fraternity because of its importance to the State. What the Teacher Remuneration Comprises. The Ordinance of 1908 made very satisfactory provisions for the care and keep of rural teachers. The following points are of particular interest : i. Salary. " First teachers " and teachers of one- room schools are engaged at a beginning salary of not less than nine hundred kroner nor more than fourteen 142 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS hundred kroner to be paid, monthly in advance, by the commune. The State adds to this amount at the rate of two hundred kroner each fourth year until a total of a thousand kroner has been reached. In this way it becomes possible to draw twenty-four hundred kroner per annum upon the completion of the twentieth school year. " Second teachers " and women teachers are paid according to a similar sliding scale, although the beginning salary is less. The commune pays them not less than seven hundred kroner nor more than nine hundred kroner. The state thereafter makes specified increases. Teachers in many " trading-places " which in the United States would be rated as rural get the same pay as the teachers of the large provincial towns. Men begin with fifteen hundred or sixteen hundred kroner and may get increases up to twenty-eight hundred or three thousand kroner. Women begin with fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred kroner and may in time reach nineteen hundred or two thousand kroner. This can be seen at a glance from the figures on the opposite page. 2. Home. All teachers are provided with com- fortable homes. These are built and owned by the com- mune, which looks after the upkeep. If the home does not come up to the required standards, the teacher can have recourse to law. In a few instances where it is SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 143 PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS or ONE-ROOK SCHOOLS LOWER SCALE HIGHER SCALE Kroner First 4 years 900 Next 4 years noo Next 4 years 1300 Next 4 years 1500 Next 4 years 1700 Next 4 years 1900 SECOND TEACHERS AND WOMEN TEACHERS First 3 years 700 Next 3 years 850 Next 3 years 1000 Next 3 years 1150 Next 3 years 1300 Next i year (for men only) . . . 1500 After 20 years (men) 1 700 After 20 years (women) .... 1500 MEN TEACHERS (TRADING PLACES) First 4 years 1500 Next 4 years 1700 Next 4 years 2000 Next 4 years 2300 Next 4 years 2500 Following years ........ 2800 WOMEN TEACHERS (TRADING PLACES) First 4 years 1400 Next 4 years 1500 Next 4 years 1600 Next 4 years 1700 Next 4 years 1800 Following years 1000 Kroner 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 9OO 1050 1200 1350 1500 I7OO IOOO 1700 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 necessary to procure accommodations outside of the school grounds, the commune pays the rent. 3. Fuel. Housing under the law includes all fuel 144 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS necessary to heat the house in comfort, including also what is necessary for kitchen purposes. 4. Garden. A well-planned and planted garden plays an important role in the teachers' remuneration. This ranges hi size from one half or one third acre for the principal to one eighth or one twelfth of an acre for the other teachers. In case the lay of the land or con- sistency of the soil makes it impracticable to provide gardens, money ranging from something like twenty- five to three hundred kroner may be accepted in lieu of them. 5. Perquisites. The old school " lots " mentioned above still furnish considerable income in a few sec- tions. Here the teachers also receive a stated amount of fodder annually, enough to winter two cows and six sheep. Finally, there are specific incomes from the positions of church chorister, organist, and church fees. The " first teacher " usually has charge of the choir, getting for his services one hundred to two hundred kroner. The " second teacher " generally plays the organ, which nets him one hundred kroner or more. To make this matter of remuneration as clear as possible it may be well to use the following illustration taken from an average school near the center of the island of Fiinen. The three teachers of the school made the following showing : SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 145 REMUNERATION OF RURAL TEACHERS Teachers Com- mune State House Fuel Garden Church Total Kroner Kroner Kroner Kroner Acre Kroner Kroner Kroner "First" teacher 1400 IOOO 480 250 i ISO 1 2O 3400 "Second" teacher IOOO IOOO 300 I2S t^ 40 100 2S6S Woman teacher 700 600 300 I2S & 40 1765 A Good Living for Rural Teachers. Thirty-four hundred kroner amounts to about $920 in the American equivalent. This is a considerable sum as teaching goes. But if it is to be a just basis for comparison the greater purchasing power of the Danish equivalent must be kept in mind. As things go to-day the thirty-four hundred kroner has a purchasing power in Denmark equal to from $1500 to $1800 in the United States. This may be observed in the figures used hi estimating the value of house rent and fuel. The seven-room modern house, for example, is figured at about $10 per month an equally good house would cost twice as much in the United States. But to make the figures really effective they might be compared with salaries paid in our own country, where the average annual salary of all teachers, rural and city, is now $485. Just what the rural teachers are getting cannot be said with absolute exactness. But in 1910, this amounted to only $296.93, according to figures compiled by the writer from the reports of thirty states. The past three years have shown a material increase so 146 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS that the amount is no doubt considerably above the $300 mark. Even then it is scarcely more than one third of what many teachers of one-room schools get in Den- mark. Old-age Pensions. These might also in full justice be counted as a part of the teacher's remuneration ; they are such, only deferred. Full provision is made by the State to pension superannuated teachers and their widows and children under certain regulations. Under this category come also teachers who have become incapacitated through accident or disease during their years of service. General regulations governing all pensions are these : 1. Regularly employed permanent teachers only are entitled to pensions. This excludes all assistant teachers, apprentice teachers, hour teachers, and the like. 2. The applicant must have been regularly employed for at least five years when the application for pension is made. Exception may be made in a case where the appli- cant has held the same or similar position as assistant teacher before being made permanent. In this way only is it possible to obtain a pension in disregard of the five-year limit. 3. The applicant must be at least thirty years of age at the time of making application, and the cause for retirement can be no other than old age, constitutional weakness, sickness, and the like. Any teacher leaving SALARIES AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS OF TEACHERS 147 the teaching profession to engage in other employment as a life work will not be given consideration. 4. Exceptions to these regulations are made in the case of teachers who are obliged to discontinue their work on account of having contracted infectious tuber- culosis. All such, no matter whether permanently employed or not, are entitled to an annual pension for life equivalent to two thirds of the average income on their " living " for the last five years immediately prior to retiring. Scale of Pensions. The size of the pension is based upon the entire " living " of the teacher i.e. on his cash salary, house, fuel, and perquisites. It is not based on the last year's income, but upon the estimated average of the five years immediately before retir- ing. Here follows the present scale : From o to 2 years' service above five years y^ of the average income during these five years ; from 2 to 4 years' service, -fo of the income ; from 7 to 10, -j% ; from 10 to 20, \ ; from 20 to 21, \\ ; from 21 to 22, f# ; from 22 to 23, $ ; from 23 to 24, f; from 24 to 25, ff ; from 25 to 26, f$ ; from 26 to 2 7> ti I fr m 2 7 to 28, \\ ; from 28 to 29, f $ ; and over 29,!- Widows of teachers on the eligible list are entitled to an annual pension of one eighth of the husband's average " living " during the last five years of his office. This 148 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS rule holds good whether the husband dies during active service or after having been retired. The children of the deceased are, strictly speaking, not entitled to pension, but under the ruling of the Law of 1856, all unconfirmed children of such shall be cared for from a special fund set apart for this purpose. The care of these children, so far as pecuniary aid is concerned, is intrusted to the deanery school directory. CHAPTER X APPLICATION OF THE DANISH SYSTEM TO AMERICAN SCHOOLS General Statement. The elementary rural schools of Denmark have reached their present state of high efficiency as the result of many years of painful develop- ment. The fact that the Danish people are homogeneous and form a small nation has naturally made the process less difficult. When to this be added dire necessity which several times within the past hundred years has acted as a needed spur, one can readily understand the present satisfactory conditions. On the other hand, there are reasons enough why rural school conditions in the United States are no better than they are. Ours is a great nation in the process of making. There is a continuous shifting and changing going on in the country population. Many have been seeking the new lands of the West; others have been moving into the large villages and some to the cities, compelled by the modern industrialism. Much of this shifting process has been wholesome as it has rid agri- cultural communities of many people who are city- minded. 149 150 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS But in this process of reorganization the rural schools and all other factors in country life have suffered much loss. The former have been unable for many reasons to keep pace with the great changes that have been going on. Many of them have become retarded and are unable to cope with the new agricultural conditions. The most hopeful thing about this difficult situation is, no doubt, that educationists all over the country are awake to present needs and are at work to seek and apply the remedies. In some sections of the United States the small rural schools are bound to persist indefinitely, chiefly on ac- count of geographical conditions. Elsewhere, great changes are taking place in school organization. Where need has compelled or conditions for reorganization have been right, thousands of country communities have consolidated, or are in the process of consolidating, the enfeebled schools in natural rural centers, grading the work thoroughly, and in many instances offering as many as four years of high school work. The new schools will be pretty sure to accomplish for the country community what the old have been incapable of doing ; namely, to train the boys to become scientific farmers and the girls practical wives for the farmers. From these schools are beginning to come already many impulses to organize the country people on a more permanent social-economic foundation. APPLICATION TO AMERICAN SCHOOLS 151 A Study of Danish Rural Schools of Value to American Educators. As stated elsewhere, it would be unwise to transplant to the United States educational systems taken from European countries ; yet such countries can often teach lessons of greatest value. The rural schools of Denmark have accomplished certain things which American schools have as yet failed to attain. In part these failures are explainable in natural causes which could not be surmounted; but very often needless disorganization in school policies might have been pre- vented had there been more widespread knowledge of educational conditions as they exist in the older Euro- pean states. The following paragraphs summarize some of the salient things in the Danish system. They contain also some suggestions as to the possible application of some of them to our American rural schools. Teaching hi Denmark a Life Profession. No man or woman is permitted to teach in the public schools who has not completed at least the regular professional course in one of the twenty State accredited teachers' seminaries. Nor can any teacher receive a permanent " call " until he has been tested as a substitute teacher, hour teacher, and so on. This plan tends to weed out those who are unfit. A majority of the teachers remain in the same com- munity for many years, growing up in a way with the 152 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS community, coming soon to understand local needs, and then setting to work systematically to supply them. These teachers are well paid and well housed. The calling is dignified and is held in the highest esteem. Because of these fortunate conditions men teachers generally married men are in a large majority in the schools. To be exact, 82 per cent of elementary school teachers are men. Conditions in the United States. In this country conditions are quite different. A large majority of rural teachers have little, if any, professional training. Many of them are certified as teachers by local authority immediately after leaving the grades. The average ten- ure for all teachers is short, and for rural teachers, it is much shorter. In a great state of the Middle West, last year, 47 per cent of the rural teachers were entirely untried, and in other states conditions are fully as bad. The percentage of men teachers has dropped from 29.9 per cent in 1899-1900 to 21.1 per cent in 1909-1910 and 20.7 per cent in 1910-1911. It is evident that the rural schools of our country will find it difficult to furnish the trained leaders needed in the open country until a staff of professionally trained teachers is placed in charge of the schools. Prevailing conditions in Danish schools would suggest that the professionalizing of our rural teachers might be hastened, (i) by providing, through legal enactment, a liberal APPLICATION TO AMERICAN SCHOOLS 153 sliding-scale salary, increasing definitely with the length of tenure ; (2) by making it obligatory upon the community to erect teachers' cottages, thereby keeping the teachers in the country permanently; and (3) by encouraging teachers' colleges, normal schools, high schools with teacher-training courses, and like institu- tions to organize thoroughgoing departments in country life and country teaching, from which to draw teachers willing and able to undertake the difficult task of teach- ing real farm community schools. Organization for School Maintenance and Supervision. The maintenance of Danish schools through a system of local and State taxes is eminently fair, as it both encourages to greatest local initiative and equalizes educational advantages throughout the Kingdom. School supervision is fairly close and effective, since it works concentrically from the great central authority outward to the smallest rural community. Supervision is left in the hands of several authorities, the one keeping a check on the activity of the other. Special supervisors in charge of music, gymnastics, drawing, sloyd, and such subjects are very effective in their work. In the United States probably nothing has done more to retard the development of the rural schools than the general want of a unit of organization large enough to make the management of the schools efficient, economical, and intelligent. The small independent district of the 154 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS open country has generally proved too small to be in- trusted with final legislation in matters of importance. Especially is this true where the taxing power is con- cerned. The union of several townships into strong administrative and supervisory units is to be commended for the older states where the township (town) is the unit in local government. In the Middle Western and Western States a change should be made from the small district, as well as township, to the county basis of organization. When one school board, elected from the area at large, controls all the schools, a more uniform standard of excellence and equality in school provision is sure to prevail. In sections where the large unit prevails, excellent results may already be seen in the consolidation of weak schools into effective farm schools. The problem of close, helpful supervision is compara- tively easy of solution in densely peopled sections, but will continue as a serious hindrance to good teaching in sparsely settled regions. But, in a general way, things could be materially improved if State departments of education had the use of a number of carefully trained rural supervisors to help local supervisors standardize their work. Finally, local supervisors can scarcely become genuinely helpful before a continuous professional relation is set up between local supervisors and teachers. Enforcement of Compulsory Attendance. School attendance in Denmark is almost ideal. For 1913, only APPLICATION TO AMERICAN SCHOOLS 155 eight hundred and twenty-two children of school age in country districts failed to enter school. Of these, four hundred and fifty-two were abnormal or afflicted with infectious disease and were by law excluded. Only three hundred and seventy were unaccounted for, which for the entire school population makes about one tenth of i per cent. The people in general are so imbued with the idea of education, or, if this is not the case, they have at any rate such wholesome respect for the compulsory- attendance law that they never think of breaking it. The fact in point is that the law is enforced without fear or favor. At the present time thirty-seven states in the United States have compulsory-attendance laws on their statute books ; six have laws which apply to part of their terri- tory only ; and another five have no such laws whatever. Many weaknesses could be pointed to in these laws, though perhaps the most serious is the manner in which the average law is enforced. In most states the enforce- ment is left to local authority, which is often influenced by local prejudice and interests to such an extent that the law becomes practically inoperative. If all the states would follow the example of Connecticut and appoint state agents for the purpose, there would be less difficulty in enforcing the law. 1 1 See "A Comparative Study of Public School Systems in the Forty- eight States," Russell Sage Foundation, New York. 156 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS School Work adapted to Country Needs. The elementary rural schools of Denmark do not pretend to teach agriculture as a practical subject ; they leave that for the agricultural schools to do. But they do teach a love of nature in such a way that the average child early learns to love nature and to live in harmony with its laws. Where there is a genuine love of the soil for its own sake, the work of training the young agriculturists becomes reasonably easy. The schools teach other practical subjects effectively ; but this teaching is never done at the expense of such essential subjects as language, mathematics, geography, and history. Music and gym- nastics hold exceptionally high place in the daily work. Much rural school work is done as thoroughly in some rural sections of the United States as in rural Denmark, although for many reasons uniformly good results are yet far from attainment. But in respect to music and physical education, at least, our schools may learn much from Denmark. Our rural teachers should be required to sing, or at any rate should be able to instruct in music and song. And since flat chests and crooked knees are just as common in rural children as in town children, the teachers may reasonably well be expected to have train- ing in sanitation and physical education, including play. B. AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS CHAPTER XI THE WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS General Statement. The Danish country boys leave the elementary rural school at the age of fourteen or fifteen; then they devote three years or more to practical home and farm tasks. At eighteen they may enter the folk high schools, spending there a winter or two to get as large a share as possible in the cultural subjects. Then at nineteen or twenty or even later they are ready to make a final study of the technical agricul- tural subjects in the local agricultural schools. Although the agricultural schools of Denmark are the direct outgrowth of the folk high schools, let us consider them here instead of after the folk high schools, which are discussed in detail from Chapter XII to the close of the book. The importance to students of a course in the folk high schools before they enter the agricultural schools can scarcely be overestimated. The life at the former schools has a quickening effect upon them ; they learn to think for themselves, and they enter the agricultural 157 158 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS schools ready to appropriate and apply to a larger degree what they find there than could otherwise have been possible. From figures quoted elsewhere it appears that about 50 per cent of all agricultural students have attended folk high schools for one or more winter sessions before entering upon their technical studies. Many agricultural schools, as a matter of fact, require that their matriculants shall have spent some time at the folk high schools before beginning agricultural studies. Captain J. C. la Cour loved to say : " The Danish Agricultural School is the child of the Danish Folk High School, and must, like it, have Christian faith and national life for its basis." The union between the two kinds of schools is remarkably close. In organization and internal management the agricultural schools are very similar to their prototype, the folk high schools. The same democratic spirit of government, the dormitory plan of student life, the great emphasis placed on song and gymnastics, the use of the lecture method whenever feasible all bespeak this. Every agricultural school has its school farm. But, for that matter, so has practically every folk high school. Some of them have even well up towards a hundred acres. It is true that the latter makes use of its land chiefly to aid in the upkeep of the school by furnishing vegetables; and the agricultural schools make use of theirs for laboratory purposes. The amount of practical DALUM AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL NEAR ODENSE. These schools must not be confused with the agricultural college which is in Copenhagen. They are schools of the open country where farm folk learn scientific farming. SMALL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AT LYNGBY. Monument of Captain J. C. la Cour, its founder, and the father of these schools, on the campus in the foreground. WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 159 work varies greatly. Some schools are content to adhere closely to teaching the theory of agriculture. Others have extensive experimental fields, herds of milk cows, great numbers of swine and poultry; at a few schools there are fully equipped creameries for the working up of the milk produced on the school farm and milk hauled in from neighboring farms. Several have well-equipped bacteriological laboratories where problems are worked out of the greatest value to agricultural life. Each separate school strives to formulate its courses to the needs of its own agricultural section. The government-aided agricultural schools number twenty-three, which includes three special agricultural schools for smallhold farmers. It is the purpose to tell below a little of the daily life and work at three typical schools of this kind. Those chosen are Lyngby in Zea- land, Dalum in Fiinen, and Ladelund in Jutland. Lyngby Agricultural School. Lyngby is one of the most beautiful spots in Denmark. It is only seven miles north of Copenhagen, and on this account is visited by foreign commissions and unattached educators more frequently than the other schools. The Lyngby com- munity comprises a whole system of educational institu- tions rather than a single school. There is the Lyngby Agricultural School and, right across the road from it, Grundtvig's Folk High School. A government experi- ment farm lies contiguous to the agricultural school, l6o RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and a most unique agricultural museum adjoins the folk high school grounds. Besides these a cooperative as- sociation of local farmers has experiment fields and sales emporiums in the school community. Lyngby Agricultural School was organized in 1867 by Captain J. C. la Cour and a local association of farmers. This was really an attempt to operate an agricultural school that has as one of its integral parts a folk high school department. But this arrangement did not prove very satisfactory. At least, the folk high school de- partment did not prosper. In 1890 the Grundtvig High School Association (organized to perpetuate the bishop's name in a folk high school) purchased the agri- cultural school and additional land. A group of new buildings was erected for Grundtvig's Folk High School, giving the school at the same time a separate administra- tion. The present status is therefore this : one associa- tion of schoolmen and farmers own both schools; but these have separate principals and separate internal management. Yet they work in the greatest harmony, so far as to use a gymnasium in common, exchanging lecturers and in other ways helping each other. The work, according to expert testimony, has been much more satisfactory to all concerned since the division into two schools. Lyngby Agricultural School is a good illustration of the substantial smaller schools of agriculture. The WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS l6l school farm embraces some nineteen acres only; but Lyngby has the opportunity to make use of important investigations carried on. by the government on its ex- periment farm mentioned above. The students may also draw much inspiration from Grundtvig's Folk High School and from study at the great Danish Agricultural Museum (Dansk Landbrugsmuseum) near by. Lyngby offers two courses for young men one of six and one of nine months. Prerequisites for admis- sion are: (i) some familiarity with farm work, and (2) time spent at some folk high school. The six months' course is : Chemistry (Inorganic and or- ganic). Physics. Study of Soils. Treatment of Soils (Including meadow and moorlands ; irri- gation and draining). Study of Fertilizers. Rotation of Crops. Plant Culture. Study of Weeds. Seed Culture. Plant Diseases. Domestic Animals (Their An- atomy). Breeding of Domestic Animals (Cattle, horses, swine, and sheep). Study of Breeds and Breeding. Judging Horses and Cattle. Diseases of Domestic Animals. Feeding. Horseshoeing and Smithing. Dairying. Farm Machinery. Farm Accounting. Drawing. Surveying and Leveling. Arithmetic. Written Themes. Danish. History of Agriculture. Study of how to overcome Com- mercial Faults in our Do- mestic Animals. 1 62 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS The nine months' course includes all of the above, but is more detailed. Lecture courses in sociology and economics with special reference to rural life are added. Some work is also offered for students who desire to become " control assistants " i.e. local agricultural experts who offer advice in such subjects as dairying, feeding, and fertilization of soils. The Government experiment station is utilizing some one hundred and twenty-five acres of land at this time. The Lyngby station limits its work to cereals and root plants especially adapted to Zealand conditions. Highly scientific experiments are carried on in the comparative values of cereals, clover, roots, and so on. All such work may be observed by the students of the agricultural school. Dansk Folkemuseum is the largest museum of its kind in Denmark. Several large buildings are filled with agricultural implements, and furniture and house- hold utensils, arranged chronologically, covering many hundred years. Here the students have the opportunity to study the evolution in the plow or harrow from the simple wooden affair of the forefathers to the many modern implements. Harvesting, threshing, and dairy- ing may likewise be observed from their primitive beginnings to the present-day labor-saving machinery. Entire farmsteads, with all their outbuildings, two, three, or even four hundred years old, have been moved WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 163 in from various parts of Denmark, Sweden, the Faroes, and Iceland and rebuilt on the museum grounds at Lyngby. The cooperative enterprises carried on in the com- munity can also be utilized to practical ends by the school. Dalum Agricultural and Dairy School. To take the half hour's walk from Odense in Fiinen out to Dalum Agricultural School seemed almost like making a pil- grimage to the shrine of Kristen Kold. His first Rys- linge school, it will be shown in Chapter XII, was moved to Dalby in northeast Fiinen, and hi 1862 Kold opened a more pretentious school at Dalum, where he labored up to the time of his death in 1870. His was a great work and when he died no available man was found to continue what he had begun, with the result that the school eventually closed its doors, not to be reopened before 1886, when it was reorganized by a great school- man, Jorgen Petersen, as Dalum Landbrugskole. This school with Ladelund and Tune make the trio of greatest local agricultural schools in Denmark. It has influenced Danish agricultural life to every corner of the kingdom. Forty-two hundred and sixty-seven students have completed its courses in the twenty-six years of its existence. Of these thirty-one hundred and ninety-eight have returned to the soil as scientific farmers, six hundred and fifty-two have gone into the creameries, 164 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and four hundred and seventeen have become control assistants, or agricultural experts whose business it is to advise the farmers and teach them better agriculture. The average winter attendance is about two hundred and in summer only twenty-five of the most capable students are retained, who get the practical work of the farm by actually doing it under experts. This small group become heads of large farms, managers of dairies, of bacon factories, and of similar businesses. Dalum offers the following courses: 1. Courses for Agriculturists. a. 6 months (November-April) b. 9 months (November-July) c. 3 months (May- July) 2. Course for Dairymen. a. 8 months (September-April) 3. Course for Control Assistants. a. i month (October) COURSES FOR AGRICULTURISTS The six months' course : Requirements for admission are (i) practical knowledge of farm work; (2) com- pletion of a course in a folk high school ; (3) generally, at least twenty years of age. The studies : Chemistry (Inorganic and organic in relation to everyday life). Physics (Mechanics ; heat; electricity; meteorology, etc). Plant Culture (Structure; life; common diseases). Drawing (Geometrical; mechanical, etc). WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 165 Surveying (Field work throughout the spring). Danish (Language; composition; themes). Arithmetic. Farm Accounting (Cash and bank accounts ; fodder and milk accounting; field records; daily and annual settlements). Gymnastics. History of Agriculture (With special reference to Danish conditions). Study of Soils. Dairying (In addition to the regular course, a series of lec- tures of special interest to milk producers is offered, such as treat- ment of milk in the home ; statistics on dairy management, etc.). Farm Management (Farm organization ; rotation of crops ; use of banks and credit unions ; land laws ; communal laws, etc.). Farm Machinery (Study of farm implements ; results of trials and experiments with common farm machinery; preservation and use of machines, etc.). Plant Culture (Preparation of soil ; study of fertilizers ; seed- ing ; harvesting ; history and culture of the most useful plants ; weeds; plant diseases, seed culture, etc.). Domestic Animals (Anatomy; the horse, breeds and breed- ing ; the hog, cow, sheep, etc., in similar manner ; care of all do- mestic animals). The nine months' course : This presupposes the completion of the above six months' course or its equiv- alent in some other school. The course includes all the studies enumerated in the six months' course in addition to three months of advanced work with prac- tical application in laboratory and experiment field, during May, June, and July. The three months' course: This is a continuation 1 66 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS course for old and advanced students. It is practical laboratory and field work chiefly. It covers the months of May, June, and July. COURSE FOR DAIRYMEN The dairy school of Dalum has its own lecture halls, bacteriological and chemical laboratories, a large creamery which manufactures the milk from the school herd of cows and from the farms of the vicinity, and much other modern equipment. The course covers eight months' work, from September to April. The studies : Chemistry Physics Machinery Bacteriology Domestic Animals Dairying Farm Accounting Bookkeeping Arithmetic Penmanship, and Gymnastics Practical Exercises 1. Study of milk in the creamery ; testing for fats, etc. 2. Bacteriological exercises; common bacteriological technique, microscopic cultures, etc. 3. Chemical analyses of a practical kind for the dairy, such as testing for purity, determining per cent of water in butter, etc. 4. Chemical experiments in qualitative analysis deal- ing with the chief inorganic and organic substances. COURSE FOR CONTROL ASSISTANTS The demand for control assistants is so urgent that the school has organized a special course in this field. The WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 167 work is open to men and women of maturity and experi- ence who have already completed an agricultural or dairy course at Dalum or at some agricultural school of equal rank. The work is all advanced. The course includes classwork and lectures on dairying, dairy accounting, study of feeding, study of soil tests and fertilizing ; with practical work in milk weighing, testing for fats, etc., the use of Dr. Gerber's apparatus, keeping records of individual cows, etc. Dalum is a large school. Something like a score of substantial structures have sprung up around Kold's original school building, which is still in use. The experiment fields are large and interesting. The school herds of cattle and swine were the best seen anywhere on our trip. The faculty list includes some of the ablest agricultural scientists in Denmark. The Principal is Th. Madsen-Mygdal, who has done great work for Danish agriculture. Another man of note is Jacob E. Lange who is well known for his great work in horticul- ture. Ladelund Agricultural and Dairy School. This great farm school lies only an hour's walk northwest of Askov, or may be reached in a few minutes by rail from Vejen to Brorup Station. The school embraces fifty or more acres of land divided into home farm, experimental plots, forestry station, and school campus. The latter contains some forty farm and school buildings. i68 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS EXPLANATION or ABOVE-GROUND PLAN 1. Main building. 2. Lecture hall. 3. Classrooms. 4. Classrooms. 5. Collection of classroom materials. 6. Passage. 7. Passage. 8. Heating plant. 9. Study rooms. 10. Gymnasium, ix. Classrooms. 12. Chemical laboratory. 13. Dormitory. 14. Dairy. 15. Dairy. 1 6. Machine house. 17. Machine house. 18. Laundry. 19. Stable. 20. Baths. 21. Cow barn. 22. Hog house. 23. Granary. 24. Manure shed. 25. Hog house and machinery shed. 26. Storehouse. 27. Coal house. 28. Retirade. 29. Greenhouse. 30. Ice house. 31. Peat house. 32. Fuel house. 33. Dairy museum. 34. Hospital. 35. Teacherage. 36. Agricultural museum. 37. Wells and water works. 38. Wells and water works. 39. Manure cisterns. 40. Chicken house. WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 169 The purpose of the school is stated in the following language : " Through the courses of instruction it is sought to give the students who must be acquainted with the practical side of agriculture and dairying such a foundation of knowledge as will enable them to attain a clearer insight into those things which they in practice must labor with, and hence also greater interest, greater returns, and greater joy in their work. This end is sought to be attained, partly by giving the students knowledge of nature that surrounds them, of the forces that are at work and the laws that govern, and before which we must yield and regulate our daily work in field and barn and dairy ; and partly by making known to the students the results of experimentation, of investigation, and so on, in the field of agriculture and dairying results on the basis of which we must shape our practical activities." 