The school for life – an introduction
This book series introduces the fundamental building blocks of the Danish folk high school and presents how this philosophy is put into practice in folk high schools today.
The book series consists of 11 books. Volume 0 is an introduction to the history of the Danish folk high school and the different ideological movements surrounding it. Each of the subsequent volumes examines one characteristic of the folk high school and its relevance to modern schooling and pedagogy.
Prominent writers in and around the folk high school have written about communal singing, storytelling, residential schooling, democratic education, people’s enlightenment, life enlightenment, learning through the body, exam free school, social learning and education for humanity.
Each volume takes off by discussing the phenomenon in question, and 3-4 narratives from Denmark or elsewhere in the world provide different perspectives told through specific, practice stories. The books include stories from Nigeria, India, England, South Korea, Poland, Greenland, the Philippines and Iceland.
Buy the books
The books can be purchased in the web shop as a box set or individually. The books can also be purchased as e-books. All prices include shipping costs:
- Volume 0 EUR 26 / E-book EUR 6,27
- Volume 1-10 EUR 18 / E-book EUR 4,66
- All 11 books in cassette EUR 124
The book series is edited by Sara Skovborg Mortensen, Michael Schelde and Andreas Harbsmeier and is released at Forlaget Højskolerne. The books are bilingual, and the text is found in all the books in both Danish and English.
Background
175 years ago, Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, the Danish educationalist and poet, came up with the idea of the folk high school. A school which should educate people not just to make a living, but to live meaningful lives. Still today, the folk high school is as relevant as ever and all over the world educationalists are inspired by its philosophy.