By Ingrid Frederiksen
One of the most important aims of the folk high school is to enable the personal, moral and cultural development or edification of students so that they can take the lead in their own lives and in society. At the folk high school we tend to think of democratic edification and responsibility more as social than political citizenship. This does not mean that we never talk about politics, and I am very much against a folk high school becoming a bubble, in which people lack a sense of what is going on in society at large. We do not walk away from political debate and we do also address political issues. But as a Christian folk high school, the Bible and faith form the basis for our opinions and actions. The individual’s engagement is founded on the rock of faith.
Bible-reading, leadership and contributions to communities of togetherness
What we want is to strengthen each individual student’s relationship to God by giving them space to explore their faith and become more familiar with God. This is why we do a lot of Bible-reading and do our best to place it in the context of the everyday lives of students, so faith becomes personal but not private – and a firm foundation that allows them to take responsibility. In our classes, we read the Bible and we deal with theological issues, but we do not study theology for theology’s sake but to translate it into life as it is lived every day.
In other words, we are not a theoretical educational establishment, where students graduate with a theology degree. Some of our foreign students may well have expectations along those lines, which is why we make a point of explaining to prospective students that we are a school that translates faith into practice. We provide students with the tools and the experience that can help them to manage themselves and manage others. The idea of leadership is important for us and is a subject on the timetable. It involves both helping students to take a lead in their own lives and knowledge about how they can be leaders for others.
Students also receive help for personal leadership in the form of mentor sessions with a teacher every fortnight. This might be a question of finding a rhythm in daily life that allows them to engage themselves and develop – to get to bed at a reasonable hour, so they do not turn up to class in their pyjamas unprepared to cope with the day ahead. Or it might be about ensuring they incorporate breaks so they can rest properly. Apart from this, it is about setting targets for their stay at the school and for their life in the future. We want students to discover what they are good at and how they want to contribute to a community. The word ‘calling’ can seem rather grandiose, but it is all about finding out what I can achieve on the basis of my relationship to God. What does God want of me? And what can I give to those I live among? A concrete example might be the shy girl who explains at the start of the school year that fear has played a major part in her life and that this is something she wants to overcome. Her mentor can help her work to that end. The important thing is that students see their time at the folk high school as a process of edification, whose aim is to get to know themselves and God better and to use that knowledge for the benefit of the community.
Experience of the life in a parish community
We call ourselves a folk high school based in a parish community and what we mean by this is that we work closely with the Church to give students experience of how the Church can play a role in civil society. In specific terms, we work particularly with Kirkeibyen church, which, as the school’s neighbour and part of the Apostolic Church, is also the school’s support base. Every week, students take part in various aspects of the work of the parish, just as they take part in the church service every Sunday. Students can get involved, for example, in the music in the church, in working with children or in social work.
Most of the school’s students come from a church-going environment, and we take it as read that students have a personal faith. If they have no belief in God and no curiosity about faith and the Bible, we will typically recommend that they find another folk high school. One of the things that is special about our school is that here students can find a space where it is natural to speak about faith. Faith has a natural place in the classroom, for example in the subject ‘Faith & Life’, where we talk about how we can translate faith into practice and how faith informs attitudes and actions. We explore how some of the controversial texts in the Bible can be understood. What is the context in which they were written? How can we understand them today? In addition, we start every morning with a song of praise. This is followed by a devotional reading from the Bible, after which we talk about what our response should be. The students take part in planning and delivering this, and this means that morning assembly also becomes a training area for them.
They are also encouraged to practise leadership by carrying out a lengthy project lasting a couple of months. This might have to do with planning one of our trips, fundraising or being responsible for social events when we have visitors. In addition, they get considerable practical experience in taking responsibility and collaborating with others, when they take part in the activities involved in church services and social work in Kirkeibyen or in other churches that we work with. For example, Kirkeibyen has a network of families and offers communal meals and other activities for disadvantaged families and a drop-in centre run in conjunction with the Blå Kors charity, and a foodbank.
Faith as a common denominator
Faith is a common denominator that binds students to-gether across the differences there otherwise are. We are an international folk high school with students from all over the world, from both free church and from other Christian environments. There is a considerable spread as regards age, culture and social status. This means that we have a strong focus on tolerance, on allowing space for others, no matter how odd we may think they are. We also have different norms concerning alcohol and sex than they have at most folk high schools. Some of our students, especially those from abroad, come from a milieu where they do not believe that alcohol can be combined with being a Christian. Therefore, we rarely drink alcohol. We might serve red wine and cheese at an event, but we do not get drunk. It is also a matter of being responsible, of trying to avoid situations where students do something they might regret. And it is about their time at the school being a journey of personal discovery, of edification, where they set themselves certain goals that they work to achieve.
We are very conscious of the way in which we speak and treat each other in our daily life. Here, too, there is personal and democratic edification. We base our work on the Bible’s picture of humankind. We all need a merciful God. That includes the Muslim woman in a headscarf and the homeless man, whom students meet at the foodbank. We work with the Church as a tolerant community, which has to reach out towards people who are not already believers.
There was a time when people spoke of believing coming before belonging. Today it is the other way around. Many people are not believers when they first encounter the Church, but come, for example, to get support in their everyday lives and then perhaps find faith in time. The Church has to reach out to people simply as people – on the basis of what we have in common, namely our dreams and longings for good relations with others and a meaning in our lives. That has to be the basis for that encounter. At the same time, as Christians, we believe, of course, that we have something that is worth passing on. So our aim is also to edify our students so that they can pass on the joy and the meaning they find in faith to promote tolerance and social responsibility.
Respect for leadership
Another value that is important to us is respect for leadership, for those who have been trusted with a leadership task. This is not a question of blind faith in authority, for we can also take a critical view of authorities. But we make an effort to show respect. Once again, we look to the Bible here, for it requires us to pray for those who have been allotted a duty of leadership. We make a point of listening respectfully and being open to different points of view. The best way to make a better society is not always to be mounting the barricades.
I believe that, as a Christian folk high school, we have something to offer as regards creating a healthy balance between individual freedom and respect for the common good. As a society, we often act on the basis of individual cases, focusing on the rights and needs the individual might have. These things have, of course, to be taken seriously, but as a Christian folk high school it is important for us to include the common good in our considerations. This means we take this as our starting point when holding discussions with our students on matters such as abortion and divorce. How should be balance the individual’s needs and wishes against the common good?
Recognition and responsibility for the community
Our hope is that, after one or two years with us, our students will have achieved a level of personal recognition, have acquired self-confidence and a solid rock of faith on which to stand; that they have a living faith in God, who has created them; that they have developed the faith and the experience to allow them to change the world by engage in communities and making the Church an active participant in civil society. We expect them to involve themselves in communities of togetherness instead of simply being spectators. Many students also go on to take up managerial positions in churches across Denmark and in the world at large.
Some of them initiate projects that make a significant difference to the lives of many people. We have, for example, a former student from Rumania who, after being at the school, returned home and started up social work for prisoners. This grew into something rather big and has involved Rumanian prison staff coming to Denmark on study visits. Since then, he has started social projects for poor Romany children, all under the auspices of the Church. We have taken study trips to Rumania, where students have been able to meet him, listen to his story and see the projects, just as he has been here at our school as a visiting teacher.
Not all students end up initiating such large-scale projects. But our aim is that they should acquire an awareness and experience that Christianity is not just about life after death but is about engaging in life in the here and now, by taking responsibility for working for togetherness and for the common good.