1 The school offers courses in agriculture, in dairying, and in the preparation of control assistants. The agriculture courses are three : (i) a five months' course, from November to March, for young farmers who cannot give the growing season to study ; (2) a nine months' course, from November to July, for long-time students; and (3) a four months' continuation course, from April to July, for students who have already taken a short preparatory course. The subjects of instruction 1 Undervisningsplan for 1912. 1 70 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS are practically the same as studied at Lyngby. The continuation course, however, lays great stress on prac- tical field work. The course in dairying includes: chemistry, physics, bacteriology, farm accounting, Danish, drawing, gymnas- tics, bookkeeping (for dairymen), dairy culture, history of agriculture, dairying, rural economics, and practical work in the bacteriological laboratory and school dairy. There are three courses for control assistants six, three, and one month courses. These agricultural spe- cialists devote their time to giving expert advice to the farmers of a given community, and are paid partly by the community and partly by the State. Such experts may be found all over the land testing milk for butter-fat, or the cows for tuberculosis. They make soil examinations and give advice in such matters as what fertilizers to use and what rations to feed. Their work has been especially effective among the older farmers who have not had the opportunities for study now being offered. Students taking control-assistant courses have generally completed some agricultural course before matriculating in the new work. Here emphasis is laid on control accounting, milk testing, bacteriology, and the study of domestic animals. Ladelund Agricultural School is equipped with re- markably strong bacteriological and chemical labora- tories. The latter is used extensively to analyze milk, WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 171 fertilizers, and feeding stuffs from the farmsteads far and near. The school owns a herd of thirty-five red Fiinen cows, some of which yielded 16,500 pounds of milk annually. This milk, together with the milk from many hundred red cows from adjoining farms, is manu- factured into butter and prepared for the English markets at the cooperative creamery which is a part of the school plant. This school creamery handled the past year fully one million kilograms of milk. The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute. It would scarcely do to close this chapter of the book without making some mention of the great mother school of agriculture, the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute (Den Kongelige Veterinaer- og Landbohojskole), situated almost at the center of Copenhagen. The agricultural schools discussed above are mere local schools intended to train practical farmers. The Royal Institute, on the other hand, is a school of research, and offers advanced courses for the training of practical agriculturists, horticulturists, foresters, surveyors, veter- inaries, and blacksmiths. Most of the teachers in the local agricultural schools have been trained in this great school. The college was founded in 1783, at first solely as a veterinary school, but afterwards it was enlarged so as to include agriculture and horticulture. Still later depart- ments were added for surveyors and foresters. In 1892 172 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and 1893 the State contributed about 1,000,000 kroner for further enlargement. The total number of students ranges from four hundred to six hundred. Of these about two hundred belong to the veterinary group. The agricultural group is smaller, seldom passing one hundred and twenty-five. The rest are divided pretty evenly among the foresters and the horticulturists. The attendance is not limited to Den- mark. The reputation of Dr. T. Westerman, Dr. K. Rordam, Professor B. Bang, the great authority on animal tuberculosis, and other members of the faculty is so great that students attend from all over Northern Europe and even from Bulgaria, Greece, and Roumania. It is not the purpose to give the detailed work of the Institute. It is a great institution, comprising many acres covered with massive buildings, wherein are found well-equipped laboratories, libraries, and museums. The school forms the center of all agricultural activity in the kingdom. Here is, for example, the Laboratory for Agricultural-economic Experiments, through which im- portant chemical, bacteriological, physiological, and other experiments in dairying, feeding, and breeding of cattle, swine, and poultry are carried on at selected farms throughout the land. The laboratory pursues continu- ous tests of butter intended for export. Another im- portant arm of the service is the Serum Laboratory, which prepares and distributes various sera, vaccines, and WORK OF THE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 173 preparations intended to stamp out disease of domestic animals. Finally, the twenty-five national experts in agricultural economics (Statens Landokonomiske Konulenter) are connected more or less closely with the Royal Institute. Four do their work under the Ministry of Agriculture, one is attached to the Ministry of Justice, and the re- maining twenty are stationed at the scattered experi- ment farms, and are in direct touch with the school. These specialists lend direct assistance to the local agricultural schools, and in many other ways promote agricultural improvement. CHAPTER XH SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLS OF HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS General Statement. Three special schools have been established for the sons and daughters of smallhold farmers, and, in some of their courses, for the fathers and mothers also. The smallholders face problems which call for special treatment. Seventy-five thousand such farmers must make a living out of from two or three to seven acres of land each. As the regular agricultural schools are organized to answer the needs more partic- ularly of the gaardmand, the husmand sought relief in these schools, which have been opened at Ringsted in Zealand, Odense in Fiinen, and Borris in Jutland. Here follows a brief description of two of these schools Kaerehave near Ringsted, and Fyn Stifts School near Odense. Kaerehave Husmandsskole (Smallhold School). N. J. Nielsen-Klodskov, who is credited with originating the movement for the new schools and who is at present the principal of Kaerehave states the purpose of the schools as being " to prepare leaders who shall make the 174 INTERIOR OF A ONE- TEACHER SCHOOL. ^f v . -?""!> /*/% #*iJi^ / <^ % - 9 LECTURE HALL AT K^EREHAVE SCHOOL FOR SMALLHOLDERS. GROUP OF SUMMER STUDENTS AT K^EREHAVE. SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 175 life of the Danish husmand so honored and recognized that the young sons and daughters of these homes will gladly choose this calling in preference to city life." The schools have indeed already done much to make the smallholders' lot more tolerable and their work more profitable. They prepare the students for intensive scientific farming in the same way as the agricultural schools are doing. But they go even farther in stress- ing the auxiliaries or side lines of agriculture, as chicken raising, rabbit breeding, and bee culture. Many of the smallholds would be unable to make ends meet were it not for the chickens, rabbits, and bees. The smallhold schools also lay an unusual stress on the short courses of eleven or more days time enough to give people who are in the ruts inspiration for a new start ! Kaerehave was founded in 1903, and during the ten years of its existence has instructed fifty-five hundred students ranging in age from eighteen to seventy-five years. The school is the property of Principal Nielsen- Klodskov. A gift of 50,000 kroner from a local phil- anthropist, and a State loan of 60,000 kroner made its foundation possible. Later other friends of the school have given liberally to place it on a solid founda- tion. At this time, the school property, including the experimental farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres, is valued at half a million kroner nearly. The student capacity is two hundred. 176 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS The school equipment of the smallhold schools is at least equal to what may be seen at the best of the agricul- tural schools. Kaerehave has a land area divided about as follows : ten acres used for buildings, campus, parking, flowers, and shrubbery; three acres of beech and oak forest fashioned as an outdoor auditorium for summer meetings; seven acres divided into parcels and used variously for the breeding of chickens, rabbits, hogs, and other fowls and animals; three acres planted to orchard for experimental purposes ; two acres given over to experiments in vegetables and for a school kitchen garden; four acres used exclusively for horticultural experiments; and, finally, ninety-six acres divided into interesting smallhold farms of six, twelve, eighteen, twenty, and forty acres respectively the latter as practical object lessons in how to manage farms of different size. In variety of courses the smallhold schools take first place. Kaerehave offers the following long and short courses : During the Winter Session: Six months' agricultural course for young fanners. Six months' training course for country artisans. Six months' horticultural course for young gardeners. Six months' course in household economics for young women. SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 177 During the Summer Sessions : Five months' course in household economics for young women. Six months' continuation course for agriculturists. Six months' course in horticulture for men. Throughout the Year : Eighteen short courses of eleven working days each, for older men and women, residents of Zealand. New courses open on the first and third Tuesdays of each month except October. Agricultural Courses. The courses, it will be seen, are two of six months each. The first course covers the same ground as is covered in the elementary course in the aver- age agricultural school. It includes work in sanitation, gymnastics, Danish, accounting, history of agriculture, plant culture, domestic animals, farm bookkeeping, sur- veying, practical experimentation, and manual training. By special enactment of the Rigsdag, a liberal sum of money has been set aside for aid to worthy students of the smallhold schools. This is more liberal than in the other schools. For example, a worthy young man of small means may obtain as high as thirty kroner a month to help him through the six months' course mentioned above. This is nearly enough to pay his way through the winter half year. But the practical a,nd theoretical continuation course i 7 8 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS is actually planned to give the student worker an income. According to a law passed in 1908, students who have completed a course in this or other recognized agricul- tural or folk high school may ask admittance to the sum- mer continuation course and receive aid and pay through the Ministry of Agriculture. The daily plan is about as follows : TIME DEVOTED TO FIELD WORK TIME DEVOTED TO INSTRUCTION TIME FOR MEALS 5-6.25 A.M. 4-5 P.M. 6.30-7 A.M., coffee. 7-10.25 A.M. 5-6 P.M. 10.30-11 A.M., breakfast 11-2.30 P.M. 6-7 P.M. 2.30-4 P.M., dinner 7.30-8 P.M., supper The instruction embraces agriculture, plant culture, domestic animals, horticulture, and the auxiliaries of agriculture. Theory and practice go hand in hand. The students are divided into groups, each in charge of teachers and field managers. The practical work is done in the several experiment fields under the direction of the latter. During October the daily instruction is suspended and all time is devoted to work. The students receive ten kroner a month during the first five months and fifty kroner during October, in addition to free tuition, board, and lodging. Such work as this is learning to do by doing. It has proved re- markably satisfactory. A young man who applies his theories to the soil in the sweat of his brow is likely to get SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 179 his agriculture about right. At least so it has proved at Kaerehave, which sends out annually a throng of practical and industrious young farmers who are well equipped for their life work. Courses in Household Economics. The two courses for young women are thorough and fit their students well to take charge of small farm homes where the greatest economy must be exercised to make ends meet. The half-year courses are almost identical, so an out- line of one may answer for both of them. Hygiene and Sanitation (Anatomy of the human body ; laws of health; home sanitation). Gymnastics (New Danish gymnastics). Danish (Reading, composition, and themes). Accounting (Common and applied arithmetic). History (History of civilization, history of literature, church history, history of the North, geography, and sociology). Song (Folk and patriotic songs). Physics (Physics of everyday life). Chemistry (Chemistry of the household). Housekeeping (Preparation of foods, baking, butchering, prac- tical kitchen work, drying and preserving, pickling, etc.). Handwork (Knitting, darning, patching, plain sewing, dress- making, and embroidering). House Management (Relation to domestics, treatment of clothing, the laundry). Sick and Child Nursing (Lectures and practical work). Sloyd (Basketry, patching shoes, work in pasteboard, book- binding, making clothes brushes, etc.). Bookkeeping (Practical household accounting). Plant Culture (Structure, life, treatment, and improvement; l8o RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS kitchen plants, small and large fruit, windbreaks, seed culture weeds). Domestic Animals (Anatomy, life, management ; special study of chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and bees). Practical Work (Practical application in all the above so far as possible). This course is seen to include considerable work of an agricultural nature. The housewife at the average smallhold works her own garden and may, in a pinch, help in the field. A considerable number of women still work regularly in the Danish fields; but these are chiefly Polish and Russian girls, who are glad to do a man's work, thereby escaping the worse condition of their old home. Needy young women may procure aid on the same terms as the young men. In this way they may draw from the State, upon application through their home commune, as high as thirty kroner monthly for not to exceed five months. Eleven-day Courses for Mature Men and Women. By far the most interesting are the short courses of eleven days each. A special appropriation has been made to aid men and women of small means to take advantage of them. Any person who by reason of his occupation can profit by such a course is eligible to aid. The total cost of the course is thirty kroner. And the amount of aid is usually enough to cover both this and such other expenses as railroad fare to and from the school. The practical lessons learned in the short courses are SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS l8l unquestionably many and important ; but the inspiration gained from contact with other people with problems to solve, is even greater. Many a smallholder has re- turned home from the short courses with a new outlook on life, and with courage in the heart for renewed effort. " When my wife returned home from her eleven days at Kaerehave," says one man, " she looked eleven years younger than when she left home." And so it is down the line with others. Fyn Stifts School near Odense. This school, also known under the name of Odense Husmandsskole, was organized by the United Associations of Smallholders in the Island of Fiinen in 1908. The institution is leased to the present principal for ten years, as the universal experience in Denmark has been that the success or failure of all these schools is closely bound up with the individuality of the one man at the head. The purpose of the school may be stated from the school catalogue in these words : " It is to give the students a good spiritual awakening and general guidance, and to offer them such knowledge of the professional subjects as shall enable them to take their place in the body politic and community as independent citizens, as farmers, in such ways that they may live economically independent lives, and make the most of their lot as smallholders. The purpose is, moreover, to give such knowledge and understanding of the auxiliary lines of l82 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS agriculture that the smallholder may be enabled to keep his entire family together, each member to work at some specific avocation at home." The instruction is similar to that of Kaerehave. It embraces long and short courses for young farmers, with special application to smallholds ; two courses for young women to aid them in their difficult role as helpmeets on these small farms ; two courses for artisans carpen- ters, masons, etc. and two courses for control assist- ants. But here, too, of greatest interest are a number of short courses for men and women, young and old, living in the open country. At this point the school is very close to the people, and why should not every school project itself into the midst of the people, to aid in solving their daily life problems? The investigator found at Odense middle-aged and old men and women mingling in classes with young men and women in their best years the ages ranging from twenty-five to seventy- five years but all with life problems to solve. Some come to get new insight into potato culture, others make a two-weeks' study of soil from their own land, or others take up bee culture, rabbit breeding, or chicken raising ; and they all gain enough stored-up inspiration to tide them over the hard places of the future. It is hard to say whether this school or Kaerehave attracted us the most. Both of them are well built and SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 183 well equipped. Their grounds and experiment plots were especially full of interest. The school lies in an area of sixty-five acres. The main building is set in a beautiful lawn of several acres. In the left foreground is a complete model smallholding of seven areas. In the right foreground are the outbuildings of the larger farm (twenty-five acres) which furnishes the school with vege- tables, milk, and meats. There is also a horticultural experiment station of some seventeen acres, for the cul- tivation of small and large fruit, including a large kitchen garden and individual garden plots for students. An- other part of the farm has a modern hennery, a rabbi try, and an apiary. There is even an area of mulberry trees for silkworm culture. The model smallholding of seven acres deserves a few words in passing. Upon it a model home has been erected, adapted to the size of the farm. It contains a suite of four rooms for the family, a barn for the cows and stall room for a horse, besides room for grain, fodder, and machinery. And all of this is under one roof but it is all built so substantially and is kept so clean that it never becomes unsanitary or a nuisance. Over the stall of each cow is kept a record of the weekly production in milk and butter-fat; and if a cow should fall below a certain minimum it would go immediately to the butcher. Because the smallholder's land is very limited, dwarf apple trees and long-stemmed cherry trees are grown, 1 84 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS the latter often along the driveways where they combine the useful with the attractive. Dwarf apple trees are planted from nine to ten feet apart. Some of them yield amazingly. A perfect system of rotation is fol- lowed in the smallhold. Every foot of ground is utilized and records are kept of everything produced and sold, and everything purchased. The young farmers who make a special study of this model smallhold are able to attack their own farm problems with eyes wide open. Rural Schools of Household Economics. Separate schools to prepare country girls for their later life respon- sibilities is a comparatively new thing in Denmark, although housemother schools have been popular in the towns for many years. Not more than a dozen rural schools of this sort are yet recognized by the state, though seventeen or more are in operation. All of the folk high schools offer summer courses for young women, especially of the inspirational order, and several thousand students attend them annually. Class- work in sewing and needlework, lectures on sanitation and other important themes, are included in these summer courses. But this has never been considered sufficient preparation for the responsibilities of house- keeping. It is an old custom in Denmark to send the young women, as soon as betrothed, to some large country home the manse or the home of the country squire to take a year's work in practical housekeeping. SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 185 This has unquestionably been a fine training for Danish housewives. But even the best homes are not expected to know many of the latest things which science is thrusting upon the schools and which schools alone can supply. With the demand for agricultural schools in which to train scientific young farmers came a natural insistence that the helpmeets of these young men should be afforded equal opportunities hence the rural schools of household economics. The schools are built in the open country or on the outskirts of some rural-minded village. It usually has land enough three to five acres to furnish vege- tables, milk, and butter for school consumption. A first- class vegetable and fruit garden is used as a laboratory where the young women do much individual work. The flower garden, too, receives its share of attention. The young women are expected to reside at the school during their continuance there. The courses are usually six months in length. This enables the schools which often run the entire year to train two sets of students each year. The buildings are equipped with model kitchen, dining room, living room, and chambers, all of them intended as models for practical farm homes. Some idea of the scope and thoroughness of the schools may be obtained from the following brief description of one such school Haraldsborg near Roskilde. 1 86 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Haraldsborg School of Household Economics. This school lies on the beautiful ridge of hills overlooking Roskilde Fjord, about twenty minutes' walk from the railway station. The housemother, Fru Anna Bransager- Nielsen, limits the number of resident students to thirty- five, who are treated as members of the family. These are grouped for convenience into five families of seven each. At the time of our visit, three families had charge of the model kitchen, one family was occupied in the living-rooms and bed chambers, and the re- maining family was hard at work in the dressmaking rooms. The school is a marvel of neatness. What seemed most valuable in this system of preparation was not so much what the young women learned to do, as the right habits of life inculcated with the work of the day. Haraldsborg is large enough to produce the vegetables, milk, meats, etc., consumed at the school. Four acres are devoted to lawn and flowers, and ten acres to the farm, which keeps a span of horses, a couple of cows, and some pigs. The course of study includes the following subjects: Natural Science (Chemistry and physics, with special reference to the household). Housekeeping (Preparation of foods; food values, theory of household economics ; household accounting ; baking, butchering, curing meats ; pickling, cleaning house, dining-room work, wash- ing, and ironing). SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 187 Handwork (Plain sewing, dressmaking, patching, darning, fine needlework and embroidery) . Sanitation (Study of human anatomy; laws of health, home sanitation). Garden Culture (Care of kitchen, fruit and flower gardens, preparing vegetables and fruit for keeping and winter use). Other Subjects (Song, gymnastics, literature, rural sociology, and reviews in any of the elementary subjects wherein the students may prove deficient). C. FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS CHAPTER XIII THEIR EVOLUTION Influence of the Folk High Schools in the Agricultural Evolution. The four score folk high schools, reared here and there over the land, have been the leavening force at work in the national lump, bringing about most of the changes enumerated in Part I of this book. They came into being at a time when the nation was politi- cally distraught and needed a healing and unifying influ- ence. This the schools furnished. They succeeded in harmonizing the discordant elements and binding all classes together in the common bond of love of fatherland. Duty and opportunity became watchwords. The edu- cated classes seized upon this opportunity and gave the best they had in them for their country; the ignorant became educated and in time formed a great working force for a better Denmark. Just how the folk high schools have been instrumental in Denmark's political rebirth, and how they have led the way to its present economic independence will be told in detail later. Let it suffice now to say that while the 1 88 THEIR EVOLUTION 189 schools do not immediately emphasize the so-called worldly-practical, they do give something instead that has proved of vastly greater importance a broad culture, furnishing its possessor with a keen world-out- look, making him altruistic, strong in love of God and fellow man, of home and soil and native land. Above everything else, the life lived in the schools imparts a deep confidence and trust in man to man, thereby making possible all the remarkable cooperative enter- prises spoken of elsewhere. And last of mention, the folk school life has made clear to its students that success in life should be measured by standards other and higher than mere money standards, and with such practical results that achievement for land and people is in Den- mark esteemed to-day far above successful accumulation of wealth. The teacher, the preacher, the economist, who gives his best for his country holds higher rank than the man who has heaped up great fortunes. Testimony of Leading Economists and Schoolmen. That the folk high schools are to be credited with organiz- ing and systematizing Danish agriculture seems almost incredible at first. Foreign educators and parliamentary and congressional commissions have come to study the schools in skeptical mood and have gone away convinced. One needs go no farther than take the testimony of the Danish leaders themselves. On all his trip of investiga- tion, the writer could find no man willing to give the credit RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to an organization other than the folk high schools. To be sure, many would point to contributory causes and the good work of the local agricultural schools ; but even these are the "rightful children" of the folk high schools. Says Poul la Cour, the late lamented scientist of Askov : " Just as an enrichment of the soil gives the best conditions for the seeds sown in it, so the horizon-broaden- ing, well-grounded training of the folk high schools provides the surest basis for business capacity, and not the least so in the case of the coming farmer." So much for the general cultural value of the folk high school education. Speaking on another occasion in regard to the almost phenomenal spread of cooperation, he says : " The resoluteness and capacity with which Danish farmers passed over from making a quantity of poor butter on the smaller farms and holdings up and down the country to the manufacturing in cooperative dairies of a butter of almost uniform fineness is no doubt the consequence of their having had expert leaders like the late N. J. Fjord, without whom no progress could have been made. But the question remains how a great agricultural population in so short a time could be induced to follow directions and carry the matter through." By way of getting an answer to his query, Mr. la Cour sent out a questionnaire to nine hundred and seventy cooperative dairies and two hundred and sixty dairies of THEIR EVOLUTION IQI a private nature. Unfortunately, only four hundred and thirty-six of these made answer; but even this was sufficient to give a good idea of how these leaders are trained. The answers showed that of the men in charge of the plants, 47 per cent had attended some folk high school, 62 per cent some dairy school, 24 per cent had attended some local agricultural school, and 90 per cent had been at one or another of these schools, which are all imbued with some degree of Grundtvig's philosophy. Principal Alfred Poulsen of Ryslinge speaks in similar vein on the same subject. " The quickness and preci- sion," he says, " with which this change was carried out is due partly to the leading agriculturists of our country and partly to the high schools. By their help a set of young, energetic men were brought up to understand the importance of the new ideas, and to secure the success of the new principle of cooperative manufacture. Some of them, after a very short course of professional instruc- tion, were able to undertake the responsible work as managers of the larger and smaller cooperative dairies." l Hon. M. P. Blem of Copenhagen, one of the keenest of the modern agricultural leaders, in conversation with the writer declared that " the greatest factor in our national agricultural life is the high schools ; for at these a staff of able young men and women is annually being trained and sent out, men and women who, with open 1 Poulsen, "The Danish Popular High School," p. 14. 192 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS eye and undaunted courage, go out into practical farming life and with energy and understanding perform the work they have been trained and perfected in." * Sir Horace Plunkett, who has himself made a careful study of agriculture in Denmark, says : "A friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of state aid to agriculture, found this [that the extraordinary national progress was due to the folk high schools] to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised for the pro- duction of the finished article. He at first concluded that this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists of the country put it to him : ' It's not technical instruction, it's the humanities.' " 2 A great mass of similar evidence could be furnished to show how the folk high school influence is viewed by those intimate with the schools ; but enough testimony 1 See also M. P. Blem, Report of the Cooperative Movement in Denmark, p. 7. 1 Sir Horace Plunkett, "Ireland in the New Century." THEIR EVOLUTION 193 has already been introduced to satisfy the reader on the point of the importance of the part played by them in Danish national life. It is now time to ask just how these schools originated, and how they have grown into their present power and influence. These queries will be answered in the following section. Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872). To tell the story of the beginnings of the Danish folk high schools is virtually to unfold the narrative of the long and useful life of its originator, Bishop Grundtvig. This master mind dominated the educational and theo- logical world in the North for nearly three quarters of a century, and placed the indelible stamp of his spirit upon the national life in Denmark and, to a lesser degree, in Norway and Sweden. Poet, philosopher, historian, and educator, not only did he become the schools' spiritual father, but his philosophy of civilization has come to form the pedagogical foundation of the schools, and his religious zeal has given them their marked charac- teristics, making these schools distinctive in the educa- tional world. Grundtvig came of an ancient, worthy family. From his mother, who sprang from an ancestry renowned in national annals, he inherited a love of historic research. He lived in a world of books till the age of nine, when, according to the custom of the day, he entered the house- hold of a minister near Vejle, on the edge of the gloomy IQ4 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Jutish heather, where he spent six years in preparation for the Latin school. While roaming the heather, young Grundtvig became intimate with the somber life of the folk living on the monotonous moor, a fact which stood him well in stead when his life work for the common people began. In 1798 he entered the Latin school at Aarhus and spent there, as he later tells, two wasted years. For this institution was one of the narrow, scholastic type preva- lent in those days, where natural boys were compelled to absorb much Latin and catechism through a meaningless memoriter process. The result of it all was that from this time onward Grundtvig became the irreconcilable foe of the old aristocratic Latin schools with their deaden- ing formalism and disdain for the masses of the people. In 1800 he came to Copenhagen to prepare for his univer- sity entrance examinations. Here he almost immediately fell under the influence of Dr. Steffens, the friend of Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, and Schelling, through whose inspiring lectures he was first carried into a new thought world of philosophy, history, and literature, which was later destined to change his entire life and the thought- life of the nation. An impossible love affair awakened the poetic in Grundtvig's nature, who despairingly strove to drown his passion in Goethe, Schiller, and Shakespeare. His poems and translations soon began to appear in leading periodi- THEIR EVOLUTION IQ5 cals. Especially did he enter heart and soul upon the study of Norse mythology, and in 1808 his great work, " Norse Mythology," was published. His fame im- mediately spread over northern Europe, Frederik Schlegel in his enthusiasm proclaiming Grundtvig Den- mark's greatest poet. These had been trying years for the war-pressed nation. The unwelcome alliance with Bonaparte ; the desperate naval battle with Lord Nelson's English fleet in Copen- hagen harbor ; later the bombardment of Copenhagen ; the desperate though hopeless resistance of the remnants of a one-time proud naval force all had a paralyzing effect on the feeling of nationality among the masses. At least so it seemed to the young enthusiast, who with sorrow contrasted the time in which he lived with the days when Danish ravens scoured every sea and Norse viking names struck terror in craven hearts. The people, he felt, no longer knew the glorious story of Valhalla and the ancient gods. Their very origin, as sons of the free, unconquered North, even seemed to have lost its mean- ing. He must write and translate and through books acquaint this people with their own glorious past and so inspire them to future deeds! Thus began long years of literary activity, making him, perhaps, the most volu- minous of Danish writers. In spite of the fact that his manuscripts would have filled at least 30,000 octavo pages he was in no sense a 196 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS bookworm. His was properly a great pan-Germanic spirit, ever striving for expression. It has been said of Grundtvig " that he dreamed so mightily that he made a world thereof." His researches, so patiently carried on, were not for the mere love of study but for the fruits he could bring the people. Poetry was to him the language of the heart, through which he best could touch respond- ing chords in the hearts of others. Meanwhile, Grundtvig had completed his theological education and entered the active pastorate. Almost immediately he found himself plunged into a struggle against all that was false and formal in the state church. This led to an open break with officialdom and high church dignitaries. Finally, the pulpit was closed against his polemics, but not before the demand for reforms had gone too far to be checked ; and Grundtvig lived to see a new freedom in church organization adopted by the country, in keeping with the other reforms in- spired by him. In 1828 Grundtvig retired from the active ministry, and the historian, poet, and student of research in him again steps into the foreground. During the great activity of this period he translated Snorre Sturlason's Heimskringla from the Icelandic, and put Saxo Gramma- ticus' Chronicles of Denmark from Lathi into homely Danish. Similarly, he translated Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon into Danish. These gigantic tasks were THEIR EVOLUTION 1 97 inspired by a love for the masses, in a desire to make the great literature of the Old North available to all. His purpose was to bring the glorious past to the common people in such simple and attractive garb that the slumbering memories of a great ancestry would stir the discouraged among them to renewed effort. Nor were his hopes misplaced, as shall be seen. About this time, Grundtvig made several trips into England, where he pursued his researches at Oxford and Cambridge. Here it came to him as an unpleasant shock that England had a throbbing, pulsating folk life which stood in striking contrast to the sluggish indiffer- ence of the peasantry at home. Again he had found his spur to further effort. When he returned home it was as a Columbus " with sunshine in his eye and a new world in his heart." " Awake ! Awake ! O Danish Knighthood, Day and Deed spell Hero Rhyme." " By this time," says Dr. Hollmann, " he was clear in his own mind that books are the shadows only of the liv- ing word ; his own experience had clearly enough taught him that no people can be roused by books alone, even though these may be ever so soulful. He even went so far as to smile at his own impatience, that neither the old nor the new writings could give new life to the Norse spirit and the Danish tree of life." l From now on, 1 Hollmann, Dr. A. H., "Den Danske Folkehojskole," p. 20. 