AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 14

AMONG OURSELVES.

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.) DANISH FOLK SCHOOLS. There is something old-fashioned, as well as up-to-date in the folk schools of Denmark, because, judging by description, the happy mean between informality and discipline is so well held. Ikgun I actually about eighty years ago, the I schools were at first a rank failure, but, as is so often the case, a second attempt,. [ perhaps under better management, turned out a brilliant success, and so remains to this day. The establishments in question are boarding places, and are for young people between eighteen and twenty-five. The sexes are separate, not because, the Danes are against co-education, but because it is convenient for the men to attend in winter and the women in summer. No school . certificate is needed, and no j examinations are held. The idea is j merely to give the voluntary pupils a desire for culture and higher know-1 ledge. The day begins with a leisurely i and social breakfast, the first lecture,! perhaps on history, being given at nine, j with another at eleven on some other, subject, always by an expert. The afternoon is spent as the students wish, and often there is personal talk with the professors. "When pupils leave most schools," said an admirer of the system, "they sell their books, but when young men and women leave this establish-'' ment they buy more books and continue outside the art of serious reading." J