By Mette Skov Hansen
In 1992 Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth visited a folk high school for the first time. Together with a group of colleagues from a cultural center in Warsaw, she had gone to Silkeborg Højskole where one of her Danish friends worked. Over two weeks the group got to know the practice and history of the Danish folk high schools.
For Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth the experience was "a turning point".
I suddenly saw the folk high schools as a tool that could be used to change something and change the Polish moral.
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth, The Ecological Folk High School
"When I first came to Denmark in 1992, there was a lack of hope and perspectives in Poland. We needed good education tools on how to foster a change forward in a society. The country had many challenges. And I suddenly saw the folk high schools as a tool that could be used to change something and change the Polish moral," she says.
Guest at Højskolernes annual meeting
Today, Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth is the head and founder of The Ecological Folk High School in Grzybów in Poland. The folk high school offers longer courses in organic farming and shorter courses that focus on sustainability. Beyond that, the folk high school helps addressing and reducing the gap between the urban and rural population in Poland.
We live in a time where it is necessary to be able to gather people from different backgrounds so that we can learn together and strengthen democracy together.
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth, The Ecological Folk High School
And this is an important task for the folk high schools says Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth, who will participate in the annual meeting of the Danish folk high schools this week. Here, she will be in charge of a morning assembly on Friday.
"We live in a time where it is necessary to be able to gather people from different backgrounds so that we can learn together and strengthen democracy together. We need to strengthen social cohesion and build bridges, and the folk high schools play an important role in this," she says.
A growing gap between the rural areas and the cities
The year after her visit to Silkeborg Folk High School in 1992, Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth moved from Warsaw to a small village where her husband had an organic farm. In those years, the gap between the rural and urban areas in Poland grew, as the rural areas could not keep up with the development that took place in the cities.
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth therefore began to seek fundings for projects that could minimize the gap. She created a local newspaper and held events and workshops for children, young people, families and farmers. Urban people learned about ecology, feeding livestock and making bread, while rural people learned about new technologies.
One of the things that fascinates me about Grundtvig is that he also tried to strengthen relations in Denmark and create a more unified nation
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth, The Ecological Folk High School
In 2001, she held her first folk high school course, where people from the local community over a few weeks learned about health, ecology and had classes in crafts, art, personal development and IT.
The courses were popular, and over 1000 adults took part in them in the following years. In 2014, the Villum Foundation and the VELUX Foundation supported that a folk high school was build which made it possible to arrange longer courses. In 2015 The Ecological Folk High School was able to offer its first two-year course in organic farming.
"One of the things that fascinates me about Grundtvig is that he also tried to strengthen relations in Denmark and create a more unified nation. The folk high schools also started out as a way to educate the farmers. This is part of what we work with here," she says.
Green hope
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth believes that folk high schools are important if a more sustainable society is to be created.
There are problems that we must solve together if we want to ensure a sustainable world. As folk high schools we must both call out politicians, and we must try to shape a new paradigm
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth, The Ecological Folk High School
"We must focus on the fact that we are all connected as a people and that we are also connected to nature. There are problems that we must solve together if we want to ensure a sustainable world. As folk high schools we must both call out politicians, and we must try to shape a new paradigm. I think there is a danger that climate change will make us depressed. There are people who choose not to have children because 'there is no future'. We must create hope that we can move towards a better future," she says.
Polish folk high schools gather
For many years, Poland has had a tradition of folk high schools. In these years, there is a greater gathering of them in networks, which Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth finds positive.
We don't need to copy the Danish model completely, but we can use it to plant seeds and inspire
Ewa Smuk Stratenwerth, The Ecological Folk High School
"The way I see it, the folk high schools have really changed Danish society and helped make you Danish. It is a beautiful legacy, and you can discuss issues without agreeing. We need that in Poland. We don't need to copy the Danish model completely, but we can use it to plant seeds and inspire," she says.