198 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS plans for a school that could bind all classes together through a common folk culture were gradually taking form in his mind. At first it looked as though Grundtvig might organize the work in person ; but this was not to be. He became reconciled to stand as the great inspirer and left the practical realization to others, perhaps better fitted for this phase of the work. Grundtvig and the Gospel of Youth. " Youth," asserts Grundtvig, " is the creative period of the spirit when the great hopes and visions appear that foreshadow the period of maturity, and when the soul reaches out for the cloak that fits it." He would place the youth under inspired and inspiring teachers at a time when impressionable to the noblest ideals in life. There must be an awakening of the spirit. The youth are to be taken in hand towards the close of the period of adoles- cence when all young people are ready ' to hitch their little wagon to a star,' when the fires of hope burn bright. To get them to pause, to think, to ask themselves the questions, " What are we? " and " Why are we? " to turn introspectively and examine into their own souls in search of the purpose of life ... all this is the first work of the " inspirers." With some glimmer of comprehen- sion of life purpose comes the birth of altruism and love of fellow man. Now the awakening is carried on apace. It is to be Christian, historical, national, and individual. Such work calls for great teachers men who are THEIR EVOLUTION 199 " gifted with enthusiasm for what is historically true, ethically noble, and esthetically beautiful " ; and for "a continuation of the best home influence, only intensified and broadened." l Denmark has been fortunate in such teachers, and the schools, in their daily life, furnish the intensified home influence. Grundtvig abhorred the narrow humanistic schools of his day. He called them " the black school " and the " school for death." " The chief characteristic of the prevailing humanism," he asserted, " was to turn its back upon the homelike and ' folkly. ' The Roman flood, as he called the learning of the day, was a tragedy which had robbed the north-European nations of much of what was innermost and best. The schools had given stones instead of bread, and filled the youth with ques- tionable impressions of a foreign culture at the expense of their own virile northern culture. Grundtvig had practical reasons as well for com- bating the so-called learned schools of his day. " All these institutions have the fault," he said, " that they embitter their students against ordinary work-a-day activities, so that they lose all desire to handle hammer, tongs, and plow, and can no longer feel happy in the ordinary manual activities." 2 The learned schools trained the few to become professors in the university and 1 Bay, John Christian, Conference for Education in the South, 1911, p. 163. * "Smaaskrifter," p. 181. 200 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to hold " fat livings " in government office. Meanwhile, the masses were left to shift for themselves. The folk high school philosophy came as a powerful protest against this prevailing system and led to its ultimate overthrow. Grundtvig's Early Ideas of What the School should Be. The great bishop never outlined a definite plan for the school; but he did promulgate, from time to time, as his ideas on the subject became crystallized, the great working principles around which the school is built. It was left for Kristen Kold and others to make the practical application in the school. First of all, the ultimate aim of the schools must not be " examinations followed by a government living " but rather a culture, an enlightenment, which shall be its own reward. The main thing must be, " that which is living, mutual, and simple " that which every man can afford to seek because it is both useful and will add zest and enjoyment to life. Secondly, books must not be unduly emphasized. This does not mean the wholesale condemnation of books, but is a protest against the useless heaping up of book-learning for no other purpose, seemingly, than to pass an examination. Books will continue as necessary compendiums, that is true. But in the new schools, the voice from the speaker's stand shall wing the teacher's personality to the students, so that individual students may feel their own personality quickened into life. THEIR EVOLUTION 2OI Again, the method used in presenting the subjects is as important, if not more so, than the subject matter. Grundtvig exclaims, "It is in nowise enough al- though necessary in the Danish folk high schools to strive to acquaint the youth with the mother tongue, with history, sociology, and statistics, with constitution and law, administration and municipal affairs ; for this might all be done in such a stiff, dead, tiresome, and even ' un-Danish ' way that the folk school would become an empty shadow or a land plague." l The school was to be based on the historic-poetical and above all have a decided national stamp. That Grundtvig should em- phasize the national element above everything else is readily explainable in the Danish struggle for national existence, crowded and threatened by the world powers as was the kingdom. The use of the Danish " folkelig," which everywhere appears in Grundtvig's system, carries a deeper meaning than our " popular." The German " Volkisch " comes nearer to expressing it. It is " popular," but it is " pop- ular " in its nationalistic setting. When Grundtvig emphasizes the national element as necessary in the schools, he " meant thereby, what he himself was a deep national personality, grown up in the historic soil of the fatherland, bearing the imprint of its language, and soul-inspired by its ' folkly ' peculiarities." 2 1 "Smaaskrifter," p. 181. * "Den Danske Folkehojskole," p. 25. 202 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS In consequence, the folk high school should concern itself first of all with the fatherland, with its nature, its history, its needs, its occupations, and its shortcom- ings. First in the list of subjects must come the mother tongue and all that belongs to it literature, song, music, and the like. The folk high school has been highly successful in teaching its students to express themselves in pure, ringing Danish, and to sing the virile folk songs and hero ballads. Likewise, it has created a taste for the fine old Norse Sagas and the best in more recent literature. All this may seem to vary in nowise from the ordinary curriculum. One must be in the schools and follow the methods used, and feel the spirit of the students to under- stand fully. Grundtvig himself used the purest of Danish and his prose writings have had a purifying effect on the language; his psalms are sung everywhere in Danish churches, and his folk songs, to this day, hold first place in the average home. To digress a little here, Dr. Hollmann, who has studied the schools carefully, has this to say about the remarkable influence of language study in the folk high schools on the nation at large : " The foreigner is surprised as a rule, when he hears that in Denmark plain peasants are the leaders of debate in the Rigsdag and control the more important government offices ; and he is even more surprised when he has the opportunity to hear THEIR EVOLUTION 203 them give their views on important questions in the Rigsdag or at agricultural meetings. . . . The foreigner will, perhaps, be even more surprised, when he hears in the Danish folk high schools lectures given to young people of nothing more than ordinary common school preparation, on Hegel, Schleiermacher, and the more modern philosophical and social problems." l The " living word " in these schools does not usually concern itself with what one would call "popular" lectures; it strives to make real thinkers out of the sturdy, red-fisted youths on the school benches, by offering the best food for thought ; and it teaches them to express themselves in pure, incisive Danish. Then, again, the schools must be supplied with teachers able to use the " living word " so intimately, so soulfully, so poetically as to bridge the span between speaker and hearers. This is really the very foundation of the folk high school system and the secret of its success. Those of the teachers who have been most successful in their work have not been noted for great oratorical gift, nor have they employed the intimately technical methods of the searching scientist. The middle ground has been theirs. " These men," says Hollmann, " speak without ecstasy, use no bombastic, flowery language ; but throughout the lecture there courses a deep undercurrent of feeling that goes right to the heart and holds the attention. 1 "Den Danske Folkehojskole," p. 36. 204 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS They speak as would men of a rich inner life concerning the matters they deal with ; much as the rays from a lighthouse that penetrate the surface of the deep, so as to light up for the moment the turmoil of the rolling billows in the otherwise monotonous darkness." l Finally, the work of the school must rest on a historical foundation. The subject matter shall not lay emphasis on mere facts, chronological arrangement, and memori- ter processes. Grundtvig would prefer to see it taught as did the old Norse skjalds or minnesingers, who through fiery song told the valor of old, to spur the living to greater deeds. To him the history of the fatherland was a living story which should be narrated from man to man, from generation to generation. With all this, the practical side of life was not to be neglected. He would empha- size " statistics " or, as now understood, economics and sociology. There should also be an understanding of the constitution and law of the land. Even a study of local municipal affairs is hinted at in some of his writings. It should be made clear here that Grundtvig warns against all manner of technical instruction in the schools. He believed sincerely that such would be impossible alongside of the general culture. Practical agriculture, for example, and the application of cooperative enter- prise through the schools held no place in his plans. 1 "Den Danske Folkehojskole," p. 40. THEIR EVOLUTION 205 It is true that had he lived in our day, he would, with- out question, have included the history of agriculture, the theory of cooperative enterprise, and like subjects in the curriculum. But the fact remains that he did not, and whatever of innovation has come in recent years must be accredited to other leaders. King Christian VIII Invited to Open a " Royal Free School for Life." It early became Grundtvig's dearest hope to see a high school for the people established at historic Soro in Zealand. Here, on the site of one of the most noted monasteries of the Middle Ages, stands " Soro Akademi," the best endowed and most noted classical school in the kingdom aside from the National University. He eagerly set about convincing King Christian VIII of the vast significance of such a step for the future welfare of the people. The Queen, Caroline Amalie, became his enthusiastic ally. " If King Chris- tian VIII, as I gladly hope," says Grundtvig, " opens such a Royal Free School for Life, for popular life in Denmark, he will be able, not merely to smile at the papers when they praise or blame him, but also to rejoice in a popular remedy just as wonderful as our absolute kings ; for he has therein opened a well of healing in the land, which will be sought by crowds from generation to generation and will win this renown, even in distant lands and in far future days, that therein, past counting, blind people received their light, the deaf their hearing, 206 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and the dumb their speech, and that there the halt cast away their crutches and showed clearly that the dance trips it clearly through the wood." l The king was practically converted to Grundtvig's views, and requested him to outline a definite plan for the school. Meanwhile unexpected difficulties were en- countered in the bitter opposition of numbers of the University faculty and the Minister of Education. This led the king to postpone the matter, and with his sudden death in 1848, all hope of realization was abandoned. But probably this was fortunate for the future of the folk high schools. As it later proved, the strength of the school has lain in its leadership ; if this is unworthy, the school being a private enterprise can easily be " snuffed out " and a new one begun by other leaders. For, it should be recalled, the strength of these schools has never been in imposing buildings nor excellent equip- ment but in leadership solely. Rodding Folk High School Founded. It was stated elsewhere that the first of the folk high schools came into being in North Slesvig at a time when national existence was threatened there. The common people were Danish speaking, but the government officials were, for the most part, German sympathizers and adherents of the House of Augustenburg. It is not surprising that the folk high school should take root in such patriotic seed ground. 1 Skolen for Livet og Akademiet i Soer. THEIR EVOLUTION 207 Dr. Christian Flor, who was Professor of Danish language and literature at Kiel University, became the great champion in the movement to establish the Rodding School. When it was opened in 1844 to a score of peasant lads, it would have been hard to see anything in this humble institution to betoken the great future destined to come to the new kind of school. The purpose of the school was stated in the school's first circular and reads as follows : " The aim set is to found an institution where peasant and burgher can attain useful and desirable arts, not so much with im- mediate application to his particular calling in life as with reference to his place as a native son of the land and a citizen of the state. We call it a high school be- cause it is not to be an ordinary school for growing chil- dren, but an institution of learning in part for young people above the confirmation age, in part for full grown men and we call it a folk high school because members of every station in life may gain admittance to it, al- though it is primarily adapted to the needs of the peasantry and from it the school chiefly looks for its students." l Rodding had a stirring existence. The first principal, Johan Wegener, resigned after a year, compelled by financial and other difficulties. Then Dr. Flor, himself, led the destinies of the school until the uprising broke 1 Schroder, "Den Nordiske Folkehojskole," p. 46. 208 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS out against Danish authority in 1848. The school re- mained closed down to 1850 when Dr. Flor once more succeeded in putting it upon its feet. But no sooner had the financial and political difficulties been smoothed over than a difference fraught with the greatest importance to the future of these schools reached a crisis. This was what might be called a struggle between spirit and matter. The faculty was about evenly divided on the question whether the school should continue as a cultural institution or become a school of technical instruction. A heated and often bitter period of discussion followed ; but it ended finally with Grundtvig's philosophy winning the victory. In 1862, one of Denmark's greatest folk high school leaders, Ludvig Schroder, cast his lot with the destinies of Rodding. In 1864, the German war broke out and, again, the school was abandoned. At the conclusion of peace the friends of the institution moved it from Rodding across to the other side of the new boundary line. Here, under the name of Askov Folkehojskole, it has grown under Ludvig Schroder's leadership to become the greatest of all the folk high schools. Rodding could not be called typical of the folk high schools. It was too closely tied up with the purpose of preserving nationality and mother tongue in North Slesvig to make of it such a factor in folk culture as the schools of present-day Denmark have become. THEIR EVOLUTION 209 Kristen Kold (1816-1870), the Real Organizer of the Folk High Schools. Bishop Grundtvig's folk high school ideas were in a sense an abstraction containing certain fundamental principles for a unique national education. But he never reduced his philosophy to the tangible, so as to give expression to a crystallized system, applicable to time and place. This certainly does not diminish the importance of Grundtvig's work in the great cause of popular education. He must continue to stand preeminently as the " great inspirer." Of those who realized Grundtvig's theories in practice, Kristen Kold should have first place and this, not because he did so much more than others, but because he pointed the way and gave the schools the first impetus in the right direction. He was born in 1816, the son of a shoemaker, who originally intended the boy to follow the cobbler's trade. But, after much beseeching, his parents permitted him to become a school teacher. He spent two years (1843-1845) at Snedsted Teachers' Seminary, and this was followed by a period as tutor in private families and as assistant teacher in various schools. It dawned upon him by degrees that the methods of teaching then in vogue were wrong and often even cruel. One day he found a little girl pupil weeping bitterly because she could not learn a difficult explanation in the catechism. Then it was that Kold asked himself, " Can it really be God's will that children be thus tor- 210 RUEAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS tured with learning by rote? " Then and there he broke every established usage in the traditional system ; for, thrusting the book aside, he began talking over the substance of the lesson with the children, explaining it to them in detail, and permitting them to ask questions upon it. This innovation led to a breach with the archdeacon, the bishop, and the Minister of Education, and in a short while the public schools were closed against him. He then spent two years in Smyrna as a missionary. On the way home he became practically stranded at Trieste for want of funds. The indomitable courage of the man can be seen in the way he returned to Denmark. Spending his last penny for a small draw cart, he put all his earthly belongings into this and started northward overland. It took over two months to make the journey ; but, he says, " It was worth it." Kold had the kind of nerve required in those days of the successful reformer ; for to suggest any kind of school reform invariably meant to invite the opprobrium of the whole learned officialdom. Kristen Kold was stirred mightily by the reform move- ment and the wave of liberal thought that swept over Europe during the middle of the last century. He played a humble role in helping to quell the uprising in the Duchies in '48 ; then returning home filled with pride and zeal because of Danish victories against great odds he wondered how such an outburst of national feel- THEIR EVOLUTION 211 ing could be kept alive in the people " so that all its members could take part in the great national questions and live in the national history." Now Kold began a unique experiment. While tutor in the family of the well-known clergyman, Vilhelm Birkedal, he requested and received permission to take in and instruct four young peasants in addition to his regular pupils. The result proved so satisfactory that Kold determined to resign his place and organize a small school of his own. With his savings he secured a piece of land for the school. But, as his means were insufficient to carry out the enterprise, he laid his plans before Grundtvig who immediately headed a subscription list for the new school, at the same time commending Kold to the good offices of other friends of the high school idea. A sufficient sum of money was raised and Kold opened the school at Ryslinge, Fiinen, in the fall of 1851, with fifteen students ranging in age from fourteen to thirty-three years. This was before Kold had decided to follow Grundtvig's advice to exclude all below eighteen years of age. The school gave instruction mostly by the lecture method in the history of the world, in Norse history, Bible history, northern mythology and geography, together with readings in Danish and Scan- dinavian literature, and practice in singing, especially the old folk songs and hero ballads. Considerable emphasis was placed, in addition to this, on a review of the ele- 212 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS mentary school subjects which were now taught in such a way as to make them immediately applicable to daily life. All went well until Kold and his adherents undertook to reform the elementary schools of the island. Then all his opponents rallied against him and for a while it looked dark for the future of the school. But through it all his students were stanch in their support. Finally, a government board was sent to examine and catechize the students to see whether the charge could be substan- tiated that the school taught nothing but foolishness. The crisis in the examination came, according to Kold himself, when the examining dean asked the husky farm lads this question : " Who checked and defeated Atilla the Hun? " But almost instantly a young peasant from Jutland answered : " A'itius." This helped. The board had come in a critical mood and went away con- vinced that the school was doing a genuine work for the community. The commission recommended that the state aid be increased, and thus the school was saved. Before all this happened, Kold had moved his school from Ryslinge to Dalby in northeast Fiinen where he worked successfully for nine years. The number of students grew year by year, necessitating larger quarters. Mr. Kold, accordingly, acquired a farm of considerable size at Dalum, near Odense, where he erected substantial buildings. Here, from 1862 till the time of his death THEIR EVOLUTION 213 eight years later, the great high school man continued his noble work. In those years at least thirteen hundred students sat in his classes, becoming inspired to go out and live right and useful lives. Kold left no writings of value behind ; he was a man of action a man of deeds. His voice has passed away, it is true, but the seed he sowed has multiplied a thousand fold. Says Hollmann : " Kold reminds one in more than one way of the great Greek philosopher, who did service as midwife to bring truth into the world ; he was Socratic too, in the even tenor of his mode of life, as well as in his method." l He had a way of awakening all that was good and noble in his auditors, and could impress them with the surpassing value of clean, noble living. Kold was more than an instructor of his pupils. He was their friend and adviser. Because he remained unmarried until late in life he was able to spend all his time among them. He presided at the common table by day and dwelt in the same rooms with the young men at night. The striking home and group life which marks the folk high school originated with him. The summer schools for young women, also, were originated by him. Kold's school fell far short of Grundtvig's ideals of what such a school for universal folk culture should be ; but he gave the masses of the people all they were pre- pared for at that time. Some of the folk high schools 1 " Den Danske Folkehojskole," p. 63. 214 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS were founded by men of much greater academic training than had Kold, though none got as great a hold on the common people as he. Now, after half a century of evolution, we find throughout the land a system of folk high schools which combines the best of Kold's homely wisdom with the learning of his better academically trained compeers at Rodding and Askov. When the War of 1864 broke out there were less than a dozen of the schools in existence. But the disastrous war furnished the necessary spur. In a short time they were springing up on every side to become the centers from which the national reorganization began. At the time of writing, four score such schools are busy in every part of the kingdom, inspiring young and old with the best life ideals, teaching them to work for a nobler nationalism and a greater Denmark. CHAPTER XIV THEIR ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION Ownership of the Folk High Schools. Kristen Kold owned his school in person. Whatever subscriptions he received for the Ryslinge School were made outright as gifts to the cause. From that time on a large majority of the schools have been privately owned; or, in the few instances where this has not been the case, they be- long to a self-perpetuating corporation so organized that it cannot exploit the school for personal gain. The reader should be clear on this point, that the success of these schools has depended from their inception on the personality of their organizers. The term " folk high school " stands for a faculty of able, consecrated leaders rather than for huge piles of brick and mortar ! Indeed, most of the schools rather pride themselves upon the simplicity of their buildings and equipment. Kold began his school with a capital of less than $2,000. Many of the schools have begun their work in rented quarters often in rooms in some commodious farm- house. Later, if they proved successful, means for the construction of permanent quarters could readily be ob tamed. 215 2l6 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS A study of the following table will show that many folk high schools have failed in their work for want of sufficient educational vitality and have died a natural death : TABLE X. 1 SCHOOLS ORGANIZED AND SUSPENDED, 1844-1913 FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS LOCAL AGKICTTLTTTRAL SCHOOLS During the Period At the During the Period At the Number Organized Number Suspended Close of the Period Number Organized Number Suspended Close of the Period 1844-51 3 I 2 5 I 4 1851-61 10 I II 3 2 5 1861-71 49 IO 50 4 2 7 1871-81 27 13 6 4 5 2 10 1881-91 18 15 6 7 5 2 13 1891-1901 20 14 73 2 4 ii 1901-06 6 5 74 5 I IS 1906-11 10 4 80 6 2 19 1911-13 2 3 79 4 O 23 Total . . 145 66 79 39 16 23 One hundred and forty-five folk high schools and thirty-nine local agricultural schools were organized between 1844 and 1913, of which sixty-six folk high schools and sixteen agricultural schools were later closed down, leaving in all seventy-nine schools of the former kind and twenty-three of the latter. This table takes into consideration government-recognized and aided schools only. A leading high school man emphasized recently, in conversation with the writer, that " the 1 It is deemed desirable to include, in this and following tables, the statistics for both folk high schools and local agricultural schools. ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 217 ease with which the schools can be ' snuffed out ' is the best guarantee the country has against the schools' out- living their own usefulness." It is interesting to notice how the most influential of the schools have been success- ful in training and inspiring an unbroken dynasty, as it were, of teachers and leaders who have a common purpose and continue the school's once-for-always established policy. At Askov, for instance, Ludvig Schroder was succeeded by his son-in-law, Jacob Appel, who had for years been a leading faculty member. When the latter was called to become the Minister of Education, Mrs. Appel had all the training and inspira- tion necessary to step in and take her husband's place. Likewise, at Vallekilde, the great Ernst Trier was suc- ceeded by his son-in-law, Poul Hansen, and at Lyngby, J. Rosendal has just taken his son, H. A. Rosendal, into the administration as joint principal with him, intending by degrees to release the reins of control. So it goes down the line of the other schools. The Teachers : Their Training. A group of nearly six hundred men and women are required to do the work of the folk high schools. These teachers are bound by common bonds through Grundtvig's philosophy. Their efforts are further harmonized at great periodical high school meetings held over the country, by special uni- versity courses for high school teachers, and the like. The preparation of the teachers is not uniform. Many 2l8 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of the principals and permanent teachers have the best academic preparation possible. The rest are educated in the teachers' seminaries and at the folk high schools themselves. While thorough academic and professional training is held in high esteem at the folk high schools these are by no means the only qualifications considered. As a matter of fact, they are not always even the first qualifications to be considered. Learned dullness holds no place in the schools. This is as much as to say that, first of all, the teacher must be seized by inspiration for his work and be capable of transmitting this inspiration to others. Some of the most successful high school teachers have come as students right up through the folk high school in which they later did their best work. The government leaves the question of teacher preparation entirely to the principal in charge, depending on its right of inspection to maintain standards of desired excellence. The Students who attend the Schools. A study of Table XI gives some interesting figures. During the pe- riod 1844-1846, thirty-four men and six women attended the folk high schools, and thirty-six men the agricultural schools. By 1911-1912, sixty-nine hundred and thirty- six men and women were in attendance at the folk high schools, and sixteen hundred and fifty-nine men and women, at the agricultural schools. These figures leave out of consideration the twelve or more rural schools of household economics : ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 219 TABLE XI. 1 AVERAGE NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN ATTENDANCE AT THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS AND LOCAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS, 1844-1912 3 : 3d >J O 3 PH < O FOLK HIGH AGRICULTURAL 3^* ^ SCHOOLS SCHOOLS il D %^ " w (2tJ5 Z APRIL ist J$ H , fc. S B Q TO ^E 3fcg 55 a o 2 * MARCH 3ist g a V 3 a 8 E 3 /61 Ave . 209 35 244 75 I 76 320 24 14 i86i-62- 65 /66 Ave. 331 65 396 89 2 9i 487 19 16 i866-67- 7 %i Ave. 1320 371 1691 186 7 193 1884 10 22 i87i-72- 75 /78 Ave. 2060 1038 3098 153 2 ISS 3253 5 34 1876-77 ^/gi Ave. 2182 1242 3424 349 12 361 3785 10 36 i88i-82- 86 /88 Ave. 2151 1424 3575 443 18 461 4036 ii 40 i886-87- 90 /9i Ave. 2180 1587 3767 418 82 500 4267 12 42 i89i~92- 95 /96 Ave. 2626 2189 4815 516 43 559 5374 IO 45 i896-97-/oi Ave. 2732 2612 5344 849 6 855 6199 14 49 I9oi-o2- 06 /o6 Ave. 3249 333 6282 1083 43 1126 7408 15 48 I9o6-o7- 10 /n Ave. 3385 3153 6538 "75 156 I33i 7869 17 48 I9 08 /o6 Ave. . . 3493 3196 6689 1107 90 1197 7886 is 48 i9 06 / 07 Ave. > . . 3273 3266 6539 1015 106 II2I 7660 IS So i9Vo8 Ave. " . . 3"9 3023 6142 1060 129 1189 733i 16 49 i9Vo9 Ave. . . 3388 3227 6615 1129 173 1302 7917 16 49 i9Vio Ave. . . 3541 3147 6688 1309 181 1490 8178 18 47 i 9 10 /iiAve. . . 3603 3 I0 4 6707 1361 189 155 8257 19 46 I9 n /i2 Ave. . . 37" 3224 6936 1460 199 1659 8595 19 46 The total attendance for 1911-1912 was eighty-five hundred and ninety-five, a number which would almost reach 10,000 if the schools of household economics and 1 These are regular students only. The large number of short course students are not considered. 220 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS certain non-recognized schools were counted. The agricultural schools comprise a little more than 19 per cent of the total attendance, and the women almost 46.5 per cent of the folk high school attendance. The total number in attendance at any one time may seem small if compared with American school attendance ; but when considered on the basis of the total rural popu- lation of Denmark it proves surprisingly large. Indeed, 33^ per cent of the young men and a somewhat smaller number of young women spend some time, at least, at the folk high schools, and 44 per cent of these later attend the local agricultural schools. When one bears in mind that not quite all agricultural students attend the folk high schools as preparatory to the agricultural schools it will be seen that at least g of the young people frequent the agricultural schools in addition to the folk high schools. Table XII shows that the schools are open the year round, although the heaviest attendance is during the whiter months (November-March) when the schools for men are all in session, and during the summer months (May-July) when the schools for women are in session. The attendance for the other months is drawn from cer- tain advanced continuation courses, requiring school residence throughout the entire year. A large majority of the students pursue the regular folk high school and agricultural school courses, as may ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 221 TABLE XII. ATTENDANCE BY MONTHS FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS YEAR 1905-06 1910-11 1905-06 1910-11 April 319 2881 2883 2878 59 141 139 3468 3502 3688 3679 3S6S 328 2761 2755 2744 48 129 161 3643 3684 39H 3893 3779 633 267 242 233 95 104 25 893 897 9*1 925 918 5i8 345 340 335 77 1 60 104 1223 1231 1263 1257 1232 May June July August September October November December January . February March be seen from Table XIII. Some of the schools have special well-equipped departments for the training of artisans such as masons, carpenters, cabinet makers, painters, and tinners. Two of the high schools, lying near the coast, used to offer courses for sailors and fisher- men of an inspirational rather than professional nature ; but these have recently been discontinued. Special departments are maintained for the training of teachers in physical education and gymnastics. Gymnastics is otherwise taught as a subject in all the regular courses. Subjects in household economics are offered in the regular courses. But no complete departments of this kind have been maintained since the establishment of separate rural schools of household economics. The number of 222 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS TABLE XIII. CLASSIFICATION OF STUDENTS ACCORDING TO DE- PARTMENTS DEPARTMENTS FOLK HIGH SCHOOL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS TOTAL Men Women Men Women 1910-11 1905-06 Folk High School (regular) Agricultural Course (regu- lar) 2851 IOI 534 55 62 347 9 21 27 1146 13 57 138 7 I8 3 6 5898 1439 547 76 89 63 138 7 5668 1067 633 22 69 104 7 6 44 in 92 Artisans Navigation and Fishing Gymnastics Continuation Courses . . Household Economics . . Horticulture Dairying Control Assistants . . . Total 3603 3104 1361 189 8257 7886 students pursuing control assistant courses during 1912- 1913 numbers several hundred, which is a marked increase over the figures set forth in the above table. According to statistics for 1910-1911, only 6 per cent of the students in the two kinds of schools came from the towns or cities. This shows definitely that the folk high schools as also the local agricultural schools have become distinctively the schools of agricultural com- munities. The average for all the schools is about eighty-five students. However, the actual-attendance ranges from ten or more to about four hundred to a school. Many of the smallest schools do some of the very best work. ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 223 Fifty-four per cent of all the students were (1910-11) children of substantial middle-class farmers (Gaard- maend) ; 20 per cent came from the smallholds (Hus- maend) ; 10 per cent were children of country artisans ; 3 per cent of country laborers ; and the rest were variously distributed. Ten per cent of the students were country artisans by trade, and 38 per cent of all received state aid. Of the total number in attendance, i per cent of the students were below sixteen years of age at the time of matriculation; 6 per cent were between sixteen and eighteen years of age ; 80 per cent were between eighteen and twenty-five years; and 13 per cent were above twenty-five years. Only y-g- of the entire number had attended Realskoler or Latin schools. All the others had completed the work of the elementary school and had devoted their time to practical tasks until old enough to gain admittance to the folk high schools. State Aid to Schools and Students. For reasons stated elsewhere, the schools are and, in Denmark at least, should continue to be private institutions. But if they are to do their work well and reach the mass of the common people, they must be state aided financially. Almost from the first this has been the case. For a number of years the state aid was small and grudgingly given. But as the government came to realize the great value of the schools, and especially since the farmers 224 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS themselves have come into control of the government, the annual appropriations to aid the schools and deserving students have increased rapidly. The aid takes the form (i) of assisting in the direct maintenance of the schools, and (2) in helping students to meet school expenses. The amount of the former to any one school is regulated by the size of the budget of the particular school for the past fiscal year. The amount of the latter is determined by a number of cir- cumstances, although it must not exceed a specified amount monthly for any one individual. The policy at this time is to reduce the amount given immediately to the schools, and increase the amount of student aid. It should be understood that the amount allowed a student is paid directly into the school's coffers and never to the beneficiary. Table XIV explains the amount of state aid that was given during the year 1910-1911, the monthly amount for each applicant, the total number of applicants, etc. The total amount distributed during the year, for student aid, was 233,805.78 kroner. The total number of applications for aid was forty-seven hundred and forty-seven, of which only twenty-seven hundred and five were accepted. Every such application must be made direct to the municipal board of the municipality where the applicant resides and is known. Only persons of unimpeachable character who do not have sufficient ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 225 TABLE XIV. SHOWING HOW STATE AID TO STUDENTS is DISTRIBUTED 1 8 & h d H APPUCA- TION FOR Am TOTAL AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED Total Applications Number Accepted | 1 1 3 I Average per School Month Men Women _.2 Si w Agricultural Schools -1 q Agricultural Schools The Islands High Schools Men Women 729 570 385 387 42,140.5 Kr 26,385 Kr 21.93 21.99 Agr. Schools Men Women 227 93 129 Si 17,880.28 Kr 6,032 Kr 2554 25-03 Jutland High Schools Men Women 1555 1233 746 791 69,780 Kr 49,799-5 Kr 18.93 19-5.' Agr. Schools Men Women 262 49 152 36 18,134.5 Kr 3.654 Kr 23-55 25-03 Denmark High Schools Men Women 2284 1803 1131 1178 111,920.5 Kr 76,184.50 Kr 19.96 20.43 Agr. Schools Men Women 489 142 281 87 36,014.78 Kr 9,686 Kr 24-50 25-03 The Faroes 29 28 2,200 Kr Total 4747 2705 233,803.78 Kr 19.96 24.50 20.43 25.03 means of their own to pay the small school fees can re- ceive this aid. It all amounts to this, that in Denmark every person who has an inclination to take advantage of these rural schools for grown-up people has the opportunity to do so; and this in spite of the fact that the schools are privately owned. The following figures show the recent growth in state subsidies to the schools and their pupils : 1908-1909, 229,292 kroner; 1910-1911, 241,551 kroner; 1912-1913, Q 226 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS 424,70x3 kroner; and 1913-1914, about 520,000 kroner. The " Expanded " Askov Folk High School has just been voted a special annual aid of 30,000 kroner out of which 4,500 kroner is to be used for student aid. State recognition of the schools is regulated by law. In order to be placed on the accredited list the school must have been in successful operation at least two years, and for the two years must have enrolled no less than ten students for twelve months, or twenty students for six months, or forty for three months. None of these can be less than sixteen years of age ; nor can more than 25 per cent of the male students be from sixteen to eight- een years of age. Any other students of low age shall not be counted. Cost of Schooling. One of the chief reasons for the substantial growth of the folk high school is the relatively low cost of the schooling. The amount charged for tuition, board, and lodging is determined from year to year by the Association of Folk High Schools and Agri- cultural Schools, which is binding upon all the schools holding membership in the Association. The charges for the current year (1913) are as follows: A winter course of five months for men, one hundred and seventy-five kroner for tuition, board, and lodging. The amount to be divided in this way : twenty-five kroner a month for board and lodging ; for tuition, twenty kroner the first month, fifteen kroner the second month, ten the third, ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 227 five the fourth, and nothing the last. For a summer course of three months for women the amount is : ninety- six kroner for tuition, board, and lodging ; and tuition for the three months, twenty, fifteen, and ten kroner respec- tively. To the above, ten kroner should be added for books and other supplies, and two kroner for doctor's fee. This makes the total amount paid for a five months' winter course only one hundred and eighty-seven kroner or $50.50, and for a three months' summer course one hundred and eight kroner or $29.19. Naturally these sums will not buy any luxuries ; but the food is wholesome and plentiful. The dormitory rooms are exceedingly plain and are arranged for two, three, and four students in a room. The schools are now generally being equipped with central heating plants. In the older schools many of the dormitories are heated by stoves, or are even without heat of any kind. When the latter is the case, the students are expected to do their studying in large heated study rooms and reading rooms in the recitation hall. The School a Democratic Body. The students of the folk high schools form a highly democratic body. A strong sense of responsibility and respect for the rights of others pervades the school atmosphere. The students are treated as members of the principal's family. Indeed, the latter usually presides over the dining-room where teachers and students meet on common ground. All the 228 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS students, except those who live regularly in the vicinity of the school, are expected to room in the dormitories, where small groups of them live in close contact with chosen teachers whose inspiration counts for much in the course of training. Kristen Kold, in his day, secured much of his great influence over the lives of his students through his daily communion with them at the dormi- tories. " My occasional heart to heart talks with Kold," says a prominent high school man of to-day, " had more to do with shaping my life than even the homely wisdom of his lectures." Other leaders since Kold's time have followed his example with greatest success. In many schools the students live under self-imposed rules and regulations, enforced by representatives chosen from their own midst. Since the students are grown-up people who should know how to behave, the system has proved generally satisfactory. As a matter of fact, no other rules are necessary among the students than just such as might apply to the average family and be dictated by the feelings of respect and love for one another. It is well also to add here that the day's work at the folk school is so full of varied interests from early morning until late at night that it would be difficult for any one so inclined to find time for " irregularities." The Spirit of the Teaching. The young people who attend the folk high schools come here at the time in life ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 229 when they are most impressionable. The " inspirers " know this period and turn it into an abundant seed time. The Germans call it the " sturm und drang " period, which comes to all who stand on the threshold of mature manhood and womanhood. Denmark has been fortunate in producing an unfailing supply of teachers able to meet the heart cravings of the seekers after truth. They are themselves men who " feel a fervor and zealous warmth for their vocation and possess a power to captivate the attention of their students." As indicated repeatedly above, the lecture method of presenting the subject matter prevails. Though this is varied, without warning, with a give and take process of questions and answers somewhat like the maieutics used by Socrates of old. The element of interest plays a great rdle in all this work. The teachers must have what has been called the " historical-poetical faculty," for the whole course of training is based on history. The pageantry of the past is portrayed in living colors for the purpose of illuminat- ing incidents in one's own national history and life history. " Here," says Alfred Poulsen, " we find mentioned the relation of man and woman, parents and children, master and servant, religious, social, and politi- cal questions, which all agitate our own times. It is, if you like, a sort of unsystematical, practical life-philos- 230 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS ophy, which in this way the historical we seek to convey to our pupils." * But this historical background is broad enough to include materials from the virile mythology of the Old North as well as problems of present-day social science. Folk-lore, songs, and literature hold important place in the curriculum. The Danish high school students are often as well acquainted with Shakespeare and Emerson, Goethe, and Tolstoy, as with their Scandinavian Hoi- berg, Ibsen, and Bjornsen. Religion in the dogmatic sense is not taught in the schools. But historical teach- ing if properly done is itself religious; that is, as one of the high school men has expressed it : " The hand of God is shown all through the evolution of the ages, and in this way the religious feeling is constantly kept awake and exercised." Students whose preparatory training has been faulty are required to take regular classroom work in Danish language, writing, arithmetic, and drawing. Courses are open to all hi practical surveying, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, sanitation, and nature study. Gym- nastics is required of all students. A few schools offer sloyd. All have handwork and various phases of house- hold economics for young women. Two Kinds of Folk High Schools. It has long been a mooted question among Danish educators just how far 1 " The Danish Popular High School," p. 10. ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 231 the high schools might safely go in the pursuit of the " practical subjects." Shall training for life pursuits be taken up by the high schools, or shall this be left en- tirely to professional schools? Many of the leading schoolmen insist that to introduce professional studies would mean the early decadence of real folk high school culture. Of the seventy-nine government accredited schools forty-eight adhere to the culture idea, pure and simple. And in this list are, perhaps, a majority of the schools which have done most to place a real stamp on the character of the nation. But thirty-one schools among them some of the largest offer specific courses in agriculture, horticulture, carpentry, masonry, and like subjects and seem in no danger of losing their original inspiration. Some Subjects of Particular Interest : Song. The " songbirds " in the hearts of the Danish peasantry are not dumb. Go into any home and they sing not alone the long and sometimes doleful church hymns but folk songs, ballads, and patriotic songs of every sort. The children all learn to sing in the elementary schools. No teacher, indeed, can secure a certificate to teach who is unable to lead the pupils in song. Music, song, and poetry play a great part in the folk high school's work. Every lecture or recitation begins with song; every student sings. The average high school man is quite a poet in addition to being a music lover. Many of them 232 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS show the gift of spontaneous composition so common in the old Norse skjalds or minnesingers. The song collection in daily use comprises songs written by high school men from Grundtvig down to the present time. One can get a good idea of what the schools sing by glancing over the contents of the songbook edited by the Association of Folk High Schools and Agricultural Schools, which is almost universally used. CONTENTS 1-46 Morning Songs 47-115 Spiritual Songs 116-145 Home and School 146-176 Folk Life and Mother Tongue 177-361 Historical Songs 362-395 Denmark 396-408 Norway and Iceland 409-412 Sweden and Finland 413-430 The North 43 I- 4S8 Geographical Songs 459-5 2 7 Miscellaneous Songs 528-545 Folk Songs 546-579 Evening Songs. Gymnastics and Play Life. No phase of folk school activity appeals to the observer more strongly than does its work in gymnastics. The students come to the schools from a variety of occupations, generally from outdoor, active life. But they are not permitted to become " stale," as every day's work includes at least ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 233 sixty minutes of gymnastics and very possibly twice that time. The earliest schools used a violent military system of drills formulated after the German army system. In the early 8o's Vallekilde abolished this and adopted in its place the more scientific Ling system from Sweden. Even the latter has become modified with time and improved. This new Danish-Swedish form of gymnas- tics can now be seen in all the schools. " Our work in gymnastics," said one of the schoolmen in conversation, " has made sturdy, clear-eyed, keen- witted men out of the shuffling young farm louts who have come to the school ; and it has taught our young women pride in strong, beautiful bodies, helping them to understand what it means to be created in God's own image." The effect of the work is far felt. The love of gymnas- tics and play is carried home by the high school students who have organized gymnastic associations in every country commune. This means much for a continued close social relationship. Song, gymnastics, and play make up the tripod of Danish rural recreative life. Where you find the one, the other two are sure to be. The excellence of Danish folk school gymnastics is now generally recognized on the continent. In 1911, Jens Ovesen, who has charge of gymnastics at Ryslinge, brought a group of twenty-eight young gymnasts, most of them farm boys from Ryslinge School, to represent 234 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Denmark at the International Hygienic Congress, at Dresden. Exhibitions were also given at Berlin and other German cities, and everywhere the Danish farm lads were applauded for their skill and ability, getting the heartiest kind of praise from the continental press. In 1912, Denmark picked its representatives to the Olympic games at Stockholm largely from the folk high schools. And last year, Niels Buch, an old Vallekilde student, had charge of twenty young men and sixteen young women who won high honors in the competitive drills held in connection with the Congres International de 1'Education Physique, at Paris. School Work that makes Thinkers of Men. To make their students able to think and reason for them- selves has been the aim of the schoolmen. Encyclope- dism has been avoided, and the students generally return to their homes, with strong, reasoning minds, open to conviction, but just as ready to convince if on the right side of the argument. The writer, on one occasion, had gone through a strenuous day with the one hundred and sixty young men at Vallekilde and met with them again in the eve- ning for the last lecture of the day. The lecture happened to deal with the social economic development of Europe during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and seemed rather dry and technical. But this did not dis- courage these horny-handed sons of toil who proved to be ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 235 surprisingly well at home with such personages as Adam Smith, Malthus, Carlyle, Voltaire, and Rousseau ! At the close of the lecture the students broke up into smaller groups, continuing a discussion of the arguments pro- pounded by the lecturer in a manner to confound many a university senior of recent memory. Indeed, the superiority of the folk high school gradu- ates over students from mere technical agricultural schools is pretty sure to lie in the broader world horizon of the former and in the facility with which they have learned to reason from cause to effect to think things through for themselves. Historical Study the Main Background. The folk high school makes no use of formal methods in its instruction, partly because it does not concern itself with technical subjects, and partly because its students are grown people to whom it can address itself in a popular-philosophic manner. The school does not teach the classic languages at all. English and German are studied in some of the schools, because of the intimate commercial relationship between Denmark and these nations. They are taught with a view to immediate practical use only. Even the mother tongue is not pre- sented in such a way as to emphasize the grammatical machinery beyond the merest necessity. Mathematics as a systematic study holds a minor place. The require- ments are always limited to the practical application of 236 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS arithmetical and geometrical calculation. Professor Poul la Cour has even gone so far as to create a method of his own for the presentation of mathematics and physics. He calls this the historical method. Under it mathe- matics and the natural sciences take on a new life as the lecturer unfolds them in their historical setting as his- torical growths. But history is, after all, the main lecture subject. And by this is meant history in the broadest sense of the word. It covers what is generally termed universal or general history, the history of civilization, and history of racial culture and literature. About two thirds of the time spent in the schools is devoted to these studies. Through the use of such material the folk high schools strive to give the mass of the people a broad culture, much the same as the regular academic schools seek to convey to their students through a larger number of subjects, covering a longer period of tune. The main difference between the cultured person and the man of no culture is, no doubt, that the former feels himself in an organic touch with the higher cultural life and its development down through the times ; while the latter without knowing it lives in a disconnected and mostly accidental relation to the culture and spiritual life that surrounds him. In most countries there exists a startling gap between the comparatively small circle that can lay claim to the higher culture and the mass of ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 237 the people who go through life without it. Here the Danish folk high schools have been great bridge builders, spanning the once existing deep gulf in the spiritual life of its masses. An able English schoolman who had made many trips to Denmark to study the schools, referring to this happy circumstance in an address at Askov, once said : " We Englishmen have much to learn from you here in Denmark. We have a glorious history ; but it is foreign to the larger mass of the people. We need folk high schools to span the gap between the people and its history and poetry." r Spiritual Growth and the Work of the Day. How the thought life of the student gradually unfolds itself under the influence of the daily contact with the high school " inspirers " can be told in no better way than it has been done by an old Askov student, in a graphic little booklet called, " En Vinter paa Askov Hojskole af en Elev." 2 A picture of the daily life at the school, as described by him, is therefore reproduced here in free translation : " At 7 o'clock in the morning, the school bell hanging before the main entrance is sounded. The school be- comes awake. Doors and windows are thrown open, and then students make their beds (There are, as a rule, 1 Ludvig Schroder, in the Periodical for Church and Culture, Chris- tiania, 1896. * "A Winter at Askov Folk High School, by a Student." 238 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS two in a room, for which each student furnishes his bedding from home), fetch water, brush, beat, sweep, and polish. By half past seven o'clock everything must be spick-and-span. The bell sounds for a second time and all students assemble for coffee in ' Dagmarsalen.' One hears a clappering of wooden shoes and heavy boots. From the 'white house,' from the main building and from the dormitories the husky fellows come a-galloping and are soon seated at the long tables in the large dining- room. 1 After coffee there is morning devotion. It is a personal matter whether or not one takes part in this. Exercises open with a piano voluntary by Fru Ingeborg Appel, wife of the principal ; then follow song and prayer. " The first class period of the day begins at 8 o'clock, in the large lecture room. The lecture is preceded by song. Song, song, and again song, might well be the folk high school motto ! The songs are mainly from Grundt- vig, Richardt, and Bjornsen, together with folk songs. The lecture program varies from day to day. Either Dr. Marius Kristensen lectures on philology or Professor Poul la Cour gives a course in historical mathematics, or Professor Ludvig Schroder speaks on Norse mythol- ogy and the heroes of old. " At the close of the lecture the young men rush out 1 It is customary to eat a very light meal porridge, bread and butter, milk or coffee immediately upon rising. Breakfast is served at 10 o'clock, dinner at 2, and supper at 7. ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 239 in a hurry. They must get to their rooms and dress for gymnastics, which begin at nine o'clock. The instructor gives the order, and the columns ' double quick ' around the gymnasium several times to rouse the gymnasts to keen attention. Then they go through the ' setting-up exercises' with great expedition. Thereupon they sepa- rate into smaller groups and are soon engaged in a large variety of exercises. Some go through contortions on the Swedish ladder ; others are using the hand and arm beams ; still others are exercising on the horse. Every man works with a vim and at the close of the period the perspiration stands out all over their well-knit bodies. The command to dismiss is given and the young fellows rush to the baths and the welcome showers. No sooner are they dressed than the bell calls to breakfast. " At 10 : 30 o'clock all the students meet again in the large lecture hall. This time it is either Professor la Cour or Principal Appel who gives an interesting lecture on some topic in natural science or Professor la Cour lec- tures on the historic method in mathematics or Professor Axelsen introduces a theme in modern history. When this period is ended the students scatter to various class- rooms to receive instruction in accounting, handwork, hygiene and sanitation, history and geography, up to 2 o'clock. " Two o'clock is the dinner hour. The kitchen at Askov is not the least remarkable of the many interest- 240 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS ing places there. An exceptionally able housekeeper is required to make ends meet and to make it possible to serve four meals a day on the twenty-five kroner a month for board. The dinner is good and wholesome; there are always at least two courses, say, vegetable or fruit soup and roast beef, or a variety of Danish national dishes. The culinary department is at Askov, as at other folk high schools, under the particular supervision of the principal's wife ; who, besides, at times takes considerable part in the practical instruction. After dinner, the class work is suspended until 3 : 25 o'clock. Such students as desire may meanwhile devote their time to outdoor sport; football, or, when the weather permits, some winter game or other. " At 3 : 25 o'clock, the beloved old Nutzhorn, one of the original founders of the school, appears with his baton under his arm. The students gather at the gymnasium, and soon the large hall is filled with a great volume of song from the hundreds of student voices. " From 4 to 5 o'clock instruction is given in Danish, German, and English for the young men, while the young women l take their gymnastic exercises under the com- mand of Fru Appel. " At 6 o'clock all the students meet in the large lecture hall for the last lecture of the day, which again deals with history. Either Professor Fenger lectures on an epoch of 1 Askov is one of the few coeducational folk high schools. ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION 241 Danish history, or Principal Appel takes up a phase of other European history, as for example, of Prussia or England, or Professor Schroder deals with Grundtvig's national philosophic thought or a theme of similar con- tent. Schroder is Askov's real founder and is one of the high school leaders who has wielded the greatest influence. The methods used by him in presenting his subjects is, according to the testimony of many high school teachers, the acme of the highest and purest in the art of popular lecturing ; and whoever has been so fortunate as to have heard him will know the significance of the power of the ' living word.' Self-control and deep sincerity character- ize his method. Remarkable for deep thought, he ex- presses himself in plain, straightforward terms which are as free from doctrinaire dullness as from oratorical pathos. Schroder is known to have said that he is often filled with diffidence and worry to have guests, especially from learned circles, tell him at the close of a lecture, that they found it ' interesting.' ' If my lecture has only been entertaining,' he would say, ' then it has failed hi so far as it was the purpose to impress my listeners with some responsibility which they should meet and take. There is another way of listening. It happens occasionally that one hears at the close of a lecture, a great inhalation of the breath ! This is a sure indication that the inner man has felt the weight of the argument and has taken it to himself personally.' ' 242 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS One will see from this glimpse of daily life at Askov that a school spirit reigns there well worthy of com- parison with the best to be found in academic institutions of the highest rank. School life there is a cumulative growth, developing as the days go by, setting the indi- vidual free from the many trivialities which before bound him, furnishing him with an altruism which makes work for others and cooperation with one's neighbors seem both right and easy. CHAPTER XV TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS General Statement. It is difficult to convey to the reader all that the folk high schools are and do. The work is of the spirit more than of matter. It is felt and experienced rather than seen. Therefore, the glimpses of the journeyings to and fro among the schools by the writer and his friends, which are given in the following paragraphs, may not always convey as much to the mind as would be highly desirable in order to do the schools justice. There are now seventy-nine government-accredited folk high schools established throughout Denmark, besides a few that are striving towards recognition. To tell the story of all would be out of the question. Six schools only which are typical of all the schools have, therefore, been selected from this number. They are Roskilde, Fredriksborg, Vallekilde and Haslev in Zealand, Ryslinge in Fiinen, and Askov in Jutland. A Day at Roskilde Folk High School. Roskilde, the ancient capital of Denmark and burial place of its kings, is near the center of Zealand. The school lies two miles 343 244 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS up the fjord from the town. A brisk walk over the excel- lent, well-rounded surfaced and ditched roads brought us to the school which is constructed of brick and stone in sixteenth century style. Several substantial teachers' cottages flank the main approach. The principal and his family live in a wing of the main building, so as to be in the midst of the pupils, to direct and advise. We were well received by Principal Thomas Bredsdorf, who intro- duced us to his family and faculty, making us feel quite at home. One hundred and forty young men were in attendance a sturdy family. Sixty per cent of them Gaardmaend's sons (farmers of from fifteen to one hundred acres), 25 per cent of them Husmaend's sons (farmers of one to fifteen acres), and the rest, sons of artisans and laborers from country and town. But here they were on an absolutely equal footing. A lecture period by the principal, which we attended, reflected the daily life and work of the school. The period began as every period does, with song. This was a rousing religious-patriotic song through which the youth pledges himself to God and fatherland. The particular lecture theme was, " Grundtvig's Influence on History, Poetry, and Song." The high school " inspirer " as he is at his best was seen in Mr. Bredsdorf, who so filled his listeners with enthusiasm that they hung on his every word. TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 245 We ate dinner with the students and faculty. The fare was exceedingly simple. But, then, the students in this particular school pay only twenty-two kroner per month for board and room, equivalent to about $5.95 ! The charge for tuition is twenty-three kroner for the first month, eighteen kroner for the second, thirteen for the third, eight for the fourth, and three for the fifth. The course of study had the usual broad historical basis. " History," said Bredsdorf, " must be consid- ered as never ending. All play their role in it. It is a living stream in which is the power and the destiny of the eternal. All must do their little mite in order that the stream can sweep on resistlessly as is its destiny." Love of land and home and church fructify under this school influence. Somehow, while the sturdy farm youth are seated on the hard benches listening, the crust to their better selves gives way and the soul shines through they become converts to the high school faith. Then and there, they become better Christians, better Danes, ready to put self-interest aside in order that God and native land may get what by right is felt to be theirs ! During the afternoon intermission, groups of young men continued to discuss the more vital points raised in the morning lectures. Some of these concerned questions of such ethical and philosophical nature as the farm youth of most countries would seldom care to approach. The zeal of the students and instructors cannot be better 246 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS demonstrated than in this, that one of the busy faculty members of Roskilde walked all the way to town with us in his eagerness to explain some of the great points in the school doctrines. He left us only when he had to hasten back to make his evening lecture, which strangely enough was to deal with " Lincoln and the Emancipation of the Negro Slaves " ! Fredriksborg Folk High School, the Inspirer of Eng- lish Schools. This is one of the most renowned of the newer schools. It was founded by the well-known Askov instructor, Holger Begtrup, in 1895. As a high school leader Begtrup is known as few others, being a much sought leader in the extension courses out among rural communities. Up to 1902, he had delivered 2000 lectures outside of the classroom. He is, moreover, ranked as an able historian, having recently completed his great work on " Denmark in the Nineteenth Cen- tury." An ardent follower of the famous poet, J. C. Hostrup, who was also a great patron of the folk high schools, Begtrup became determined when the poet died in 1892, to raise up a school in Hostrup's home com- munity as the most practical way to honor the memory of a man who in life gave the best he had for Denmark. Thus Fredriksborg Folkehojskole came into being at Hillerod in northeast Zealand. The name (originally intended as " Hostrupsminde ") is that of the renowned royal Fredriksborg castle on the edge of Hillerod village, TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 247 which naturally became fastened to the school. The institution and its grounds are very attractive. It com- prises a large, well-built main building, and several smaller structures together with teachers' cottages and a school church. The latter is a " free church " i.e. established by the school and community as a voluntary organization outside of the state church. These churches are found as members in most of the high school organiza- tions, and their origin is easily traced to the movement for freedom within the Church begun by Grundtvig in the early day. Twenty-five acres of land comprise the beautiful, well-planted campus, garden, park, and home farm on which latter vegetables and fruit are raised for school consumption. The winter school (November-March) at Fredriksborg is usually attended by from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and forty young men of sterling worth. The summer school (May-July) for young women is larger, often passing the two hundred mark. Principal Begtrup emphasized, for our particular benefit, the vast importance of the folk high school to Danish rural life. " Eighty per cent of the leaders in dairy work, and all the other cooperative enterprises," he stated, " are high school men." He further called attention to the extension course influence emanating from the schools. The kingdom has a veritable network of organizations at work holding meetings, lecturing on all 248 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS manner of inspirational and practical subjects. " This work," said Begtrup, " is done by high-school trained men. And more than this, our schools return all their students to the plow, happy and contented." On the wall of the general lecture room at Fredriksborg, back of the rostrum where all the listeners can see it, hangs a large painting by Viggo Petersen, which sym- bolizes well the work of the school. It is a Bible scene. Isaac stands in the open field before the tents as sunrise tints the landscape in wonderful color waiting to receive Rebecca, his betrothed, coming out of the North. The remarkable scene symbolizes the Danish peasantry- waiting for the light of education, brought to them by that modern Eleezer, Grundtvig ! Fredriksborg offers interesting continuation courses for advanced students. These are organized into an association called, rather sententiously, the " Window," or " The Window in the West " ; the idea being that this class of advanced and mature students should be looking out from the windows of life with serious thought towards the ultimate purpose of being. Principal Begtrup gave an interesting lecture on Leo Tolstoy, which was followed closely, eagerly almost, by the one hundred and twenty-five young auditors. The speaker sparkled with wit and humor, giving besides, a lecture so historically deep and philosophically acute, that many university students would have been put to TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 249 their best paces to follow it. One of the remarkable things about the folk schools is, that in the unusually short time of five months the students are enabled to get a really helpful outline on philosophy, history, and literature ; and, in addition, many practical things, much gymnastics and song. As to the latter, Holger Begtrup expressed it : " We have much song, Northern song ; though perhaps not what some people would call ' fine ' song." Fredriksborg holds the unique position of being the touching point between the Danish folk high schools and the schools of a similar nature now rooting themselves in English soil. The first school of this kind was opened at Bourn ville, near Birmingham, in 1909, by Tom Bryan, a scholarly gentleman, whose inspiration to establish such a school came to him while he was listening to a lecture in one of the Danish schools. During the last few years a most interesting exchange of ideas has been going on between Fredriksborg and Fircroft, the Bournville school. Both teachers and students have been exchanged. A year ago a group of fifty English teachers visited Fredriksborg. The past two years an enthusiastic young Englishman by the name of Jonty Hanaghan has been at