DENMARK AND THE DANES 



149 



own, in which their practical problems 

 are considered. 



PRACTICAL TRAINING FOR FARM WOMEN 



One of the most interesting of all the 

 types of "folk-school" is that for girls 

 and women who are the wives and daugh- 

 ters or who expect to be the wives of 

 small farmers. Only a visit 1 to one of 

 these can make it understood how thor- 

 oughly the work is done. Without pa- 

 rade or ostentation, each girl learns the 

 secret of leading the simple life cheer- 

 fully. She is taught not to waste any- 

 thing and, above all, to take a pride in 

 not wasting anything. 



With the higher classes, it is under- 

 stood that no girl should marry until she 

 has been systematically taught how to 

 keep a house and a garden practically. 



In society, if one would miss at the 

 dinners or balls a young baroness or 

 countess or the daughter of a rich mer- 

 chant or banker and inquire where the 

 young lady has been during the season, 

 the answer often was, "She is betrothed ; 

 she will be married in three months, and 

 she has gone into the country to a prester- 

 gaard, to learn housekeeping." 



This meant that she had been sent into 

 the quiet house of a country clergyman in 

 order that no detail of domestic manage- 

 ment should be alien to her. She must 

 learn how to graft rose-bushes and apple- 

 trees ; she must know exactly how to 

 make conserves without danger of spoil- 

 ing the precious product of the soil, for 

 the Danes are taught to respect the soil 

 as the mother of life. 



In the schools for the daughters of the 

 small land-owners a cheerful spirit of 

 helpfulness is inculcated. Hurry and 

 worry are entirely excluded; the art of 

 making haste slowly is very much in 

 favor. 



It is possible for an elderly woman 

 who helps to support herself and her fam- 

 ily by selling eggs to solve the problem of 

 why her hens do not lay more freely by 

 attending a course, say, of two weeks. 

 Her expenses and board are paid by the 

 commune, which wisely holds that the 

 prosperity she acquires is a valuable asset 

 to the community, and she goes back 

 home with an answer to her question. 



And the answer has not been merely 

 academic. She has seen model hen- 

 houses and learned by observation. 



When she returns home her husband, 

 who may have had some trouble as to the 

 yield of his three or four acres, takes her 

 place. Thus, variety of life corrects the 

 monotony of farming, and nothing in the 

 management of the little place is left to 

 chance. 



In Mr. Foght's "The Danish Folk High 

 Schools," Dr. P. P. Claxton says in the 

 preface : 



"In the thirty years from 1881 to 1912 

 the value of the exports of (Denmark's) 

 standard agricultural products — bacon, 

 eggs, and butter — increased from $12,- 

 000,000 to $125,000,000. Waste and 

 worn-out lands have been reclaimed and 

 renewed. Cooperation in production and 

 marketing has become more common 

 than in any other country. Landlordism 

 and farm tenancy have almost disap- 

 peared. Rural social life has become in- 

 telligent, organic, and attractive. A high 

 type of idealism has been fostered among 

 the masses of the people. A real democ- 

 racy has been established. This is the 

 outgrowth of an educational system uni- 

 versal, practical, and democratic." 



STUDENT LIFE IN A TYPICAL SCHOOL FOR 

 THF PFOPFF 



The special "Report of the Board of 

 Education of Great Britain" of one of the 

 largest schools in Denmark, that of Valle- 

 kilde (in northern Zealand), describes 

 better than any words of mine what oc- 

 curs in a typical school for the people. 



This British report and that other 

 British report made by Mr. T. P. Gill 

 and Sir Horace Plunkett are the best 

 foundations one can have for the agricul- 

 tural system of Denmark as seen by keen 

 observers. Speaking of Vallekilde, the 

 special report says : 



"The main object of this school is not 

 to impart to our pupils a mass of useful 

 information — that is only a secondary 

 aim. The principal aim is to impart to 

 them a spiritual view of life, so that they 

 may see there is some sense in their exist- 

 ence and some connection in all that hap- 

 pens, in little as in great events. They 

 will thus be prepared to enter on the work 

 of life with good hope and faith, the faith 

 that there is a direction from above in 

 all that happens. 



"The students are of all ages over eight- 

 een years, most of them being twenty 

 and twenty-five, and come from all parts 



