This booklet is about the Danish friskole. These schools are a part of the independent school tradition which – with common roots in N.F.S. Grundtvig’s og Christen Kold’s concepts of schooling – also among others include the folkehøjskoler and efterskoler.
The Danish educational system is built on compulsory education – not compulsory schooling. Danish parents are free to choose the municipal school or one of many types of private primary schools subsidized by the state. Parents can also, if they have the courage and tenacity, establish a new school based on the principle’s they find right. There are many types of private primary schools in Denmark. These are described in a separate segment.
But what we talk about in this booklet is first and foremost the Grundtvigian-Kold friskole and principles of freedom which influence them.
There is no common recipe which creates these friskoler. It is more a view of humanity, which is built basically on our wonder regarding our existence: that each individual is a unique divine experiment. It intensifies the understanding that difference and variation is a richness and strength.
It is not our intention to convince others to adopt our views of schooling. We hope that this account of the Danish friskole tradition will give others courage and inspiration to – just like “Numskull Jack” (Klods-Hans) in the fairy tale – create schools according their own ideas – schools one feels are what a school should be.
Published 1995
ISBN: 87-87790-25-4