Fredriksborg preparing himself to do folk high school work in Yorkshire, while a young Englishwoman, his betrothed, is equipping herself for the same work at Vallekilde. During 1912, nearly one fourth 250 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of the Fircroft students were Danes from the Fredriks- borg community. In this way the two countries are beginning to reach out to one another a helping hand to the end that " The toiler, bent Above his forge or plow, may gain A manlier spirit of content, And feel that life is wisest spent When the strong working hand makes strong The working brain." Vallekilde, A Great Folk High School. Immediately after the close of the disastrous German war of 1864, Ernst Trier, one of the three or four greatest schoolmen that Denmark has produced, laid the foundations of Vallekilde, in northeast Zealand. He felt that now Denmark's only hope lay in education. " The folk high schools," he said, " alone can lift the disheartened peo- ple." He opened the school in rented quarters in 1865. Success came from the very first, because he was inspired for the great task. To-day, his son-in-law and successor, Poul Hansen, stands at the head of one of the most complete and influential schools in the country. Ninety acres of fine rolling land, laid out to ornamental gardens, parkings, experimental plots, and school farm, comprise the working area of the school. In this lies a regular village of buildings. This appears graphically from the accompanying drawing. The most important TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 251 252 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of the structures are a large, fire-proof central school building with dormitory capacity for two hundred, a good, carefully equipped gymnasium, a building for manual training, and another for art work. There are cottages for all the married teachers, a school church, and an elementary school for the children of the faculty. The school farm has some remarkable buildings that deserve at least a passing notice. The entire plant, by the way, including cowbarns, stables, and hoghouses, is lighted by electricity generated by means of wind power. The enormous windmill was the first of its kind erected by the famous Askov teacher-scientist, Poul la Cour. The mill is fitted with storage batteries of sufficient size to supply current for a week at a time in case of still weather. In the fine sanitary cowbarns, thirty thoroughbred red Fiinen cows are kept installed. As an illustration of careful economy in everything agricultural, all liquid manure from these barns is made to pass by cement gutters to outside cisterns, whence it is forced by electric power to the meadows and plowed ground, and carefully sprinkled over the soil. The school butchers its own pork and beef. But the cream all goes to the cooperative creamery in the vicinity, and the butter is actually " bought back " by the school. There is also a large school bakery on the campus, and a well-equipped hospital with separate building for contagious diseases. GYMNASTICS AT VALLEKILDE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL. GYMNASTICS AT VALLEKILDE. Another view of the same students. TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 253 Vallekilde has from one hundred and sixty to one hun- dred and eighty young men in attendance during the win- ter months and two hundred young women during the summer time. The young men are divided into distinct groups as " agriculturists " and " industrialists.'' The former prepare, as the name would indicate, for soil tilling pure and simple ; and the latter are to become farm artisans of various kinds. It is interesting to note that Vallekilde, which has retained the early high school philosophy in all its purity, is able to combine with this a large degree of the practical without losing any of the cultural values. To be sure, the entire in- dustrial group must attend all the general lectures and live in the same " atmosphere " as the other students. And, the industrial work is chiefly theory, after all. Such subjects as these are taught : the history of archi- tecture, building construction, drawing, freehand, mechanical, machine, painting (practical work), cal- culation, bookkeeping, and penmanship. The agricul- tural group makes some approach to the practical through occasional lectures in agriculture and horti- culture, drawing and actual field work in surveying and leveling. Vallekilde is strong in gymnastics and play life and song. The young women of the summer school are offered exceptional opportunities for the study of hand- work, music, and the fine arts. But these studies 254 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS are considered as incidental merely to the culture lec- tures. It was the writer's pleasure to be permitted to spend a night at " Hytten," or the lodge, the most interesting of all the buildings on the campus. " Hytten " is held sacred in the memory of all Vallekilde students. There is scarcely a student but has been made a better man or woman for having come within its benign influence. The story is this : Ingeborg Trier, a daughter of Ernst Trier, was born into the Vallekilde high school world in the late sixties, a true daughter of a great father. All her life she gave to the cause of the men and women who toil close to the soil. As a young girl she led the other girls in their games and gymnastics. She was the woman who later taught the girls gym- nastics in such a way that they learned the significance of being created in God's own image. Then she married Niels Hansen, brother of Principal Poul Hansen, who is farm manager at Vallekilde. She was brought as a bride to " Hytten," and there she remained to the day of her death, a mother to the whole school. When she was put to her final rest a few years ago, one thou- sand old students and friends gathered from all Den- mark to do her the last honors. " Hytten " was open to every student in the school. Here they came to plan their pleasures, to rest from TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 255 the work of the classroom. Here they sang and played their games. But more : here came the young woman to confide her heartaches to the mistress of the house, usually to go away again with the balm of Gilead in her heart; here came, too, the young man who sought soul rest, and the wild young fellow who had gone wrong, and Ingeborg Trier Hansen had words of wis- dom for them all. No wonder that thousands look towards " Hytten " with benedictions in their hearts. This bit of sentiment is given a place here because it comes pretty near disclosing the secret to the success of the high school men and women. The folk high school life at its best is a communion of man to man, the work of emancipated leaders consecrated to the work of freeing others. Haslev, a Folk High School of the Practical Kind. This school is one of a group of six schools founded by the " Inner Mission Church " an independent church body. To be exact, the school is owned by an association of church members which seeks to reach primarily its own membership, though all students are made welcome. The " patriotic-spiritual " life which stamps the regular Grundtvigian schools is possibly not so marked at Haslev. On the other hand being a church institution religious subjects are actually taught as part of the course of study. The school lies on the edge of Haslev, a small town 256 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS in south-central Zealand. The buildings are set in a tract of seventy-five acres, fifteen acres of which are devoted to campus, parking, experiment, plot, and garden. The rest of the land is farmed, and supplies milk, meat, and vegetables for the school. Three good- sized buildings are used immediately for teaching pur- poses, besides ample barns, stables, and so on. There is dormitory capacity for two hundred and ten persons. Electricity is freely applied in this school from peel- ing potatoes in the school kitchen to running the threshing machine at the school barns. The study courses here aim to reach two classes particularly: (i) those who are to till the soil; and (2) those who are to live as artisans in the country. It is interesting to see how the school seeks to train the actual soil-tillers and the country artisans as well, thereby keeping alive in the country a twofold civili- zation. The first mentioned of the two classes is really what the other schools would designate the regular cultural group, though here at Haslev it becomes the farm group. It gets less of the inspirational work offered by the former schools, but more of religious lectures and practical agricultural work. Forty-five hour periods are devoted to class work each week by the young men in the winter school, as appears from the following enumeration : TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 257 REGULAR HIGH SCHOOL SECTION FOR MEN Lectures on Bible History 3 hours weekly Lectures on Church History 2 hours weekly General Lecture i hour weekly Biographies of Great Men i hour weekly Question Hour i hour weekly History of Missions 2 hours weekly History of Denmark 2 hours weekly Lectures on General History 2 hours weekly Lectures on the History of Literature i hour weekly Danish (Composition, Analysis, Classics) 5 hours weekly Accounting 4 hours weekly Penmanship i hour weekly Natural Science 2 hours weekly Drawing 2 hours weekly Geography 2 hours weekly Sanitation i hour weekly Horticulture i hour weekly Farm Accounting i hour weekly Gymnastics 3 hours weekly Agriculture 6 hours weekly Song Drill 2 hours weekly 45 hours weekly The seven hours devoted to agriculture and horti- culture include the history of agriculture, practical work hi planning the farm, platting and planting gardens, and field work in surveying and leveling, pruning of fruit trees, and like work. The summer course for young women is quite similar to the course described above, with this exception, that six hours of handwork (plain sewing, embroidery, knitting, and dressmaking) is substituted for the agri- culture. It is well to add here that the summer schools for women in all the folk high schools require much handwork in few less than one hour daily, s 258 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS The artisan group at Haslev is subdivided into smaller groups or classes, as carpenters, brick and stone masons, smiths, machinists, painters, tinners, and wheelwrights. The courses of study for carpenters and masons serve to illustrate the kind of work required from the entire group. The courses cover three winters of five months each, and are intended especially to answer the needs of country artisans who work during the summer months. The first year is devoted more particularly to theory i.e. geometrical drawing, projection, algebra, and geometry. The second year class emphasizes building construction. By the close of this year the students are able to draw plans and specifications of fair size farm buildings. By the close of the third year they make their own drawings and calculate the size of timbers, iron supports, and similar materials with great accuracy. Much practical work is done on the premises, although most of the work is devoted to miniature buildings and models. The artisans are required to follow this weekly schedule : Lectures (in regular high school section) 12 hours Danish (composition, analysis, classics) 6 hours Accounting arithmetic 4 hours Bookkeeping i hour Natural Science i hour Gymnastics 3 hours Technical Subjects 22 hours 49 hours TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 259 Haslev is proud of the fact that it is sending out annually scores of practically trained artisans who not only know their profession, but who are also equipped with the additional advantages of having spanned the gap between the deadening work-a-day in life and the higher culture life which of right should be the common heritage of all. Ryslinge in Fiinen. A Historic School. Ryslinge, which is a small country village in south-central Fiinen, beautifully situated in a prosperous agricultural com- munity, holds high place in folk school history. It was early brought into notice because here Kristen Kold opened his first school in 1851. But the community has been prominent in many other ways. The free church movement began here in the early day. The first " Valgmenighed," or free choice congregation, was founded here i.e. a congregation in which the member- ship is free to choose its own pastor instead of being obliged to accept one appointed by the State. Here, too, were organized the first " skytteforeninger " or associations of sharpshooters, which built at Ryslinge the first of the rural assembly halls now found in every country commune. Nowhere have the gymnastic or- 'ganizations prospered more than here. Ryslinge Folk High School can scarcely be considered a continuation of Kold's school, though it has taken to itself all the spirit and all the traditions of this school. 260 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS As it now stands, Ryslinge owes its origin to former Army Chaplain Johannes Clausen, who began his school activities here in 1866. He was pastor of the local church and really intended his school for an " Inner Mission " institution. But he brought several teachers his intimate friends into the school, who had strong Grundtvigian tendencies. This indiscretion prob- ably cost the principal his position; but it gradually gave the school new coloring, so that to-day it stands for the purest of Grundtvig's philosophy. In 1884, a new era began at Ryslinge when Alfred Poulsen was chosen principal. He came from Lyngby Agricultural School; where he had been in charge of the folk high school department. Poulsen is one of the biggest schoolmen in the active charge of the schools at the present time. The most lucid delineation of the folk high schools ever penned in English is from his hand. He is also the President of the Association of Folk High Schools and Agricultural Schools, an organi- zation which has been of vast importance in unifying the work of the schools, and in getting for them the necessary state recognition and aid. Professor Poulsen is one of the most ardent advo- cates of the policy to keep the folk high schools as free as possible from textbooks and classroom practices. " It is a great mistake," he says, " and contrary to the high school philosophy, to combine this school with RYSLLXGE, AX HISTORIC FOLK HIGH SCHOOL. It is beautiful for location, and the memories of Kristen Kold still linger there. TEACHER'S COTTAGE. This is typical of the older homelike, thatched sort of house. TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 261 agricultural schools, or with other departments requir- ing much study. The right spiritual uplift of the man and opening of the soul demands, first of all, peace and quiet. Where there is much book activity there can be little time for meditation and the living word be- comes powerless." 1 His fear is that many practical subjects strongly emphasized will force the real spirit of the folk schools into the background ultimately to get only such time for lectures as cannot be used for " practical " purposes. A majority of the schoolmen seem to share these views. Ryslinge is remarkably well built and attractive. Its attendance is limited to two hundred young men in winter and two hundred young women in summer. Months before a term opens the matriculation sheets are closed, and the students are refused for want of room. The fact that such schools deliberately limit themselves to a comparatively small number of students should convey a hint to schools where big numbers too often play the master role. It is unnecessary to take the time here for a review of the work seen at Ryslinge. In organization of courses, in daily life, and in other ways it resembles Vallekilde very much, so that to tell the story of one school is to give that of the other. Our sojourn there was delightful and instructive, although cut short because of the prin- cipal's forced absence from home. 1 "The Danish Popular High School," p. 7. 262 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Askov " Expanded " Folk High School. When Slesvig became German territory Rodding Folk High School was transplanted, it will be recalled, root and branch, to loyal soil, north of Kongeaaen (King's River), which marks the new boundary. Vejen is an unimpor- tant country village on the railroad between Kolding and Esbjerg, and the topography of the country is, on the whole, monotonous and uninteresting. In spite of all this, no spot in Denmark has greater historic memories, nowhere is the patriotic lif e and the folk life more keenly alive than here on the frontier. Askov Folk High School, the greatest of all the folk high schools, lies in the midst of this community, a short half hour's walk south from Vejen, right in sight of the German frontier and this is reason enough. Had Denmark built strong, frowning earthworks along the boundary they could not have been the national defense that it now has hi the work of this school ! North of the line the people have become welded in clear-sighted, far-seeing nationality, and south of it Danish spirit and Danish language are kept alive whether to German liking or not. It is a significant fact that a large number of young people from the German side of the boundary may be seen not only at Askov, but at the other schools in the peninsula and over on the islands. Askov is a direct continuation of the first school established in Denmark, and has retained all the old TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 263 traditions. Above the portal of the oldest of its many school buildings may yet be seen the inscription : " Flors Hojskole," in remembrance of Dr. Christian Flor, the early champion of Rodding. Ludvig Schroder brought the school across the boundary and directed its work up to the time of his death in 1908. During these years remarkable progress has been made. The school was at first conducted as an ordinary folk high school ; but in 1878 it was reorganized as the " Expanded " Askov. Prominent high school leaders had ever since Grundt- vig's time kept alive the hope that Soro Academy would eventually be converted into a great central high school with continuation courses for students from the other schools. But all hope finally failed, and by common con- sent Askov was chosen instead. Indeed, such men as Ernst Trier of Vallekilde and J. Fink, an old Ryslinge leader, and their supporters were among the first to point to Askov as the logical place for such a school. " Danish High School Association " was organized to look after the financial side of the problem, with such marked success that the reorganized school could begin its work as early as November, 1878. At the present time the following courses are offered : An advanced course for men, covering two winter sessions of six months each; an advanced course for young women, also covering two winter sessions of six months each; and a regular summer course for young women. 264 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS In the advanced courses the men and women attend the lectures in common ; although in most of their other work they have separate classrooms. The men alone reside at the school dormitories during the winter ses- sions. The women students find accommodation in the small village that is springing up around the school grounds. Some two hundred and sixty men and women the pick of the advanced folk high school students were in attendance at the time of our visit. Many of these had completed the regular courses in the other folk high schools ; some were here from the agricultural schools ; some from teachers' seminaries and from the " learned " schools ; and still others had come from the National Polytechnic Institute and the National University. This enthusiastic throng was here preparatory to going out into the other folk high schools as teachers and inspirers. The summer courses at Askov differ but little from the summer work in the other schools. Even the first year of the advanced course is practically the same as offered elsewhere. The difference lies in the second year's work. Throughout, there is more actual book study, methods, and laboratory work. The natural and social sciences, especially, receive much attention. The following daily programs will give a good idea of school work at Askov : TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS DAILY PROGRAM, SUMMER SCHOOL FOR YOUNG WOMEN, 1913. Hours Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday -9 Social Science Geography Nature Study 9-10 Gymnastics IO-II Danish Arithmetic Danish Arithmetic Danish Arithmetic 11-12 Literature General History Noon I.3O-i.30 a. Drawing Handwork Drawing Handwork Drawing Handwork 6. Handwork Drawing Handwork Drawing Handwork Drawing s-30-3 Song practice 3-5-4-*S Natural History Sanitation Elocution Danish 4-35-5-45 Discussions Sewing Discussions 6-7 Evening lectures Lecture each Sunday afternoon at 5.30 o'clock. 266 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS DAILY PROGRAM, WINTER SCHOOL FOR YOUNG MEN, 1913. (First Year) Hours Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 8-9 Discussion on Mathe- matics Discussion in His- tory of the North Mathematics Hygiene and Sanitation 9-10 Gymnastics 10.30-11.30 Historical Physics General History Natural Science 11.30-12.30 Geog- raphy Discussion in Physics Geography Accounting 12.30-8 Drawing Discussion in General History Drawing Swimming Discussion in General History 3-30-4 Song Practice 4-5 Sociology English or German Lectures English or German S-6 Danish Danish Discussion in Natural Science Discussion in Mathe- matics Danish Danish 6-7 History of Literature History of the North TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 267 DAILY PROGRAM, WINTER SCHOOL FOR MEN, 1913. (Second Year) Hours Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 8-9 Literature of all Nations Adv. Geography Applied Mathematics 9-10 Gymnastics 10.30-11.30 Physics General History Natural Science 11.30-12.30 Adv. Alge- bra English or German Adv. Algebra English or German 12.30-2 Discussion in Gen. History Drawing and Laboratory Practice Swimming 3-30-4 Song Practice 4-5 History of Religion Hygiene and Sanitation Biology Sociology 5-6 Discussion in History of the North Danish Discussion in General History Danish Danish Danish 6-7 History of Literature History of the North Askov has had associated with it the names of such great men as Poul la Cour, Svend Hogsbro, and others. La Cour is known to the world for utilizing wind power to generate electric current. The mill at Askov is built above a very interesting electrical laboratory, off in a grove of trees b.y itself. The mill furnishes current to light the entire school, a score or more buildings, besides supplying all the electricity required for experi- mental purposes. The laboratory was primarily in- tended for advanced research work only; but, of late, two weeks' courses have been added for farmers and their hired men and dairy employees, who are all obliged 268 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS to understand the general principles of electricity, since this is coming more and more into use for lighting the farmsteads and running the dairies. October 6 to 14, 1874, marked the beginning, in Den- mark, of a most remarkable system of extension work. At that time some seventy or eighty young and old people met at Askov and " lived " for more than a week in an atmosphere charged with religious fervor, patriotic zeal, and eager desire to help one's fellow men. This was the beginning of a series of annual meetings which grew in importance with time. Each autumn larger throngs of the peasantry and town folk flocked to the school. This movement was not limited to Askov alone. In a short time other folk high schools and agricultural schools had taken it up and the two weeks' autumn meetings were being held all over the land. School buildings proved too small to hold the throngs, and groves of trees near by were used instead. Some schools have their natural woods, while others have been obliged to make plantations for this purpose. Askov has a historic grove for its great meetings, which, by the way, are no longer limited to the autumn time, but are held during spring and summer as well. This is " Skibelund Krat," a small forest of gnarled oaks and other trees, a few minutes' walk south of the school, overlooking the German frontier. This spot has been TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 269 sacred ground for many years. Here the peasantry met to celebrate the signing of the liberal constitution of 1849; and here have the Danes south of the border met with their brothers annually since the war to renew their vows of steadfastness to a lost cause. Since the coming of Askov, Skibelund has become a veritable 5C4LE. J MILC.S JUTLAND SCHOOL KMT. ffU** Mecca for the high school folk. All kinds of popular meetings are held here. At or near the natural amphi- theater where the speaking is held are busts and monu- 270 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS ments of folk leaders who have given their lives for a happier Denmark. Among the others can be seen a great memorial to Principal Ludvig Schroder and his wife, who died some six years ago. Perhaps the most striking thing at Skibelund is " Modersmaalet," a group monument in the center of which stands a woman of heroic size, gazing southward " The spirit of the Mother tongue " blessing her divided children. The themes discussed at these gatherings cover a wide range of knowledge. At first they were limited by the folk high school traditions to the " inspirational " lectures in history, literature, mythology, and like subjects. But with time the field has broadened until now every phase of ethics, politics, agriculture, sociology, and the like are freely discussed. This extension work is quite similar to the American Chautauqua, barring the money admission, as these meetings are entirely free. It might be added here that many men who had gained their inspiration at the high school meetings later organ- ized their home community and continued the great work at the community hall and gymnasium, one of which may be found in every rural district. In the towns and cities the friends of the new education built Eojskolehjem or High School Homes, institutions combining many of the features of a modern Y. M. C. A. with the conven- ience of a first-class hotel. Even Copenhagen has such an institution, called Grundtvig's Hus (Grundtvig's TYPICAL FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 271 House). Aside from offering the facilities of first-class hostelries, managed in a truly Christian spirit, these homes are the rallying centers in town and city for the new extension work. Each has its library and reading rooms, and holds weekly meetings fashioned after the great outdoor meetings. It is estimated that in this way a wholesome and helpful education is brought to the very threshold of every farmer and villager hi the kingdom. The state has lent marked assistance to the extension movement by encouraging perambulating courses in agriculture and household economics, setting aside for this work annually large sums to pay teachers and lecturers. To this should be added that the Government maintains a national service of " control assistants " science specialists whose services as speakers and agri- cultural organizers may be had for the asking: CHAPTER XVI THEIR TRANSPLANTATION TO OTHER NORTH EUROPEAN COUNTRIES The Adaptability of the Folk High Schools. The question naturally arises, could such institutions as the Danish folk high schools be adapted to the needs of other countries? They were born of peculiar national needs. Can they live and do their work on other than Danish soil? The answer is that the schools have been quite adaptable to changed conditions and needs. They have done as well, in fact, outside of Denmark as at home. It is true that the transplantation has so far been limited to North European nations of kindred origin with the Danish. But there seems little doubt that Grundtvig's system, especially in its more recent practical applica- tion, could find a ready field for usefulness even as far from the land of its origin as the United States. Indeed, Danish emigrants have already made a beginning at transplanting them to American soil. The folk high schools were carried to the mountain regions of Norway hi 1864 where they have flourished, considering the much adverse legislation. In 1868, they were transplanted to Swedish soil where forty-four 272 THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 273 strong schools, somewhat modified, are now wielding a remarkable influence in farm communities. Finland has found the folk high schools a national bulwark against Russian aggression, since forty-three such schools are now keeping alive the sturdy Finnish folklore. Even Iceland and the Faroes have each one high school. The next step was the successful transplantation to England. The first school of the kind for English-speaking people began its activities at Bournville, near Birmingham, in 1909, under the name of Fircroft School. Its appeal has been especially to the artisan class with which it is doing a good work. A second school is just being opened in Yorkshire, which will be watched with much interest by friends of the movement. The Folk School in Sweden. The school came to Sweden as a protest against a deadening materialism and indifference for fatherland and nationality that had long prevailed. " The peasantry," according to Swedish thinkers of fifty years ago, " were devoted solely to their swine, their calves, and brandy stills, and the chief qualification for election to the Riksdag was a promise to see to the reduction of taxes. The great social questions of the future were left to shift for themselves." Then rose up Dr. August Sohlman (1824-1874), editor of the Swedish " Aftonbladet," as an advocate of " a new kind of school free to all the people a school which might also become a means to reform the existing narrow T 2/4 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS humanistic schools and lead to a national folk culture." l He was seconded in his effort by many leading men of the day. Ultimately the "Nordiske Nationalf orening " of- fered its support to the new cause with the result that the first Swedish folk high school was founded at Her- restad in East Gothland, November i, 1868. The very same day another school was opened at Onnestad in Skaane, and one day later Hvilan Folk High School, o near Akarp in southwest Sweden, threw open its doors. This beginning marked a renaissance in Swedish agricultural life. The school has caused the same " breaking through of sleeping souls " here as in Den- mark. The spirit of confidence in one's neighbors is just as marked also. Cooperative enterprises are cluster- ing wherever the folk high schools thrive. In Sweden, the schools early emphasized more of the purely practical, laying more stress on textbook study. And in a few instances examinations were introduced, though generally to be discontinued later. The chief Swedish modifica- tion of the Danish system lies in the addition of fully equipped agricultural departments to most of the schools. In this respect, at least, the Swedish policy is at variance with the tenets of a majority of Danish high school men. Since 1882 when the Swedish government began offer- ing liberal support for the establishment of agricultural 1 Schroder, " Folkehojskolen i Sverige," p. 398. THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 275 schools the folk high schools have gone through a partial reorganization. Two schools are now usually found on the same campus, under one administrative head, although the schools continue to have separate principals and are housed in their own buildings. Their relation is much the same as is that of the several schools in an American university each with its own dean subject to a common administrative head. The schools at Lyngby and a few other places in Denmark have a similar organization. Sweden has forty-four government-recognized folk high schools, with eleven hundred men and ten hundred and eighty women students. The state appropriation for aid to the schools privately owned as in Denmark in 1912-1913, was 339,200 kroner, and stipends for needy students, 80,000 kroner. Hvilan Folkhogskolan och Lantmannaskolan. It is unnecessary to describe in detail the Swedish schools. In administration, methods of instruction, and subject matter, they follow closely their Danish prototypes. The one marked difference has been noted above: the Swedes prefer to bring under one administration all the schools which in Denmark are usually kept as dis- tinct institutions. In all probability, any adaptation that might be made of these schools in the United States would likely resemble the Swedish plan more than the Danish, since our conditions will hardly permit of 276 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS schools depending solely on the inspirational elements to attract a student body. Hvilan Folk High School and Agricultural School may be taken as typical of the Swedish schools. The four distinct Danish schools folk high school, agricultural school, smallhold school, and school of household eco- nomics are all represented at Hvilan by very good courses. This is not to say that the opportunities offered here are just as good in every respect as in the separate Danish schools. Such a condition could not be expected. But the fact remains that very satisfactory work is being done, and that is the only consideration. The courses and number of students in each course for the year 1911-1912 were as follows: The Folk High School STUDENTS General Course for Men (November i-April 13) 63 Advanced Course for Men (November i-April 13) 28 General Course for Women (May i-July 28) 34 Advanced Course for Women (May i-August 14) 19 The Agricultural School General Course for Men'(November i-April 13) 48 Two Courses for Control Assistants (September-October and May- June) 129 Special Course for Smallholders (March 4-16) 29 Course for Housemothers and their Daughters (July 1-6) . . 