Folk high school

Grundtvig was inspired by the Marquis de Condorcet's Report on the General Organization of Public Instruction which was written in 1792 during the French Revolution.

In the United States, a Danish folk school, called Danebod, was founded in Tyler, Minnesota.

Folk high schools in Germany and Sweden are in fact much closer to the institutions known as folkeuniversitet in Norway and Denmark, which provide adult education.

However, unlike the folkeuniversitet folk high schools in Sweden are not connected with a regular university.

The idea was to give the peasantry and other people from the lower echelons of society a higher educational level through personal development; what Grundtvig called "the living word".

The language and history of the fatherland, its constitution and main industries (farming) along with folk songs should be the guiding principles for an education based on a Christian framework.

The folk high schools should be for those wanting to learn in general and to help people form part of human relations and society.

The folk high school of today is engaged in a complex modern reality and influenced both by national, international and global questions.

One of the main concepts still to be found at the folk high schools today is "lifelong learning".

They should shed light on basic questions surrounding life of people both as individuals and as members of society.

In addition to the Nordic countries and Germany there are also folk high schools in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, and France.

In recent history, globalization has exercised an increasingly important influence on Danish schools.

The most common subjects are handicraft skills, music, languages, physical education, visual arts, theater and dance.

In 1866, during the Second Empire, Jean Macé founded the Ligue de l'enseignement ("Teaching League"), which was devoted to popular instruction.

Following the split between the Anarchists and the Marxists at the 1872 Hague Congress, popular education remained an important part of the workers' movement, especially in the anarcho-syndicalist movement which set up, with Fernand Pelloutier, various Bourses du travail centres, where workers gathered and discussed politics and sciences.

The Jules Ferry laws that were passed in the 1880s established free, secular, mandatory public education as one of the founding principles of the Third Republic.

Afterward, some teachers set up free educational lectures on humanist topics in order to struggle against the spread of antisemitism in France.

In more recent times, following the 1981 presidential election Minister of Education Alain Savary supported Jean Lévi's initiative to create a public high school that would deliver the baccalauréat but would be organized on the principles of workers' self-management (or "autogestion").

[10] Folk high schools (Lithuanian: liaudies universitetas which translates as people's university) were first established in the early 20th century in Lithuania.

Folk high schools provide opportunities in general education, primarily for young adults.

[13] The first Polish folk high school was eventually established in 1921 in Dalki after the restoration of independent Poland.

[12] A Universidad popular means any competent educational institution such as those established by municipalities, interest groups, charitable associations and social organizations to promote the popular education of theoretical and practical knowledge directly to the whole population, especially to industrial workers (proletariat), rural farm workers (campisinos), emigrants, and citizens with special needs who do not have convenient access to regular, formal educational facilities, The first folk high schools in Sweden were established in 1868.

[17] Tuition is free, and the students are eligible for normal financial aid for expenses such as accommodation and other school costs.

[19] The John C. Campbell Folk School opened in 1925 in Brasstown, North Carolina, and it is still offering classes today.

Students can learn American traditional arts and crafts, including blacksmithing, ceramics, cooking, jewelry, dance and music.

[22] A contemporary wave of folk school founding in the United States began in the late 1990s and earlier 2000s.