36 386 Origin of the Norwegian Folk High Schools. In Our Redeemer's Churchyard at Christiania stands a simple gravestone bearing an inscription that may be translated thus : THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 277 " So awaken the folk one morning tide With life in heart and light in mouth, And sweetly it sings With loosened tongues What life's about." Beneath the stone sleeps Ole Vig, the Norwegian teacher and writer who first brought Grundtvig's spirit to Nor- way. With him came a great awakening to his people. Now V. A. Wexel roused the Church to a greater spiritu- ality; Ivar Aasen strove to purify the mother tongue; P. A. Munch and others wrote in fiery words the history of Norway ; Asbjornsen and Moe published their marvelous collections of folk tales; Lindemann set the mountains a-echoing with his folk-melodies; and Ole Bull played for all the world. This was in the decade 1850-1860. Like Grundtvig, Ole Vig was only the prophet ; others were to carry to execution his plan for a system of Norwegian folk high schools. Two young university students, Herman Anker and Olaus Arvesen, were won for the high school cause by Vig's zeal. They both went to Denmark and lived the folk school life for a season. When they returned home they took steps to open a school jointly, Anker, who was a man of wealth, to furnish the means, and Arvesen to devote all his time to the work. In this way Sagatun Folk High School, beautifully situated on the shore of Lake Mjosen, was organized, 278 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and opened its doors to the public in October, 1864. Eighty young people were in attendance the first year and the folk school idea took root, never to lose its hold. In 1867, the great schoolman, Christoffer Bruun, founded the renowned Vanheim Folk High School. This was followed by Seljord and nearly a score of others. But these schools have all had their difficulties to meet. Some own their own buildings ; others have been obliged to get along with rented quarters ; and a few are really perambulating, going from mountain district to mountain district, opening their doors for a few weeks or months at a time at some large farmstead. Yet, in the midst of all these difficulties, the spirit of the schools has not lagged, the song has continued to stir their souls to noble action. Two serious difficulties have hampered the work of the folk schools hi Norway : (i) each amt or local adminis- tration unit had its own continuation school above the free elementary school, intended to give the country population a liberal education. But, unfortunately, as it appears from an investigation, " The amt schools have proved the cause of drawing many farm boys away from the soil and into other callings, instead of preparing them to live the country life as enlightened and interested citizens, with a keen sense for the life and customs of their forefathers." The amt schools were inclined to THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 279 be aristocratic and narrowly scholastic, becoming really nothing more than preparatory schools for the higher learned institutions. Naturally these schools were not inclined to share the field with the privately owned folk high schools. (2) The folk high schools at first had to depend solely on private open-handedness for mainte- nance, as the state was disinclined to lend aid. More recently these difficulties have been surmounted. The folk spirit has, down through the years, permeated the whole people, reaching even the official classes. State aid has been extended to all worthy folk high schools. The amt schools, too, have become somewhat modified in their organization, making it possible for the schools to work in greater harmony than in the past. Norway is a great mountain ridge cut by deep ocean fjords into innumerable mountain districts, each with its own manners and customs, and even dialect. The folk high schools have invaded these fastnesses and rallied the mountain folk around them. The great nationalizing movement in Norway of recent years which has culminated in the adoption of a purified na- tional tongue, a national music, a revival of national dress, folk dances, and the like, can be traced in large measure to the subtile influence of the folk high schools. The Folk High Schools in Finland. Here Elias Lonnrot, well known for his compilation of Finnish folk songs, the Kalevala ; Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the poet ; 280 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and Uno Cygnaeus, the father of the sloyd system all had something to do with preparing the people for the coming of the folk high schools. The first school was organized by a woman, Sofia Hagman, at Kongasala near Tammerfors, in 1889. She rallied around her the young women of the com- munity, giving them from eighteen to twenty hours of instruction weekly. Handwork for women was the most important part of her course. Besides this, there were classes in religious study, accounting, drawing, song, and gymnastics, and lectures on the history of the world, church history, geography, and so on. This school was soon followed by Borga Folk High School, which was largely inspired by the poet Runeberg. The first folk school in Finland to use the Swedish tongue was opened at Kronoby in East Bothnia, in 1891. This resembles in almost every respect the Danish and Swedish schools. In 1905, Finland could boast twenty- three folk high schools, of which seven used the Swedish language. Now they have grown in number to forty- two, of which fifteen are Swedish-speaking. Prior to 1905, the Finnish government was very conservative hi its support of the schools. Then, by degrees, the government's policy changed. At this time it encourages the schools to the best work through liberal state aid. This now amounts to more than 30x5,000 marks annually. THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 281 The Folk High Schools on English Soil. One day back in 1905, a party of English educators and other gentlemen on a tour of inspection in Denmark were spending the week-end as the guests of Principal Poul Hansen at Vallekilde Folk High School. While here, they listened to an instructive address, among other things, on the purpose of the folk high school by Pro- fessor Valdemar Bennike. One of the English party was J. S. Thornton, who has written much on the Danish school system for the press and educational periodicals. He describes the scene of the address in the following language : "As he (Bennike) spoke he stood in front of the Ansgar picture (it was Ansgar who first brought Christianity to Denmark), thus emphasizing all he had to say by showing that the teaching of himself and his colleagues, whilst looking eagerly forward to the future, was nevertheless rooted in the past and based on a Christian foundation. . . . " ' The main object of this school/ said Bennike, 1 is not to impart to our students a mass of useful in- formation that is only a secondary aim. The princi- pal aim is to impart to them a spiritual view of life, so that they may see there is some sense in their existence. 1 The last words were scarcely from the speaker's mouth, when I heard an involuntary chuckle from the neighbor at my right, telling me that the phrase had gone home. The seed had fallen hi to good ground ; for, some three 282 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS years after, the gentleman in question Mr. Tom Bryan had become the head of the First People's High School in England that could fairly be said to resemble the Danish original." 1 The school here referred to is Fircroft, at Bournville near Birmingham. It would be unfair to say that it is, root and branch, a transplantation from the Danish mother tree. To say that it is a Danish graft on an English stock comes much nearer being the truth. For it is really a continuation of the so-called Quaker Adult School which used to meet at Bournville Sunday morning for a serious study of the history and literature of the Bible. With such preparation it was not difficult for the folk high school to strike root. A little booklet issued by the school has this to say about the genesis of the school : " The founding of Fir- croft College in January, 1909, was the outcome of serious thought on the part of a few people keenly interested in the education of working men. " A study of existing educational facilities impressed them with the disabilities under which the workers labored, and the strong necessity of attempting to lessen these disabilities if, in case of the workers, educa- tion was to yield its best results. " It was felt among other things that the invaluable work of the Adult Schools, the Workers' Educational 1 Thornton, "Fircroft, the First People's High School in England," p. i. THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 283 Association and kindred institutions needed supple- menting in a particular way; that larger opportunities of systematic study should be brought within the reach of those pursuing it ; and that, beyond all, there should be added to systematic study a common life and fellow- ship through which might be nurtured a clearer discern- ment of the things of abiding value. " The desirable thing, indeed, was a modest Working Men's College, which should be adaptable to varying standards of educational attainment on the part of its members, but the chief end of which should be to mold and fashion men, and teach them the greatest theme of all the Art of Right Living. " Education, it was felt, was not an exhaustive pursuit of facts nor a desultory acquaintance with them, but a broadening of the whole life, and the success of Fircrof t would be measured by the extent of its achievement in this direction." Fircroft has, for the past four years, worked along these lines with the greatest success. Laborers, clerks, teachers, gardeners, farmers, colliers, mechanics, and shop assistants from various parts of the United Kingdom have spent some time at Fircroft " who are witnesses to the broader outlook made possible by their stay." The school is situated near the Village Green at Bournville, and is set in three acres of beautiful old garden. The accommodations are limited to a family 284 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of twenty only. The school is equipped with library, lecture hall, common room, gymnasium, dressing rooms with shower baths, and a workshop. The garden is in- teresting. It offers opportunity for practical gardening in charge of an expert gardener ; for open air study, of which there is much at Fircroft, and for recreation. Methods of instruction and subject matter are much like what is offered in the Danish schools. The sub- jects include Bible study, political and social history, economics, industrial history, English literature, natural science, local government, and social questions of the day. An interesting feature is the Monday Evening Lecture Course on social questions of the day by eminent specialists. Another recent innovation is a correspond- ence course which can reach many who find it impossible to be in residence. The daily program follows : AUTUMN TERM, SEPT. 24-DEC. 17, 1913 TIME 9.45-10.15 11-11.50 12-12.50 P.M. 8-9 P.M. Monday Lecture Logic Grammar Gardening 2-4 P.M. Nature Study Ramble Special Lec- ture as an- nounced Tuesday English Language The Growth of Human Society Essay and crit- icism class 3.30-4.30 P.M. Gymnasium Wednesday Elementary Economics Nature Study Shakespeare Reading English History Thursday Elementary Biology Bible Study Essay and Crit- icism Class Gymnasium Commercial Geography Friday History of Eng- lish Literature The History of Landscape Gardening Gardening Cosy Hour Saturday Industrial History Reading Class Arithmetic Bible Study THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 285 It is interesting to have the opinion of the English press and the verdict of the resident students at Fir- croft on the value of such an institution. We may first quote from the report of a special representative of a prominent London paper, 1 who made a careful study of the school. He says in part : " I found the authentic stamp of the Hojskole on Fircrof t. Here are workers there a clerk, a mechanic or shop assistant, there a gardener, a labourer, or a miner withdrawn, for a time only, from the daily round, to learn what they may make, if they will, not only of their minds and souls, but of their bodies for physical exercises, the only compulsory thing at the rural high schools in Denmark, are given a prominent place at Fircrof t. The three dozen men in their early twenties, chiefly cultivate the humanities in an old house sequestered in three acres of garden, and their way of life is simple and frugal. As to study, there is freedom of choice that characterizes the Hojskole sys- tem. There is also the same intention not to make of education a thing pumped into people. From the activities and opportunities of Fircroft there results, it is found, not an exhausting pursuit of facts nor a des- ultory acquaintance with them but a broadening of the whole life. It is certain that many who have been introduced for the first time at Fircroft to a wider world 1 Daily Morning Leader, October 26, 1911. 286 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS of thought and knowledge are now, when back at their occupations, keener-eyed and better able to play a serviceable part in the world. ' The students,' says the Warden, are ' drawn into a new atmosphere of study and reflection, affecting the whole of their subsequent life.' " The report of the inspectors of the Board of Educa- tion pays a tribute to the high quality of instruction given. But the individual attention which the students receive is even more important than the class instruc- tion. The Warden, speaking on the subject of cultivat- ing a taste for literature, says illummatingly : ' A book must be found for each man which will make the direct- est appeal to his imagination. In the case of a man who has had a religious training, the thing that appeals to him most readily is poetry, like Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal. The influence of this upon the mind of a young farmer was magnetic. In the case of a farm laborer, book after book was suggested, apparently without any effect; the awakening came in reading Adam Bede. In the case of a mechanic, Kingsley struck the note which found a response.' ' At the annual reunion of old Fircrofters held May 25, 1912, six of the one-time students, Alf Stephens, Cecil Leeson, Bob Pounder, Syd Davis, Tom Handforth, and Frank Ferguson, gave five-minute speeches on " The Value of Fircroft : My Personal Experience," which bring out some very illuminating phases of this THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 287 and similar schools. These statements are contained in the July issue of " The Old Fircrofter," the student's periodical : " Frank Ferguson said there were many ways in which Fircroft had benefited him. He came, having read a little and thought a little ; but Fircroft filled in the gaps. He had previously had a fair grounding in Industrial History, but at Fircroft he got many details he couldn't have got elsewhere. Then again at Fircroft, he had his mind ministered to on more than one side; he had heard something of literature, and Bible matters, and science ; and as a result he was now better equipped for serving the community. But that wasn't all. Fir- croft also gave him food for his soul. It did something to temper his disposition ; it gave him new points of view; and, mixing with other fellows, he was educated in human nature as well as in books. It was one of the great pleasures of his life to look back on the two terms he spent at Fircroft. " Bob Pounder said that at Fircroft he got hold of the idea that the wealth of the nation did not depend on pounds, shillings, and pence, but on healthy, well educated individuals. He found that religion did not consist of facts and creeds, but of feeling and thought, and action. But there was something that one couldn't understand unless one spent a term at Fircroft. One got bound up with a lot of fellows. 288 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS " Tom Handforth said that before he came to Fir- croft he was a rebel ; he was a rebel still, but a different kind of rebel. From his early days he had thought it was wrong for so few people to have so much, while so many had so little. He even joined a socialist party, but he hadn't the faintest idea what socialism was, or which way he was going. At Fircroft he found the very thing he wanted. He learned something of the past history of the nation and of other nations, and got some inkling of the way it would have to develop. He thought he was now a wee bit more of a dangerous rebel, for he knew where he was going. Fircroft showed him there was a purpose in life and it was each man's duty to carry the work forward. " Alf Stephens thought Fircroft had taught him some valuable truths. He had got the idea of respon- sibility, whether in connection with politics, religion, or education. He had come to desire the genuine in everything, and to do away with shams. He had learned the oneness of things, and that shed a great light on the difficulties of to-day. In study, Fircroft put him on the track of things. His stay at Fircroft was the awakening of his mind. " Answering a series of questions which had been suggested by Professor Muirhead, Cecil Leeson said: " (i) That he did not think that any but an infini- tesimal proportion of Fircroft applicants were led to seek THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 289 admission simply in order to attain positions conven- tionally regarded as higher than those held by working men, in connection with Trade Unions, etc., it seemed to him that where there was found in a crofter any talent worth cultivating, one could not afford to waste it. " (2) In answer to the question whether the Fircroft training had been of material advantage in his own case, he said that since his residence his wages had increased about one third and his worries about one hundredfold. Fircroft was, quite at liberty to take credit for the one, provided it shouldered responsibility for the other. " (3) He did not want to see any definite preparation for residence at Fircroft except that which should develop an interested state of mind. " (4) Asked what he would have done differently if he had his time at Fircroft over again, he said, first, that he now realized that, in the lecture, the student should work at least as hard as the lecturer; and secondly, that he would try to be courageous enough to do without a notebook at lectures. " (5) He did not think that attendance at University classes by Fircroft students was advisable. Fircroft was too small to be divided, and if it was to keep its distinctive atmosphere it could not afford to find room for external students. 20,0 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS "(6) Answering the question, What do you value most as the result of your residence at Fircroft? he emphasized three points. First, he had learned the value of books in giving information ; secondly, he had learned the greater value of books in giving rise, in the reader, to thoughts which in a very real way were original ; and thirdly, he had attained self-reliance. " In answer to the same series of questions, Syd Davis agreed in most points with Cecil Leeson. But he thought that it would be a great advantage to a prospective Fircrofter to have had a preliminary train- ing in the rudiments of English grammar and to have taken a course in the correspondence classes." England has made a beginning. But " whether such a school can become as widely popular here as it is in Denmark," Professor Thornton says, " remains to be seen." " If Lancashire and Yorkshire," he continues, " had fifty such schools dotted about their country spots, and other counties had them in the same pro- portion, we should still have fewer for our population than they have in Denmark. But they would be enough to uplift not a man here and there, as already happens, but to leaven the whole lump. For Eng- lishmen are of the same race as Danes, Norsemen, and Swedes ; and what has happened on the east of the North Sea may just as well happen on the west. There is no Sunday school, no council school, no town or THEIR TRANSPLANTATION 29 1 parish council, no cooperative undertaking, no religious community that would not have received an upward impulse. The effect would be seen in all our industrial, political, and religious life." l 1 Fircroft, "The First People's High School in England," p. 4. CHAPTER XVH DANISH-AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES Early History of the Transplantation. Danish im- migration to the United States was of little consequence numerically before the close of the Civil War. The period 1865-1870 marks the beginning of a rising tide. Ten thousand Danes landed in the United States during the five years. Nearly 36,000 came during 1870-1880, and this number increased to 76,000 the next decade. But by this time agricultural conditions had become very much improved hi the Danish Islands, and the emi- grants came in decreasing numbers, until now the an- nual influx is considerably less than it was in the early seventies. But many of these newcomers, scattering over the country and particularly over the Middle West, were old folk high school students who found it hard to forget the teachings of their early school days. They instinctively sought the open country, and made their pioneer settlements from Michigan and Iowa westward to the Pacific. Every settlement had its church and 293 DANISH- AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 2 93 its resident pastor, who was also generally a high school man. The pastors have generally taken the lead in organizing the schools within the settlements, also. In November, 1874, Rev. Olav Kirkeberg, a Nor- wegian in the service of the Danish-American Church, and resident pastor at Elkhorn, Iowa, an inland settle- ment many miles from railroad, opened the first Danish- American folk high school in the United States. Kirkeberg was a student of the great Norwegian folk schoolman, Christoffer Brunn, and his assistant at Elkhorn was Kristian Ostergaard, an old Askov student. Another school was founded at Ashland, Michigan, in 1882, by the Ryslinge student, Rev. H. J. Pedersen. Unfortunately, this school lay too far eastward to at- tract Danish- Americans in sufficient numbers to pay expenses. Several able schoolmen, including Professor Christian Bay, a well-known writer on the folk high schools in English, have tried to reorganize the school. At the time of writing it is being reopened by a group of friends of the cause, who have great faith in its ulti- mate success. Another school which later suspended activity was opened at West Denmark, Wisconsin, in 1884, by Rev. K. L. Norgaard, also an Askov student. Schools were further established at Blair, Nebraska (Dana College) and Des Moines, Iowa (Grand View College) which still retain considerable of the folk high school spirit, 294 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS method, and subject matter; but whose chief work is now to prepare pastors for the two branches of the Danish Lutheran Church in the United States to which they belong. These may, therefore, be passed by in the present discussion. This leaves just three typical Danish-American folk high schools for our consideration : Elk Horn Folk High School, Elk Horn, Iowa ; Nysted Folk High School, Nysted, Nebraska; and Danebod Folk High School, Tyler, Minnesota. Elk Horn Folk High School. This and all the other schools of its kind in the United States have been founded either immediately by some body within the Danish Lutheran Church or by an association of members belonging to the Church. The Elk Horn school was at first the property of the congregation. The campus comprised three acres, upon which was erected an unpretentious main building costing about $3000. This has twice been destroyed by fire, and each time rebuilt larger and better. There is also a dormitory for young women, a gymnasium, and a home for the principal. The school, when it was first opened, lay far out on the Iowa rolling prairies, and the settlers were pretty scattered. But the Danish farmers of Shelby and Audubon counties supported it loyally, giving freely of their small means and doing such work with their DANISH- AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 295 own hands and teams as might be required of them. All coal and building materials, for example, had to be hauled over hilly roads from railway stations twelve to twenty miles away. All this work was cheerfully donated by the settlers. Even the students, who in Elk Horn's most palmy days used to come from twenty or more states, had to be transported laboriously by wagon. " These experiences," says A. P. Juhl, the present principal of the school, " were not of the most pleasant when the students in order to ease the load for the horses were obliged to get out and trudge through the mud up the hills, to say nothing of the bitter winds they often were obliged to face." Nothing short of the folk high school spirit could have suffered such hard- ships without complaint. The work at Elk Horn in the early day was in every respect similar to the work of the Danish schools. Many lectures and very little textbook work was the plan. The lectures especially from 1 1 to 12 noon and 7 to 8 at night were well attended by the farmers of the vicinity, who would drive miles to be present. Rev. Kirkeberg was succeeded by Rev. H. J. Pedersen, who later founded the Ashland school. In 1882, he was in turn superseded by Rev. Kristian Anker, a distant relative of the great schoolman, Herman Anker of " Saga tun," Norway. Under Anker's administra- tion, from 1882-1897, the school did its best work. Stu- 296 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS dents came annually from nearly half the states in the Union, reaching close up towards the two hundred mark. Anker owned the school privately, and under this management it naturally prospered the best. Then came church differences and other disagreements. The school was sold to one of two discordant church bodies, and after that time has not been so prosperous. Down through the years considerable classwork has been added in academic subjects. The lectures have been reduced hi numbers in the same proportion. The school has done some work in preparing teachers for the rural schools and even for commercial activities. But, unfortunately, it has not seen its way clear to be of any material assistance in tying the agriculturist to the soil in the way the modified Danish schools do in the mother country. Nysted Folk High School. This interesting little school was founded in the fall of 1887, by Rev. C. J. Skovgaard, who also belonged to the large group of Askov students doing pioneering work in the Middle West. The school is located near the small village of Nysted in Howard County, Nebraska. The school was opened in an empty store building with a leaky roof. The first year was marked by many hardships; but when, on occasion, it got too cold in the house, " the students would go through their gymnastic exercises and later forget their troubles in song and interesting lectures." DANISH-AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 297 The second year a school was opened with a capacity for twenty-four students ; but the founder had difficul- ties in making ends meet financially, as he was obliged to pay 24 per cent interest on a small loan for the building ! A corporation was established and given the name " Nysted Hojskolesamfund," which purchased and now supports the school. This body consists of about three hundred stockholders, and is independent of any church organization. A suitable building with dormitory ca- pacity for fifty students was soon after erected on an at- tractive campus of ten acres. " The school," says Principal Aage Moller, " has replaced the undesirable dancing and drinking of former days with a serious spiritual life. The whole country- side, including teachers and students, form a harmonious brotherhood of kindred interests." " Our school," continues Mr. Moller, " is reared on exactly the same principles as are the folk high schools in Denmark. But, the United States is now our country. This must be kept well in mind. We are planting the school in American soil, and we feel that success shall in the end be ours." Eighty to ninety students are enrolled in the course of a year ; young men during the months December to March, and young women during April to July. An in- teresting short course of eight days is given in March for old and young people. The work is highly inspirational. 298 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS It includes lectures on Church History, Bible study, social and economic problems, debates and song. Danebod Folk High School. There is a large degree of similarity in the history of the Danish- American folk high schools. They all began as pioneer institu- tions in new prairie settlements, and have all seen hard times, always hampered in their possibilities by lack of funds. They have, every one, had among their leaders and teachers many who were ready to suffer surprising hardships for the sake of the cause of education. Per- haps none of the schools has had a more varied career than Danebod, near Tyler, Minnesota, and yet sur- vived, with a fair promise of greater usefulness in the years to come. Danebod was organized in 1888 by Rev. H. J. Peder- sen, who has been mentioned above in connection with other schools. A heroic struggle now began, which has been continued for a little more than a quarter of a century. In the early years, the settlers were desper- ately poor and could do but little. After the school had been in operation for a few months, teachers and students began to feel the need of an assembly hall and gymnasium. Lumber was expensive, but great bowlders glacial drift were abundant. Many hundred loads of these were dragged together, and slowly hewn into shape for the " Stone House." This little structure was used for several years as church, auditorium, and gym- DANISH-AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 299 nasium. " It was not attractive," says an old stu- dent, " but it was here that many of us first learned to know ourselves, and that to us sheds an everlasting halo around it." Danebod gradually grew from its humble beginnings. A church was built, the original school building was greatly enlarged, then a gymnasium and, finally, a small hospital, were added. By 1912, during the ad- ministration of Rev. Thorvald Knudsen, the attend- ance had reached the one hundred mark. The new principal, Rev. Halvdan Helweg, has just celebrated the quarter-centennial of Danebod amidst promises of a most prosperous future. Hindrances to Satisfactory Growth of the Danish- American Schools. It is undeniable that the Danish- American folk high schools have not succeeded as well as their friends had hoped ; and, yet, if they should all close their work for good right now, no one who under- stands the work they have done would have the temerity to say that their existence has been in vain, or that the results from their labor have not been worth the sacri- fice of the heroic souls who gave both their time and their means to the cause. The schools have done a work of inestimable value among Danish- Americans, and one can only wish that the future may shape itself in such a way that the work of the schools for the coming years may be greatly enlarged. 300 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS It is in place here to point out the main reasons why the schools have succeeded no better than they have; so that this be not taken as valid reason why other schools of the folk high school type in the United States should not be able to prosper. Perhaps no one difficulty that Danish-American lead- ers have suffered under is greater and more insuperable than the scattered condition of the people from whom students must be drawn. There is scarcely half a million Danes in the United States, counting the first native-born generation. And these are scattered from ocean to ocean. Even under these conditions the folk high school spirit has been strong enough to draw stu- dents for many hundred miles, so that even the humblest school can boast students from half a dozen states. At Elk Horn, fifty students of the winter session, 1896- 1897, as an experiment, averaged up their traveling expenses going to and from the school, and their expenses at the school and found that it had cost 15 per cent more to reach the school than to spend the term there ! This seems cause enough to force the closing of almost any ordinary kind of school. Again, there has been a lack of financial backing. The men who led in the work have themselves been poor men. It will be recalled that the Danish schools could scarcely make any headway before the state came to thek aid with subsidies. The growth of the schools DANISH-AMERICAN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 301 has been crippled in Norway for the same reason. It is quite certain that had substantial aid been extended to these schools in the United States, they might have succeeded quite as well as they have done in Denmark. It would seem that here is an opportunity for educational philanthropists or foundations to extend aid to a worthy and important cause. It would be hard to deny, too, that some of the high school leaders, who have had all their training from Den- mark, found it difficult to readjust themselves to the new conditions. The tendency is that, in spite of their nat- ural broadmindedness and contrary to Grundtvig's philos- ophy, which is all-embracing, they would expend too much energy in reproducing Danish conditions and life, thereby hindering a natural transition from Danish to American. On the other hand, it is but fair to state that the schools have served as a check upon the over-hasty immigrant, making of him a saner, truer Danish-American for being first well-grounded in the best that the schools have had to offer. A last cause for indifferent success is, no doubt, that the schools have been unable to adapt their activ- ities, hi any large measure, to American conditions, and this may be explained again in lack of funds. If, for example, the three Danish-American folk high schools that are now active should reorganize their school plants on such a basis as to combine the pure folk cul- $02 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS ture with the practical courses offered, say, at Haslev or Vallekilde, and more particularly with the long and short courses of such schools as Kaerehave or Fyn Stift's School at Odense, they would unquestionably be enabled to accomplish a much more vital work for Danish- Americans than they are now doing. In other words, it would seem that it should be possible to combine in the Danish-American folk high schools of the future Grundtvig's philosophy with the practical work of the other Danish schools which are so successful hi meeting the needs of an agricultural people. CHAPTER XVIII FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS General Statement. The discussion of adapting the folk high schools to American conditions has been left to the last. It seems scarcely necessary to raise the question as to whether such an adaptation is pos- sible after telling the Danish story in detail above, or whether it is desirable to make use of the inspiring folk high school culture as a leavening influence in American communities. The only questions asked ought to be, Where should the beginnings be made? And how should they be made ? That there is both a place and a need must be evident to people of ordinary discernment. The great national industrial transition going on round about us at the present time is forcing upon the country a partial reor- ganization of the educational system. Fifty years ago the American people were essentially agricultural. By 1913 it has become half rural and half urban, half agricultural and half industrial. The cities are grow- ing apace often at the expense of rural communities 303 304 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS and thither are flocking also hundreds of thousands of unassimilated aliens. It is self-evident that an educational process which can reach clear down to the roots of things, strengthening character, and teaching rights of fellowman, loyalty to the State, and fear of God, even while it supplies the youth and old men, without distinction, with practical training for bread-winning, may be made of inestimable value in hurrying the Americanization of the alien. Such is the Danish system. But the school, after all, adapts itself most readily to country needs and condi- tions. And in American rural life there seems, if any- thing, greater urgency for educational reorganization than in city life. The Agricultural Reorganization. The movement away from the land either to the cities or to newer, unexhausted soil has retarded and stunted the agri- cultural development of whole sections in our country. In places this retardation has culminated in the decay of both agriculture and the people who live on the soil. There is a surprising amount of degeneracy in many one-time prosperous rural communities which have become drained of their best blood. Likewise, other sections, lying far from the highways of civilization, have become lost to progress, not because of disinte- gration of population particularly, but because of the deadening effects due to isolation from fellowmen. FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 305 The future of our agricultural life must be closely tied up with education. The pioneer period of the nation lies behind us; and even the time of household economy in American life is past. Instead, we are in the midst of a period of exploitation. Even before rural districts had felt the call of the cities and the beck- oning of the West, land exploitation and land specula- tion were well under way. One of our greatest national weaknesses is this disregard for the God-given soil and the way we plunder it. The soil should be holy; but the schools, at least, have been unable to inculcate this doctrine. The very worst phase of our present agricul- tural transition, perhaps, is tenant farming. Ameri- can landowners are moving to town, drawn thither by educational, religious, and social attractions. Here they add little to organized life, being naturally con- servative and opposed to progressive enterprise. The farms are left in the hands of tenants that " skin " the soil to death in their efforts to meet the increas- ingly high rents. This suicidal system is gradually destroying our greatest natural resource the soil. And now, what have the rural schools been doing to check this national evil ? The Old Rural Schools Unable to Cope with the Situa- tion. The small one-teacher schools which answered well the needs of rural life among the pioneers and the household economy type of farmers, can no longer keep 306 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS up with the procession of change and reorganization in agricultural life, and must be abandoned for a new type of school organized to meet the needs of our new agriculture that of the husbandman type. It is true that in some sections these small schools must persist for an indefinite time, chiefly on account of geographical difficulties. Here, the most will have to be made of a bad situation by providing good, well-trained and well-paid teachers, and who, withal, must have the right vision of the new agricultural life. Coming of the Centralized Farmers' Schools. A great movement is now beginning to spread across the continent, which contemplates the consolidation of the many weakling schools in a few centrally located, graded farmers' schools. The best organized of the consoli- dated schools offer eight grades of elementary work and from two to four years of high school work. The new schools should do for the community what the old have been incapable of doing ; namely, training the boys to become scientific farmers and the girls prac- tical farmers' helpmeets. Such training can be made to inculcate a wholesome love of country life, and may be expected to counteract the townward exodus. More- over, from these schools must come many impulses to organize the country people on a more permanent social and economic basis. FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 307 How the Reorganized Schools may profit by the Danish System. The first lesson taught by a study of the Danish system is that rural schools must be reared in the midst of the rural community and nowhere else. By this is meant the open country or the rural-minded village, preferably the former. The whole system of Danish rural schools elementary school, folk high school, agricultural school, and school of household economics invariably lie in a rural environment. Their founders are too wise to tempt the pupils' sus- ceptibilities for city life by rearing the schools in the organized urban centers. There are in the United States at this time several thousand consolidated schools, many of them built in the midst of ideal rural surroundings as real farm schools. But in too many instances, unfortunately, consolidation has been brought about by disorganizing independent districts adjacent to some village or larger town, adding the taxable farm area to this and sending the children to the town school. It should be under- stood that this is not invariably a wrong way to solve the problem. If the village is rural-minded and clean, nearly as good results may be looked for; but ordi- narily, the town school is organized solely for the town children, and the farm boys and girls are not likely to come under satisfactory influences, since the agricul- tural atmosphere will be lacking. 308 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Parenthetically speaking, it may be stated here that in one or two states where the consolidation has taken place right in the open country, the organizers have been so unwise as to carry to the country a fully organized town course of study, including grades and high school, striving to graft this city branch on the rural stock. Such procedure must fail wherever tried, and in several instances it has brought the reorganization of the schools into ill-repute. The Folk High School Spirit in Our Agricultural Communities. It has been stated and reiterated above that the folk high school spirit has emancipated the agricultural population in Denmark. It has at least made them the peers of their city brethren. They have become leaders in affairs in production, in distribution, in politics, and chiefly because they have learned to think for themselves and to act independently of the industrial classes. As much cannot be said of our farmers as a body. The schools have been of small help hi this respect. Now that the new agricultural schools are coming to the nation we should be clear on several points : First, there is great danger of going to the extreme in the immediately practical and technical. The work of the schools is in danger of focusing too much on making two blades of grass grow where one grew before, on teaching girls to cook and keep house according to FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 309 sanitary regulations, and the like. These things are all excellent and must be taught in the schools ; but they are utterly insufficient to make us a really great agri- cultural nation. Let us recall here, it was not the local agricultural schools and household economic schools that primarily made Denmark a great scientific agri- cultural nation. If the worldly practical is separated from a broadening culture the life horizon of the pupil is prone to become narrowed down to what is immedi- ately present only, resulting in shrewd, calculating seek- ing for personal gain instead of a far-reaching altruism. Second, our final conquest of the soil can scarcely come before a more genuine folk culture permeates our rural communities at large. This would teach a greater love of the soil and the naturalist farmer is the great- est kind of farmer; it would help us to measure the good in life by spiritual standards and not by man-made rules. It would help us to rise above the limitations of locality and state, and teach an understanding of the national and even universal in existence. Therefore, men and women, trained in schools where this inspiration abides, themselves imbued with the spirit of altruism, wise as to the purpose in life, inspired and inspiring and such only, should be given charge of the new farm schools! Inspirational Lectures and Extension Courses. - The writer believes that there should be at least one 310 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS inspirational lecture by teachers and others daily in all the consolidated rural schools. There is need of real thought food for the daily appetite of adolescent boys and girls. To argue that there is no time for these things in the schools would be much the same as to say that we have not time to live our lives. If teachers are incapable of giving heart-to-heart talks intended to make the pupils pause and seriously seek the purpose of life, it is quite evident that they are out of place hi the schoolroom. The Danish folk high schools are centers from which all kinds of extension work spring. To begin with, grown-up people of the community take advantage of the noon-day and evening lectures in the regular lec- ture halls ; and in summer they attend numerous meet- ings in the groves near by the schools. Finally, the high school leaders organize lecture courses in the assem- bly halls, far and wide, over the country. Some such work is being done in our country now ; but it is only a meager beginning. Every consolidated and other farm school must become the social and intellectual center of the community. Stated lecture courses both inspirational and practical should be offered the grown people of the school community. Short Courses for All who need Help. Nothing in the plans of the folk high schools and their auxiliaries appealed to the investigator more strongly than did FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 311 the continuous short courses. At the small hold schools, for example, new courses begin each first and third Tuesday of the month, and continue eleven or twelve months in the year. The time spent in school is short ; but it is long enough to give an abundant store of inspira- tion and much practical knowledge. Annual short courses are now a part of the established work of most of our agricultural colleges, and even the local village and country schools in a few states have begun to offer this work. But the work has not yet been carried so far that people beyond school age, as ordinarily understood, feel that the school is intended as fully for them as for the children. It will be a great day in the life of American country communities when the schools shall see their way clear to labor continuously for the whole community to seek to solve the life problems for all the people, whether young or old. The preceding paragraphs have merely suggested the application of Danish folk school spirit and matter to the new farm schools that are gradually superseding the older smaller schools. The remainder of the sec- tion is devoted to the possible establishment of the school as a whole in a modified form in certain sections of the country. Why there is Need of Schools for Grown-ups in the United States. When the Federal Census for the year 1910 was taken, there were in the United States 312 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS 5,516,163 persons ten years of age and over who could neither read nor write, including 2,273,603 who were twenty-one years of age and over. " Of these illiter- ates, 3,184,633, or 58 per cent, were white persons; 1,534,272, or 28 per cent, were native-born whites; and 1,650,361, or 30 per cent, foreign-born whites; 2,227,731, or 40 per cent, were negroes. The rest, 2 per cent, were Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and others." l More than two thirds of all the illiterates come from rural communities. These illiterates are not now limited to race or section of country. The colored illiteracy of the South is almost balanced by the ignorant aliens of the North; and the illiteracy among the remote parts of the Southern Mountain Plateau is scarcely greater than the illiteracy in rural life in the Northern Appalachians. But all this illiteracy is found very largely among persons above twenty years of age men and women who cannot be expected to get their education from the ordinary school. The nation has its choice between letting this generation of illiterates continue to live and die in their ignorance at a fearful cost to national life ; or it may organize schools especially adapted to their needs, in which they may get the rudiments of learning, and in addition to this, some inspiration to do 1 See " Illiteracy in the United States and An Experiment for its Elim- ination." Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1913. No. 20. FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 313 better, some insight into the highest good in life, some- thing to lift them out of the deadening materialism and indifference for country and their fellow men. The South Atlantic Highland a Good Place to Begin. The most natural section of the United States in ^^Allegheny-Cumberland Plateau Belt, ^^Greater Appalachian Valtey Belt lllll III Appalachian Mountain Baft. which to begin the organization of schools for grown-ups, modeled after the Danish schools, is the great broken 314 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS upland region that usually goes by the name of the South Atlantic Highland. 1 This comprises a total area of 108,164 square miles, with a population of 5,085,736. One whole state and parts of seven others have been carved out of the South Atlantic Highland, which really embraces the three well-marked geographical areas known as the Alleghany- Cumberland Plateau Belt, the Greater Appalachian Valley Belt, and the Appalachian Mountain Belt, or as it is also called, the Blue Ridge Belt. It includes the whole of West Virginia, forty-two counties in west- ern Virginia, twenty-three in western North Carolina, and four in western South Carolina; twenty-five in northern Georgia, seventeen in northeastern Alabama, forty-five in eastern Tennessee, and thirty-six in eastern Kentucky. While large areas within this Highland are no more backward educationally than the rest of the country, all are included here for convenience of statement. But the truth remains in any case that adult illiteracy in these mountain regions is surprisingly large and duty demands that educators face the facts as they really are in order that relief may come. The Federal Census for 1910 gives the illiteracy per thousand in the total population ten years of age and over in these states as 1 For the map and data as to area and population of the South Atlantic Highland, the writer is indebted to John C. Campbell, Secretary Southern Highland Division, Russell Sage Foundation. NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN FOLK. A modified form of the Danish folk high school and agricultural school would become a blessing to the retarded sections of our own country. PRESBYTERIAN MISSION SCHOOL IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC HIC.H LANDS. The people of these regions are eager to be helped. The only question is, shall it come to them in the form of the three R's, or shall it be the culture that lifts one beyond one's native mountain tops. FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 315 follows: West Virginia, 83; Kentucky, 121; Tennessee, 136; Virginia, 152; North Carolina, 185; Georgia, 207 ; Alabama, 229. The figures for adult males twenty- one years of age and over are even more startling. For the same states they are: West Virginia, 104 for each thousand in the total population ; Kentucky, 145 ; Tennessee, 157 ; Virginia, 177 ; North Carolina, 213 ; Georgia, 228; Alabama, 243; and South Carolina, 271. These figures are for the entire state, and would in some cases be increased if applied to the highland area only, while in others, on account of the large lowland negro population, they would be somewhat diminished. The figures are, however, sufficiently correct to emphasize the urgency of the need. The " Moonlight " Schools of Kentucky, an Experi- ment in the Elimination of Adult Illiteracy. Attempts have been made from time to time by Church organiza- tions and .individuals to reach the illiterate adults of the southern highlands. Some of these attempts have been more or less abortive of results, and others have proved a great blessing to limited communities. A most notable illustration of what can be done show- ing also the startling need of what must be done is the work of Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart and her asso- ciates, in the so-called " Moonlight " or night schools for illiterates, which were begun in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the fall of 1911. 316 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS Mrs. Stewart made a careful study of local condi- tions and decided the most feasible plan to be to open night schools on moonlight evenings in the public school- houses over the county. The regular teachers all responded to the call and made their preparations and issued their invitations. We read, " It was expected that the response would be slow, but more than 1,200 men and women from 1 8 to 86 years of age were enrolled the first evening. They came trooping over the hills and out of the hollows, some to add to the meager edu- cation received in the inadequate schools of their child- hood, some to receive their first lessons in reading and writing. Among them were not only illiterate farmers and their illiterate wives, sons, and daughters, but also illiterate merchants or storekeepers, illiterate ministers, and illiterate lumbermen. Mothers, bent with age, came that they might learn to read letters from absent sons and daughters, and that they might learn for the first time to write to them." l This remarkable experiment grew rapidly in popu- larity. In 1912, the enrollment of adults in Rowan County reached nearly 1,600 and the movement had meanwhile spread to eight or ten other counties. Of the i, 600 mentioned above, 300 entered the school utterly unable to read and write at all, 300 were from 1 See "Illiteracy in the United States," p. 28. FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 317 those who had learned in September, 1911, and 1,000 men and women of meager education. The work of such schools as these must naturally be limited to the merest rudiments of education. To learn to read and write, to spell and figure, with brief drills in the essentials of language, history, geography, civics, sanitation, and agriculture this is the most that can be expected. But the mountain districts crave vastly more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. The fatalism of retardation engendered by centuries of isola- tion, poverty, and civil war has placed a peculiar stamp upon the civilization there which mere academic schools will find it difficult to remove. At least it cannot be removed in the present generation. The Berry Country-life Schools near Rome, Georgia. Religious and philanthropic organizations, as was stated above, have done what they could to alleviate life conditions in the South Atlantic Highland. This has been done chiefly through mission schools of elementary and secondary grade. Many of these schools also have limited their efforts to the mere* rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic, although a small number of the most successful have extended their work beyond this and have succeeded in teaching the practical things necessary to improve immediate living conditions. In this way the fine old home crafts of the early Scotch-Irish pioneers have become revived in places through the 318 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS schools. Weaving, basket making, and other useful household arts are taking on a new life in some moun- tain homes, which means that a new contentment and an added source of income are coming to the moun- tain women. But mere mission schools and " moonlight " schools cannot hope to solve the great problems of the moun- tains. This demands a country-life school where the mountain folk can come and live and do. At least one such school has been organized and is now beginning to bless the young men and the young women in the Southern highlands. This is the remarkable Berry Country-life Schools at Mount Berry near Rome, Georgia. The school was founded in 1902 by Miss Martha Berry, a Southern woman of the highest ideals and sympathies, who is devoting her life and her means to setting up a new race of country-life leaders in her own section of the South. The Berry schools for there are separate schools for young men and young women more nearly approach the Danish ideal than does any other school of its kind in our country. Here is taught a love of the soil and the dignity of honest labor. Here the young men are taught self-help and are assisted to useful trades, while the young women are taught independence and thrift and are prepared to become practical housekeepers. With more means at its disposal, this great institution might be enabled to FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 319 reach outward to bless all of the people young and old who stand in need of inspiration and guidance to get over the hard places in life and therewith fulfill all the requirements of the Danish folk school system. Schools which might be transformed into Country- life Institutions after the Danish Type. A study of higher educational institutions in our country discloses the fact that many denominational, private, and semi- private colleges and schools which in the past have done great public service in an educational way, now lie stranded, high and dry, because they have been unable to keep up with the flood tide of national change. Every section of the country has schools of the old classic type which, because of their ultraconservatism and reluc- tance to conform their work with modern demands, can no longer do a service commensurate with the physical equipment at their disposal. Occasionally it has hap- pened that better supported State schools with more liberal curricula have dispossessed the smaller institu- tions. Many such schools lie on the borders of the South Atlantic Highland, in the midst of a large native popula- tion with the finest of traditions, and almost under the shadows of the mountains where dwell a folk of pure Anglo-Saxon origin, but now retarded and in need of help. The people of the valleys and the mountain sides cannot be saved by the philosophy of the ancients, 320 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS nor by courses in Latin and Greek excellent though all these be. The mountain folk crave a different kind of learning a culture that can help them live more com- plete lives as members of the great human family and as citizens of the State and Nation, which will help them earn their daily bread in their own community. Is it not fair to say that a school of the Berry type is doing vastly more to lift the nation than are many of the small schools of the old scholastic type which are unable to aid the common folk pleading for help at their doors ? Is it not time for men to rise up and reorganize these schools by turning them away from the past and facing them towards the needs of the present day? The introduction of a good measure of Danish folk high school culture and agricultural theory and practice would unquestionably restore them to their former place of usefulness in the great work of the Nation. How the Schools might be Reorganized. The schools should be able to inspire to an early coordination of head, heart, and hand. Real inspirers must be found to take charge of the schools. These should offer a liberal number of lectures on historical, social-economic, and local themes, in connection with the practical work in the rudiments of learning. The schools should receive all who are not now looked after by the public schools. In some communities the schools would include even the public school chil- FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS 321 dren. There should be courses for those who are entirely illiterate as well as for those who have had some school- ing. The schools must, in fact, be ready to meet the problems of all the people, without regard to age or preparation. The poor hillside farms have their prob- lems these must be looked after. The mountains need their own artisan class to rebuild the homes and reestablish the household arts of the olden time on a modern footing. There should be long courses for the youth and continuous short courses for their parents and grandparents. There should be day lectures open to the whole country side, and extension lectures should be carried into the remotest coves. The schools for smallholders in Denmark had conditions almost as difficult to meet. What they did, Americans will not refuse to do. The work might be directed to some extent by the national government, and be, in time, subsidized by national and state aid. The heads of the schools should have much the same freedom as in the Danish schools. As a beginning, tuition and lodging should be entirely free, and scholarships might include all ex- penses in return for work done on the school premises. Schools in which to train the " Inspirers." - But who shall the teachers be in these schools? Whence shall come the inspirers able to understand the needs of their people and willing to undertake the work? Much 322 RURAL DENMARK AND ITS SCHOOLS the same questions are being asked throughout the nation to-day in regard to the supply of teachers for the modern rural schools. It is easy to see that the trained leadership needed in country districts cannot be realized until a staff of teachers, professionally trained and with the right vision and power, establish them- selves as permanent teachers. Heretofore, the schools have done little to prepare rural teachers for their diffi- cult tasks. A most encouraging sign of the times is this that some Normal Schools, Colleges of Agriculture, and Schools of Education in the Universities have begun to see their opportunity in training teachers for the new farm schools. But with all that is being done, there is urgent need for one or more central schools to devote all their energies to the preparation of rural life leaders of all kinds teachers, local agricultural experts, rural community organizers of various kinds, including the men to take charge of the transplanted folk high schools. The Seaman Knapp Memorial School at Nashville is prom- ising to train men for rural leadership. Perhaps this school and other southern institutions similarly or- ganized may begin the great task of preparing the first leaders for the folk schools in the South Atlantic High- land. Possibly even some of the old scholastic insti- tutions may hear the call and answer it, APPENDIX A BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE RURAL LIFE MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES l INTRODUCTORY We of the United States have met with no great political disaster to stir us on to larger purpose. But we have with us to-day, nevertheless, many serious problems that will require our thoughtful and prayerful consideration. Of these, none has greater significance than the country life movement, so called. Our country life is undergoing a transition. There is a shifting, changing, and one might almost say disin- tegration going on in country population, manifesting itself in the crumbling, or at least, weakening, of church and school and allied institutions out in the open coun- try. This situation must be met fairly and frankly by the thinking men and women of America. It is well to bear in mind that our country life is our only genu- inely normal American life. It stands for a rugged conservatism which is both wholesome and essential 1 Some portions of the following have been used by the author in a little brochure prepared several years ago for the Missionary Education Movement in the United States and Canada. 323 324 APPENDIX in the strife to reconcile all the elements of our present civilization. A proper solution of the difficulties now confronting American country life must ultimately be of vital importance to city life and national life as a whole. Under such circumstances, we may well con- sider what other nations are doing to make their country life satisfactory and wholesome. The least we can learn is that the past lack of policy has lead to needless disorganization, and that the introduction of a virile policy of progressive forethought at the present time will do as much for our people as it has done in other countries where tried. HISTORY OF CHANGES IN AMERICAN RURAL LIFE The Pioneers. Our New England forefathers lived a village life, with their existence centering in the meet- inghouse and the grammar school. Their pastors and teachers of the first generation wore the gowns of Oxford and Cambridge. The life they lived was of the house- hold economy type. Modes of life were simple. Each family or group of families produced practically what- ever was necessary for life's sustenance. Each child in the family was taught to fear God and to study his catechism, and the three R's. The practical phases of education which no longer are taught in the average home were a part of the daily training. Meanwhile, the primitive country folk the pioneers APPENDIX 325 - had their wilderness to conquer. Their environment made them independent and self-reliant. From that day to this the dwellers in our great open country have been swayed by an individualistic spirit which in those days was essential to existence. They lived along the frontier line, ever pushing it westward, breaking a path in which civilization could follow. Such men and women had little of school and church. Some of them could worry their way through Webster's spelling book and the Bible. They prayed as they shot, if they prayed at all straight and to the mark ! When the circuit rider and perambulating schoolmaster came from the older settlements, the restless path breakers for civilization moved nearer to the setting sun. While the pioneer day is past, farm districts still retain much of the self- sufficient individualism which marked that period. This trait, in many ways so praiseworthy, is the very thing that makes it difficult for farmers to-day to stand together and cooperate in things of mutual concern. The Household Farmer. Slowly, as the pioneer cleared the way, the household farmer filled the land. He reared homes and tilled the soil. His tenancy was a permanent one. The household arts were brought out to the farmstead from the New England village. Church spires began to appear along the sky line. Church services were held with some regularity; or in lieu of these services Bible study and devotional 326 APPENDIX exercises had place in most households. Schools were found at long intervals schools well attended, because those were days of large families when children found a five or six mile walk to school no great hardship. Many of these early tillers of the soil may have been practical farmers, but scientific agriculturists they certainly were not. With all their fear of God they did not hold His soil sacred. Plundered year by year through a same- ness of crops, which knew no rotation, the soil early became impoverished, and great regions east of the Alleghanies faced their period of decay and disintegra- tion. As the vast corn and wheat lands in the Middle West were thrown open to settlement, the sterile New England hillside farms speedily succumbed to the un- equal competition. This led to farm abandonment or at least to depletion of the households on the small unproductive farms in New England, and along the entire Atlantic seaboard as far south as Georgia. Mid-country Development. West of the Allegha- nies a great, virile people, of restless and unquenched spirit, seized upon the land. Their love of religion and education burned strong in them, and churches and schools kept pace with development of the soil. One thing especially was marked : These churches were built to answer the needs of the time. None then demanded resident preachers. When the circuit rider made his round every four or six weeks the whole country- APPENDIX 327 side gathered to hear the Word. The children were baptized ; the young folks were wed. Those were the thriving days of camp meetings and emotional revivals ; for such things were bound to move strongly men and women dwelling, as our fathers, in the midst of great expanse of prairie hemmed in by vast forest reaches. The schools, too, played an important part in the crude civilization of the times. Brawn rather than brains was master ; indeed, most people took seriously the old saying that " without lickin' there can be no larnin'." But mark the change! Settlers coming from the older Eastern States brought along with them to the New West their old family traditions, their religious sentiments, and their educational ideals. Here is seen the beginning of a denominational rivalry which in our day has brought disaster to the country church. At every crossroad, where people at one time had been content to worship in a union church, two, three, or more rival churches appeared. Competition in reli- gious life seemed for years to stimulate to noblest effort ; but, unfortunately, a reaction soon set in, com- ing, as we shall see, from a source then unexpected, and continuing until in our day the entire country church has lost much of its one-time influence as a community builder and leader. The same may be said of the school. If the early schools could boast nothing else, they certainly were 328 APPENDIX big schools. A man teacher, occasionally well educated, taught here big crowds of strapping boys and girls. But by and by local ambition and short-sightedness forced the division and redivision of these large districts into smaller and smaller units until the limited tax area could no longer support a strong man teacher; the whole matter ending in retarded schools at the hands of underpaid and poorly prepared teachers. This policy in church and school was already causing disaster when another phenomenon came to be reckoned with, which in time has practically completed the work of retardation begun through misplaced zeal and exag- gerated ambition this is the recent disintegration of country population and the moving away from the land. Recent Industrial Revolution. The world-wide in- dustrial revolution which began in the eighteenth cen- tury with the invention of the spinning jenny and power loom, and the introduction of steam power, has since the Civil War all but changed our national make-up. In 1790, only 3.4 per cent of the American people lived in cities, now just about one half of the nation dwell at the great industrial centers. The phenomenal growth of cities has indeed been coincident everywhere with growth in manufacturing industries. These latter have produced modern, labor-saving machinery for the farm, and have consequently reduced the demand for farm hands. Factory-made wares and cheap transportation APPENDIX 329 have sounded the death knell of many local industries which in the olden time flourished at every crossroads. Rural craftsmen, their occupation gone, have flocked to the city. Farm hands, crowded out by the new machinery, have followed in the same path. The youth of the countryside the strong young men and women who should furnish its intelligence and vigorous life have, in large numbers, faced cityward, attracted by the glamor of city life and its many flattering oppor- tunities for advancement. Once the disintegration got under way, it continued to grow by sheer force of its own increasing momentum. The drift was at first purely economic in nature; subsequently every social organization in the country began to feel the pressure and to yield ground. Life in farm communities has gradually become shorn of many satisfactions, where such were at one time common. People are moving to town because the rural church can no longer offer the spiritual uplift demanded by the human soul. They go because the rural school does not offer an adequate education. They go, finally, because social life there is barren and often unwholesome with increasingly large farms in many sections and this life has been getting more and more shorn of its possibilities in proportion as the isolation has increased. Vanishing Country Church. For fear that the readers may not get the full purport of the statements made 330 APPENDIX above, some details may be offered first, as regards the country church. A few years back the church was the " meetinghouse " for many social as well as the religious gatherings. Here the young folk began their courtship ; here they were married ; here their children were baptized; and here, finally, all were placed to rest, as testified by the leaning tombstones near many a weatherbeaten country church. It was bad enough in the early day to set up many churches where only a few were needed. Bad became worse as soon as the rural disintegration began. Churches, which had barely been able to keep open doors, were abandoned one by one until, in the year 1912, almost every state in the Union could count them by the hundreds. For one thing, a church which must devote all energy to keep its own organization alive can do little for the extension of the Kingdom. Besides, large numbers of such churches continue as constant drains on the Church Extension and Home Mission Boards of their several denominations. To illustrate : A rural lif e survey made a few years ago by the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, of three coun- ties in northeastern Missouri, shows that the average church rural and village spends ninety-two cents out of every dollar collected to keep itself alive, seven cents for missions and Church Boards, and only one cent for local benevolence. Verily, is it not high time that we APPENDIX 331 apply some modern business sense to the country church organization ! In the state of Missouri something like one thousand country churches have recently been aban- doned. With their doors and windows nailed up, they are crumbling in decay and becoming eyesores upon the landscape. The neighboring state of Illinois makes fully as bad a showing, and other states are faring no better. But the situation is not hopeless; it need not even mean that religious zeal hi rural districts is materi- ally abating. Some country life surveys, indeed, show that in many sections the country folk are as funda- mentally religious as they ever were, though in others a disregard for church and Sabbath day is regrettably on the increase. Other Losses. With the introduction of modern sys- tems of communication and better means of transporta- tion the shut-in condition of country communities has come to an end. They were opened to the world and became a part of the world ; but the world at large has given hi return much less than it took from the average farm community. In the old-time school there were the good, old-fashioned debating clubs and literary societies, spelling bees, and singing schools; of a more social- economic nature were the quiltings, the huskings, the barn raisings, and play parties of every kind. So far as all these activities are concerned, which in the olden time brought young and old together to partake of a natural, 332 APPENDIX unconstrained social life, they have either been aban- doned altogether or are lingering in some denatured form. Neither village-dwelling preacher nor city-trained teacher knows how to give the country folk modern substitutes for their " lost arts " ; and the farmers lack leadership from their own ranks. Tenant Farming and Absentee Landlordism. Even before the farm community had felt the call of the city and the beckoning of the West, land exploitation and land speculation were well under way. One of our greatest national sins is this disregard for the God-given soil and the way we plunder it. The soil should be sacred, but we do not comprehend that term. The era beginning with 1873 has been especially marked by land speculation, making well-nigh impossible a stable and permanent country community life. Holding the land only long enough to receive the coveted rise in market value and then moving on to newer lands has been the universal practice. Under such conditions " home " cannot have the true ring in the open country. But the greatest bane of our present agricultural transition, after all, is tenant farming and absentee landlord- ism. American landowners are moving to town, drawn thither by its educational, religious, and social attrac- tions. Here they add little to organized life, being naturally conservative and opposed to progressive enter- prise. The farms are left in the hands of tenants that APPENDIX 333 generally " skin " the soil to death in their efforts to meet the heavy rents. This suicidal system is gradually destroying our greatest natural resource the soil. We are accustomed to think of Rome as falling before the onslaught of Goths and Germans; but in reality, Rome died by stages, as unwise tax policies obliged its peasantry to take crop after crop from the soil with- out power to restore the soil's declining fertility. What is true of Rome is true of most of the one-time mighty empires of the East. Once their soil became debauched all else availed but little. OUR RURAL LIFE PROBLEM Now, just what is the rural life problem ? What shall the solution be? These are questions that must be analyzed hi all seriousness. What the Problem is Not. To begin with, it may be said that the problem is not essentially a movement to draw a larger population to country districts. It is true that the country has suffered through the shift in population by moving to town and to newer farm regions. But the remedy is not to be sought in the so-called " back-to-the-land " movement. This agitation is a city impulse, which if realized might help hi a measure to solve the difficult problem of the city, without aiding the open country; or in many instances, making the difficulties of the latter still more complicated by dump- 334 APPENDIX ing upon our reserve farm lands an overflow population of defeated or impractical city people a population which would chiefly add to the blind resignation and fatalism of which there is too much in country com- munities now. Of course, so far as " rural-minded " people can be found in the cities the country welcomes them ; otherwise they should remain where they are. What we need on the farm to-day is not so much greatly increased numbers of producers as greatly enlarged production. This can never be realized from a flow of population from the city, for these people are, and nearly always will remain, " city-minded." What the Problem Is. The call really is for a more scientific agriculture, which shall render greater returns on expended efforts. Such an agricultural life will form the very foundation of all satisfactory living in the country. If farming communities can keep the rural population now there, and make farm life so attractive that the natural increase in population will be content to spend their lives as farmers, all will in the end be well with the country community. The problem resolves itself into a matter of outlook on life. There can be no lasting improvement until our farmers shall in some way attain a new and broader outlook on the real significance of farm life. The latter must be more than ' a wearisome round of labor, of eat- ing and drinking, of saving and skimping, of doing with- APPENDIX 335 out farm conveniences and household helps solely to make money.' The solution lies finally in our ability to keep in the open country a good, sound population with correct American ideals capable of scientific farm- ing ; and, withal, content to live wholesome lives in close communion with the Almighty. The ultimate readjustment of the country community will have to come at the hands of the country folks themselves; but before the farming districts are able to produce this generation of strong men and women imbued with the spirit of masterful action, there are many obstacles to be overcome and much work to be done. Rural life to-day is what it is largely through city domination. It behooves, then, that the city lend a helping hand to this promising field for educators, social philosophers, philanthropists, and church workers of all kinds. General Factors in the Problem. It is now time to make a brief statement of the general factors through which the present deficiencies of country life may reach a solution ; but, in doing so, we must bear in mind that the rural life problem is to be treated as a united whole. An attempt to better some one phase of country life while ignoring the others will meet with failure. Thus, for example, it becomes impractical to attempt the betterment of rural school conditions while ignoring the social and economic questions of the community, APPENDIX or to improve country church life while holding aloof from participation in educational affairs albeit these lie beyond the province of ordinary school and church practice. Educators and other workers to make head- way with the composite problem must be prepared to consider at least the factors which follow below. With- out a full understanding of all of these, their work in behalf of community betterment will be seriously curtailed. Isolation. The most striking thing about country life is its comparative isolation. Men are by nature gregarious. And where they are separated by relatively long distances, as in the average farm community, this is accomplished at the loss of a keener social existence. As a matter of fact, what the American farmer has gained in individualism, independence, and self-reliance, is more than counterbalanced in a loss through social stagnation. The power of suggestion which comes where many gather is enough to overcome the habits and conventions of the few and will save the individual from becoming narrow and introspective. Farm life tends toward the latter. The country village which is a part of the country community suffers in much the same way. While not isolated in just the sense that the farm is, the power of suggestion in the few groups of families there gathered is insufficient to furnish a spirit of genuine cooperation. APPENDIX 337 The result is that the country village partakes of some of the worst elements of farm life and a few of the worst of city life it is neither truly individualistic nor cooper- ative in spirit. Means of Communication. This social stagnation may be remedied in several ways. First of mention comes a craving for better means of communication. With distance annihilated, much of the isolation will disappear. Here is a vast field of opportunity for the sincere worker. It is really unnecessary to mention the great good already done through the establishment of free rural delivery, the introduction of the rural tele- phone, the building of better roads, and the extension of trolley lines into the country. But the one thing to emphasize is that the beginnings only have been made. Many farm communities, for instance, do not yet comprehend the meaning of " good roads." Here the example of such a social reformer as John Frederic Oberlin may well be emulated. This Lutheran clergy- man came as pastor to a poor mountain parish (Stein thai) on the border of Alsace-Lorraine, in 1767, and in a short time wrought great changes in the character and condition of his parishioners. But, let this be borne in mind, he began by building roads and bridges, laying the first stones with his own hands! Some of the most successful among country teachers, pastors, and Young Men's Christian Association workers have won their 338 APPENDIX hold upon the country community through advocacy of similar fundamental work. Recreation. Greatly enlarged facilities for organized recreation of young and old alike are second to be con- sidered. Farm people do not take enough time for play and rest from labor. What is more, so much of the recreation that is common to country life is unwholesome, and is to a greater degree than the average man imagines given to bad practices and immoral suggestion. In early times we had the barn raising, the quilting, the husking bee, the singing school, and the folk dance. Since farm life has become systematized and reduced to soil tilling exclusively, too much of labor and drudgery has crept in, with too little tune to live, to associate with one's fellows. In many localities it means labor from starlight to starlight. The result is that great numbers of young men and young women with strongly developed social instincts have abandoned the country for the towns and cities, in search of things that country life as it exists denies them. The country towns and villages have responded to this very demand for recrea- tion which the open country has been unable to furnish, and are offering all comers a cheap, artificial amusement life, often quite immoral and vicious. Finally, where the livelong day is spent in work, an outlet for the pent-up energy is sought on Sunday. Whether we like it or not, Sunday in the country has become a holi- APPENDIX 339 day more than a holy day. Aside from the many really innocent pastimes summed up in neighborly calls and community gatherings on Sunday, this day is quite generally given over to baseball, horse racing, and, in some places, to carousals reflecting but little credit on an otherwise wholesome country life. A new kind of recreational life must be worked out through each of the great country institutions the home, the school, and the church. Certain definite things are expected from the parents. The teacher will organize the play life of the school and even go so far as to interest the older youth and adults in many kinds of play life, athletics, and club work. In New York State and elsewhere entire counties are organized into annual play festivals, which include the old folks. The organized country Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation is doing remarkable things for rural recreation in some sections. The Grange, which is the country people's own social institution, and in the South the Farmer's Union are accomplishing no little good where the orders are well established. But all this is just a beginning. Nowhere, it seems, is there greater opportunity for home mission work than here. Con- secrated men and women are needed to help foster the social instincts which are at this time necessary to bind together our over-individualistic country people for a fuller cooperation and a more complete country life. 34 APPENDIX The Farm Woman's Lot. These things can also be hastened by making the average farm woman's lot more attractive than it is. She lives too much of a humdrum existence. Her little world is hemmed in by the limi- tations of the barn lot. In these respects her husband is more fortunate, since he is in touch with the outer world and thus acquires a world outlook. This is an unfortunate condition. The farm home cannot be raised socially until its mistress is given time to broaden her own life ideals. Labor-saving appliances and home conveniences are beginning to appear in some homes. These will relieve the woman from much of the old drudgery and allow time for acquaintanceship with her beautiful natural environment, which in all likelihood, she may never have known. It is, indeed, good for a working woman to enjoy a beautiful sunset occasionally, and to work among the flowers without having to worry about the potatoes and cabbages. Especially is it necessary that she shall have time to meet with others of her own sex, at the mothers' meetings and the farm women's clubs. Emancipate the country woman from her drudgery, and much that is sordid and unattractive in country life will pass away. City women, with their many opportunities for self-improvement, owe their country sisters a helping hand in this search after a fuller life. Cooperative Organization. Country people must ONE-TEACHER RURAL SCHOOL. Well built and well kept. It has sanitary quarters for the children, including large playground and garden. It has a suite of seven rooms for the teacher and his family, who live here the year round. When it shall be- come incumbent on American districts to provide permanent homes for their teachers, the married man teacher will return to his profession in the country. LARGER RURAL SCHOOL. This is of the consolidated type. It contains, among other things, separate living Quarters for two married teachers and two unmarried teachers. APPENDIX 341 become better organized than they are. Cooperative organizations of all kinds are imperative. It is well enough to know how to produce the raw materials, but it is as important to know how to manufacture them and place them in the hands of the consumers at the smallest cost. Here is a fundamental weakness in our agricultural life. There must be more genuine coopera- tion in dairying, in poultry raising, in fruit culture, and in marketing. There must be buying and selling asso- ciations of many kinds. Unnecessary middlemen are to be eliminated, a condition which will mean that the farmer is to get more for his products and the consumer is to pay less. Such organizations are especially needed to advance social, educational, and ethical interests. Pub- lic gatherings, festival days, literary clubs, reading clubs, public health societies, and the like fall under this head. City life is highly organized; country life is generally unorganized. Organization is a test of efficiency. The country community must be taught the wisdom of this. There are now left for discussion two great institu- tions, the school and the church.- Of these the school comes in for first mention. The Rural School a Prominent Factor. The school has had its face toward the city, drawing therefrom its sentiments, its teachers, and its course of study. It has broken the fundamental law : that any form of 342 APPENDIX education, to be effective, must reflect the daily life and interests of the community employing it. Our country schools must offer an agricultural education; that is, must prepare for satisfactory agricultural life. This has not been done. " And," says Mr. Roosevelt's Commission on Country Life, " the schools are held largely responsible for ineffective farming, lack of ideals, and the drift to town." The task now is to put the school in harmony with the needs of present-day life. This means that several important changes must be brought about : (i) There must be a thorough redirection of the sub- ject matter taught in the school; (2) there must be a general reorganization of the entire working staff of school boards, superintendents, and teachers; (3) the entire school plant must be rebuilt ; and (4) education must be carried into the farm home through various kinds of extension courses. Lack of space forbids a detailed exposition of the above statements. Briefly then : throughout the length and breadth of our land are scattered thousands of weak one-teacher schools schools which were good enough in the days of early land exploitation. With the shifting of population they have become small and weak, poorly taught, and poorly paid. They have become " retarded " and are now no longer able to cope with our new agricultural conditions. In some sections these small schools must APPENDIX 343 persist indefinitely, chiefly on account of geographical reasons. Here the most will have to be made of a bad situation by providing good, well-trained and well- paid teachers, who understand present-day country needs, and who, withal, have the right vision of the new country life. But the movement, now beginning to spread across the continent, as stated in the body of the book, contemplates the consolidation of the many weakling schools in a few, centrally located, graded farmers' schools. Such schools, offering eight grades of ele- mentary work, together with from one to four years of high school work, are springing up by the thousands, a single state alone counting as many as six hundred. The new school will do for the country community what the old was incapable of doing ; namely, train the boys to become scientific farmers and the girls practical farmers' helpmeets. It is beginning to inculcate a wholesome love for country life, and may be expected to counteract the townward exodus. But more from this school must come many impulses to organize the country people on a more permanent social and economic basis. It will become the center of much community interest to be shared by it with the new social service church. Rural Church Reconstruction. Overchurching and denominational rivalry aided by the shift in population, 344 APPENDIX have brought the country church face to face with a crisis. If the church were to surrender its leadership at this time, when so much is at stake, it would cause little short of a calamity. The strong young men and women of correct vision and initiative who are to set up new standards of living in the country community should acquire their preparation under the inspiration and guidance of religious motives. The tendency of the day is to reduce everything to worldly standards. The church has been the saving force in the habits and moral conduct of country people; it must ever con- tinue as such. But the church stands not alone for ethical idealism it stands for esthetical idealism as well. The school may teach a love of nature in its pupils and then lead them to a love of nature's God. The church, on the other hand, teaches its membership that the bounties and wonders of nature are the handi- work of God, and through him they learn to live in the closest communion with the wonders of nature round about them. Interdenominational Cooperation. The call must now go out to all denominations for cooperation in be- half of the country church. Thoughtful Christians must prepare to lay aside doctrinal differences, ancient preju- dices, and denominational sentiment, and meet on the common ground of faith in one God. Thoroughgoing reorganization coming from within the several denomi- RURAL CHURCH NEAR HORSENS, JUTLAND. The rural church still lies in the midst of the rural community, blessing it and holding it together. RURAL MANSE AT VALLEKILDE, ZEALAND. All the pastors in rural Denmark live in the midst of their flocks, where they can minister to the needs of the people all the time, and so become leaders in both spiritual and temporal matters. APPENDIX 345 nations, together with harmonious cooperation between denominations are probably the means through which the solution must come. Conclusion. In the body of this book has been told the story of the rebirth of Danish agricultural life. The place of education in the great rehabilitation has been clearly set forth. Without the work of the schools the great tasks inspired at a time of distress could not have been carried to the successful fruition that they have been. In the United States, the future of agricultural life must depend in a large measure on the leadership from within the ranks of the agriculturists themselves. Just how broad, how strong this guiding force of the future shall become, will rest upon the successful reorganization of the American rural schools, rural churches, and their kindred organizations. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RURAL EDUCATION IN DENMARK APPEL, JACOB. The Danish High Schools. Darlington, England, North of England Newspaper Co., Ltd., 1004, 8 p. AUSTIN, GERTRUDE. Danish Schools for Adults. Southern Workman, 40: 624-35, November, IQII. BAY, J. CHRISTIAN. The Folk High Schools and Rural Life of the Scandinavian Countries. In Conference for Education in the South, Proceedings, 1911, p. 161-71. The "Peasant Universities" of Denmark. Education, 22 : 15-22, September, 1001. BLEM, M. P. The Danish Credit Societies (Reprint from "Den- mark Abroad"). O. C. Olsen and Co., Copenhagen, 8 p. BREDSDORF, THOMAS. From the People's High Schools in Denmark. In International Moral Education Congress. ad. 1912. Memoires sur 1'education morale. La Haye, M. Nijhoff, 1912, p. 1045-50. BROCHNER, JESSIE. Danish Life in Town and Country. London, George Newnes, Ltd., 240 p. BUTLIN, F. M. ASKOV. In his Among the Danes. New York, J. Pott & Co. ; London, Methuen & Co., 1909, p. 52-62, illus. CLAXTON, PHILANDER PRIESTLEY. A School for Grown-ups. In Conference for Education in the South, Proceedings, 1009, p. 198-203. CRUPPI, LOUISE. Les ecoles paysannes danoises. Paris, 1912, 39 p. Reprinted from La Revue, Paris. Danmarks statistik. Folkehojskoler og landbrugsskoler i 1906-7 346 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RURAL EDUCATION 347 og 1910-11. Kobenhavn, Udgivet of Statens statistiske bureau, 1912, 105 p. Danmarks statistik. Folkeskolevasenet for Kobenhavn i aaret 1909. Af M. M. Uden, 147 p. HAGGARD, H. RIDER. Rural Denmark and its Lessons. London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1912, 335 p., 4. HOLLMANN, ANTON H. H. Die danische volkshochschule und ihre bedeutung fur die entwicklung einer volkischen kultur in Danemark. Berlin, 1909, vi, 130 p. (Landw. jahrb. bd. 38, Suppl. 3.) Ireland. Commission of Agriculture. Report on Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Conditions in Denmark. Dublin, Alexander Thorn & Co., 1913. JACOBSEN, ADOLF, Editor. Hedebogen. Kobenhavn, Milo'ske Boghandels Forlag, 1913, 136 p. KONIGL. Danischen landwirtschaftsellschaft. Die danischen landwirtschaft. Kopenhagen, Axel Simmelkiar, 1912, 72 p. LANGE, JACOB E. The Danish Peasant of .To-day. Odense, Den- mark, 1905, 12 p. LARSEN, H. E. Landokonomisk aarbog for 1913. Kobenhavn og Kristiania, Udgivet of det Kgl. Danske landhusholdnings- selskab, 1913, 127 p. LEHMANN, HENRIK. Haandbog i lovgivningen om den danske folkeskole. Kobenhavn og Kristiania, Glydendalske bog- handel, 1909, xii, 458 p., 8. MADSDEN, R. Grundtvig und die danischen volkshochschulen. Padagogisches magazin, Langensalza, 1905, part 253. MCMILLAN, MARGARET. The Child and the State. London, The National Labor Press, 1911. See especially chapter vi. NORDAHL-PETERSEN, A. Danmarks Hojskoler i text og billeder. Kobenhavn, Gyldendalske boghandel, 1911. POULSEN, ALFRED. The Danish Popular High School. Odense, Denmark, 1007, 19 p. (Reprinted from the Oxford Univer- sity Extension Gazette, September, 1894.) 348 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RURAL EDUCATION ROSENDAL, H. Hautes ecoles populaires. In Le Danemark. Etat actual de sa civilisation et de son organisation sociale. Copenhague, E. Bojesen, 1000, p. 180-90. SACHS, JULIUS. [The peasant high schools of Denmark.] In his American Secondary School and Some of its Problems. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1912, p. 240-41. SCHRODER, LUDVIG. Den Nordiske folkehojskole. Bidrag til dens historic. Kobenhavn, G. E. C. Gad, 1905, 488 p., 8. Scotland, Commission of agriculture. Report on Denmark. Edinburgh and London, Wm. Blackwood and Sons, 1905. SELLERS, EDITH. High School of Danish Peasants. Living Age, 261 : 149-56, April 17, 1909. SMITH, ANNA TOLMAN. Continuation Schools in Denmark. Education, 25: 119-22, October, 1904. STAURI, RASMUS. Folkehogskulen i Danmark, Norge, Sverige og Finland. Kristiania, O. Norlis forlag, 1910, 315 p., 8. THORNTON, JOSEPH S. Fircroft : The First People's High School in England. London, 1911, 4 p. (Reprinted with additions from the Educational Times.) The High School in Denmark. In Great Britain. Board of Education. Special Report on Educational Subjects, vol. 17, London, Wyman & Sons, 1907, p. 106-19. The People's High Schools in Denmark. In Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere, ed. by M. E. Sadler. Manchester, University Press, 1907, p. 483-512. Recent Educational Progress in Denmark. In Great Brit- ain. Board of Education. Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. i, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1897, p. 587- 614. United States Bureau of Education. Education in Denmark. People's High Schools and Agricultural Schools. In its Report of the Commissioner, 1896-97. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1898, p. 83-86. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RURAL EDUCATION 349 United States Bureau of Education. Education in the Kingdoms of Northern Europe. In Us Report of the Commissioner, 1910-12. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1912, p. 511-14- Rural High Schools in Denmark. In its Report of the Commissioner, 1909. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909, p. 491-92. The Educational System of Rural Denmark. Bulletin No. 58, 1913. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1914, p. 46. The Danish Folk High Schools. Bulletin No. 22, 1914. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1914, p. 93. Danish Elementary Rural Schools. Bulletin No. 24, 1914. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1914, 45 p. WARMING, JENS. Haandbog i Danmarks statistik. Kobenhavn, G. E. C. Gad, 1913, 654 p., 4- WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. How Denmark has taught itself Pros- perity and Happiness. The Rural High Schools which have made over a Nation. World's Work, 22 : 14486-94, June, 1911. WILSON, WARREN H. The Evolution of the Country Community. New York, The Pilgrim Press, 1912, p. 51, 53, 169. INDEX Agricultural schools, place of, 70; scientific training procured at, 75- 76 ; when entered by the farm boys, 157-158; description of work at Lyngby, 150-163 ; work and course of study at Dalum, 163-166; work and course of study at Ladelund, 167-173; Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Institute, the central agricultural school, 171-173. Agriculture, most important factor in Danish national life, 10-20; lessons for Americans, 34-36; reorganiza- tion of, in the United States, 304-305. American rural life, history of changes in, 324; the pioneers, 324-325 ; the household farmers, 325-326; de- velopment of, beyond the Alle- ghanies, 326-328; effect of indus- trial revolution on, 328-329; place of rural church in, 329-331. American schools of agriculture, charge against, 38-39. Amt school directory, organization of, 84-86. Askov Folk High School, 18-19; enlargement of, 262-263; variety of courses in, 263-267 ; great names associated with, 267-268; begin- nings of "extension work" at, 268- 271 ; Skibelund Krat, 268-270. Athletics, place of, in everyday life, 64. B Back-to-the-land, call of, 6. Bacon factories, 11-12. Bailey, Liberty Hyde, quoted, 58-59. Bay, John Christian, quoted, 199. Begtrup, Holger, quoted, 247, 249. Benneke, Valdemar, quoted by Thorn- ton, 281-282. Berry Country Life Schools, history of, 317-310. Blem, M. P., quoted, 50, 191-192. Bredsdorf, Thomas, quoted, 245. Breeding centers, 9-11. Brochner, Jessie, quoted, 38. Census, changes in population accord- ing to, 5. Centralized schools, organization of, in the United States, 306; lessons for, 307-308. Church, place of, in school matters, 83-84. (See also Rural church.) Communal or parish commission, organization of, 85-86. Communication, means of, 337-338. Compulsory attendance, regulations for, in elementary schools, 91-92; enforcement of, 92-94 ; enforcement of, in elementary schools, 154-155. Conservation, work of, 21-22. Control unions, work of, 9-11 ; credit arrangements of, in agricultural sys- tem, 49-51 ; remarkably small losses of, 50-51. CoSperation, remarkable growth of, 7-10; in buying and selling, 39-40; in dairying, 40-41 ; in bacon pro- duction, 43-44; through man-vote associations, 44; need of, among American farmers, 340-341. Course of study, in elementary schools, 102-105; in teachers' seminaries, 135-136; short courses in modern schools, 310-311. 352 INDEX Culture, dissemination of, through the folk high schools, 37-38. Daily Morning Leader, London, quoted, 285-286. Dairies, organization and importance of, 40-42. Dalgas, E. M., life work of, 19; or- ganizing the Danish Heather So- ciety, 25-26. Dalum Agricultural School, work and courses in, 163-166. Danebod Folk High School, origin and history of, 298-299. Danish Agricultural Museum, de- scribed, 162-163. Danish Heather Society, organization of, 25-27 ; its reclamation work, 26-27 ! its regulation of height of surface water, 20-31. Deanery School directory, organiza- tion of, 85. Denmark, topography and area, 1-2; soil and climate, 2 ; change in agri- cultural system, 3; annual exports, 3- Drainage hi Jutland, 31-32. Eggs, science in the exportation of, 46. Ejby Rural School, organization of, 98-99; story of work in, 112-115. Elementary schools, statement of, 69; place in educational scheme, 70-71 ; history of, 78-82 ; school directories and school boards of, 84-86 ; course of study in, 99-100; class organiza- tion in, 101-102 ; school subjects in, 102-105 ; methods of instruction in, 105-106; textbooks used in, 105-106; plans of, 121-128; gar- dens in, 128-129; playgrounds hi, 120-130; preparation of teachers for, 131-132 ; how to become per- manent teachers in, 137-138; length of tenure and age of teachers in, 138-140; salaries of teachers in, 141-145; pensions of teachers in, 146-148 ; a study of value to Ameri- can educators, 151 ; organization and maintenance of, in Denmark, 153-154- Elk Horn Folk High School, origin of, 284-295 ; history of, to date, 295- 296. England, folk high schools organized in, 281-291. Estates, parceling out of, 11-12. Extension work, organized at Askov, 267-271; courses of , through Ameri- can consolidated schools, 309-310. Farmers, what they must learn, 39. Farmers' Union, work of, 339. Farms, size of, 12 ; classification of, 51. Feast days and hospitality, significance to satisfactory social life, 60. Finland, system of folk high schools in, 279-280. Fircroft College, organized on folk high school plan, 282 ; its origin, 282-284; methods of instruction and study courses in, 284-285 ; symposium on the value of, by old students, 286-290. Folk high schools, in agricultural reorganization, 69; aims of, sum- marized, 74-75 ; further influence of, on agricultural life, 188-189; testimony for, by economists and schoolmen, 180-193; their owner- ship, number, and organization of, 216-217; training of teachers in, 217-218; who the students are, 218-223; state aid for, 223-226; cost of schooling in, 226-227 ; demo- cratic organization of, 227-228; spirit of the teaching in, 228-230; two kinds of, 230-231; subjects of particular interest, 231-232 ; gym- nastics and play life hi, 232-233; work in, that makes thinkers of men, 234-235 ; historical study in, 235- 237 ; spiritual growth in, 237-242 ; story of Roskilde Folk High School, INDEX 353 243-246 ; the inspiring Fredriksborg Folk High School, 246-250; the great Folk High School at Valle- kilde, 250-255; Haslev Folk High School, 255-259; Ryslinge Folk High School, 250-261; Askov "Ex- panded" Folk High School, 262- 271; adaptability of, 272-273; in Sweden, 273-276; in Norway, 276- 279; in Finland, 270-280; in Eng- land, 281-291 ; in the United States, 292-303 ; feasibility of adapting, to American conditions, 303-322. Fredriksborg Folk High School, story of, origin and work in, 246-250. Fyn Stift's School for smallholders, organization and purpose of, 181- 182; model smallholding at, 183- 184. G Gamborg rural school, plan of, 126- 128. Gardens, provisions for, 128-129. German War of 1864, effects of, 18-20. Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), work of, 339- Grundtvig, Bishop Nikolai Frederik Severin, work of, 19; life story of, 193-208; his gospel of youth, 198-200; his early idea of what a folk high school ought to be, 200- 205; he invites King Christian VIII to open a "Royal Free School for Life," 205-206. Gymnastics, system of, at Ryslinge Rural School, 107-108; in the folk high schools, 232-234. II Haraldsborg School of Household Economics, organization and course of study in, 186-187. Haslev, Zealand, bacon factory at, 44-46. Haslev Folk High School, foundation of, 255-256; study courses in, 256-259. Himmelev Rural School, organization of, by days and half-days, 98. Hjortespring Rural School, story of work in, 115-117. Hogsbro, Svend, the father of Danish cooperation, 19. Hollmann, Dr. A. H., quoted, 197, 201, 203, 204, 213. Household economics schools, work of, 75-76; further explanation of, 184-185 ; Haraldsborg school near Roskilde, 186-187. Hvilan Folk High School and Agri- cultural School, 275-276. Industrial revolution, movement of population in, 4-5; effects of, on rural population, 328-329. Irrigation, projects of, in Jutland, 31- 32. Isolation, its role in the rural life movement, 336-337. Juhl, A. P., quoted, 295. Jutish Heath, restoration of, 22- 24. Kjerehave School for Smallholders, purpose of, 174-175; equipment of, 176; variety of courses in, 176- 181. Kauselunde (see Gamborg). Kold, Kristen, work of, 19 ; life story told, 200-214. La Cour, Captain J. C., quoted, 158. La Cour, Poul, quoted, 100. Ladelund Agricultural School, descrip- tion of work in, 167-171. Landlordism, absentee or otherwise, 11-12; curse of, 332-333. 354 INDEX M Maintenance of schools, through state aid, 87-88; through permanent funds, 88-89; through local taxa- tion, 89-90. Markets, place of, in economic and social life, 65-66. Ministry of Education and Eccle- siastical Affairs, head of national school system, 82 ; its powers and duties, 82-83. Model farms and homes, purpose and organization of, 72-74. Moller, Aage, quoted, 297. "Moonlight" schools, organization of, 315-316. N Nielsen, Hans, story of, 51-56. Nielsen-Klodskov, N. J., quoted, 174- 175- Norway, Folk High Schools in, 276- 279; history of folk high schools in, 276-278; some difficulties encoun- tered, 278-279. Nysted Folk High School, origin and history of, 296-298. Outlook on life, correct, 15. Pensions, of elementary teachers, 146-148; graded scale of, 147-148. Playgrounds in elementary schools, 129-130. Plunkett, Sir Horace, quoted, 192, 229-230, 260-261. Population, shift in, compared with similar movement in the United States, 5. Poulsen, Alfred, quoted, 191, 261-262. R Rural Life Movement in the United States, significance of, 323-324; what the movement is not, 333- 334 ; what it is, 334-335 ; the chief factors of : isolation, 336-337 ; means of communication, 337-338; recreation, 338-339; farm women, 340; cooperative organization, 340- 341; rural school, 341-343; rural church, 343-344 ; interdenomina- tional cooperation, 344345. Ryslinge Folk High School, its origin, 259-260; its attractive buildings, 261. S Salaries of rural teachers, 141-145. Schoolhouses, construction of, 118; building site for, 118-119; rules governing the sanitation of, 110- 120; plans of, 121-128. Schools, responsibility of rural, for agricultural prosperity, 68-70; ele- mentary, 69; folk high, 60-70; agricultural, 70; household eco- nomics, 75-76; special, for small- holders, 76-77; maintenance of, 86-87 ; adapting work of, to rural needs, 156; statement on reorgan- ization of, 305-308; rural school a factor in the rural life movement, 341-343; smallhold schools, special work in, 76-77. Schools for smallholders, organization of, 174; Kserehave at Ringsted, 174- 181 ; Fyn Stiffs School at Odense, 181-184. School year, length of, in elementary schools, 94-96; division of school days in, 96-99. Schroder, Ludvig, quoted, 207, 237. Seminaries, for the preparation of ele- mentary teachers, 132-137 ; re- quirements for matriculation in, 132-134; courses in, for elementary teachers, 135-136. Serfdom, conditions of, 16. Singing, place of, in rural life, 64. Skalsaa, project for its water regula- tion, 30-31. Skibelund Krat, a center of "extension work," 268-271. INDEX 355 Smallhold farmers, what they can teach, 51-56. Smallholdings, large estates parceled out as, 11-12; law for the creation of, 49. Social life, satisfactory conditions of, 12-14; conditions of, in rural America, 57-58; in harmony with its natural environment, 58-60; trained artisans a factor in, 60-6 1. Societies for buying and selling, num- ber and success of, 30-40. Sohlman, Dr. August, quoted, 273-274. Soil, first attempts at reclaiming, 24- 25; removing the "evil principle" from, 32-34; condition of, in the islands, 34. South Atlantic Highland, a good place to which to adapt the Danish folk high school system, 313-315. Stewart, Mrs. Cora Wilson, quoted, 316. Sweden, folk high schools in, 273-276; Hvilan Folk High School in, 275- 276. T Teachers, in elementary schools, 71 ; homes of, described, 121-128; gar- dens of, 1 28-1 29 ; preparation of, for elementary schools, 131-132; semi- naries, 132-137 ; courses for, 135- 136; how to become permanent, 137-138; tenure and age of, 138- 140; salaries and other remunera- tion of, 141-146; pensions of, 146- 148; conditions of, in the United States, 152-153. Teaching, a life profession hi Denmark, 151-152- Tenants, small number of, in Denmark, 11-12; curse of, in the United States, 332-333- Tenure of elementary teachers, 138- 140. Thornton, J. S., quoted, 281-282, 290-201. Trier, Ernst, quoted, 250. "Trifolium" dairy, 8; its work de- scribed, 41-42. United States, transplantation of folk high schools to, 292-302 ; hindrances to satisfactory growth of Danish system in, 200-302; feasibility of adapting Danish folk high schools to conditions in, 303-332; why there is need of schools for "grown- ups" in, 311-313; such schools in the South Atlantic Highland of, 3I3-3I5- United States Bureau of Education, bulletin of, quoted, 312. Vallekilde Folk High School, origin of, 250; equipment of, 250-252; attendance and courses ; 253 ; gym- nastics and song in, 253-254 ; story of Ingeborg Trier and "Hytten," 254-255. Vor Frue Landsogns School, organiza- tion of classes in, 06-97; story of work in, 109-112; plan of, 121. Woman, her work on the farm, 340. Y. M. C. A., work of, in rural districts, 339- Printed in the United States of America. 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