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She thought she was stupid. The social worker suggested early retirement pension. Instead Elin Svenningsen went to a Danish non-residential folk high school. Now she is at her second year at the college of nursery teachers.
Michael Voss (InfoNet)
No self-confidence, lots of bad memories about education and jobs and no idea about how to get on in life. That is how Elin Svenningsen describes her situation a few years ago.
But instead of accepting the early retirement proposal she went visiting the local “daghojskole”.
“Daghojskole” is a non-residential folk high school. Via education and counseling these schools support adults in personal development and improve their possibilities for employment or further formal education, e.g. via preparatory adult education.
“It was something quite different from any other school or course, I ever attended,” says Elin Svenningsen.
Among the characteristics Elin stresses, that she was treated as an individual and as a grown-up. Also of big importance for Elin was the fact that counseling was an integrated part of learning, and that it dealt not only with educational issues but all parts of her life.
Focus on the individual
Hanne Vandal Petersen is a teacher at the same “daghojskole”. She tells the story from her point of view:
“As a teacher you must learn and remember the individual story of every student. My signal to the student must be unequivocal: I see you!”
Apart from the actual teaching she describes her work like this:
“We listen and nurses. We help with the social, psychological and practical problems of everyday life. And we go along with them for some time after they left the school.”
According to Hanne Vandal Petersen this is absolutely necessary because of the situation of the people that attend this “daghojskole”:
- Young people with a very poor basic education in public school, of whom many dropped out before finishing the obligatory nine years.
- Somewhat older un-skilled people, formerly working in production, but now out of job because of closure or redundancies and with poor basic reading and writing skills
- Physically worn-down and unemployed workers
In addition most of them try to cope with big psycho-social problems.
Other non-residential folk high schools also attract quite another group, the socalled “drifters”: young people who are both socially and academically resourceful. But for different reasons they tend to drop out of one education after the other, often fearing to be “locked”.
The special values
Recently the organisation of non residential folk high schools published the report from a project trying to define the special approach to counseling of these schools.
One of the conclusions was that “daghojskoler” is based in the Danish non-formal adult education tradition with basic values of respect, equality, independence, open attitude and trust. And these values permeate both their teaching and their counseling activities.
According to the report other characteristics of counseling in “daghojskoler” are:
• The social community of the classroom and the school as starting point and pedagogical method
• Existential clarification: focus on the person as an entity, creating sense of meaning og clarification of values
• Democratic perspective: being part of a community, taking responsibility and having a say in decisions
• Open space: a broad learning environment, student’s sense of ownership, and challenges to head, heart, hands and body.
A stepping stone to a new life
According to teacher Hanne Vandal Hansen about half of the students pass on to formal education or get a job. At the same time she stresses:
“But even for the other half the courses have not been in vain. They have had a break in life, a parenthesis, where they were not beaten but nursed.”
For Elin Svenningsen it worked.
“I learned the necessary subjects. I regained my self-confidence and the courage to stand up and speak. And I got friendships that still last after three years. In short: I got normalised after 22 years on the fringes of society.”
Out of the talks and discussions between Elin, her teachers and the social worker came a plan of action. Elin went on to other adult educational institutions, and after two years she was qualified to enter the college of nursery teachers.
“My teacher from the “daghojskole” assisted me as a mentor for two years. But when I started the nursery teacher education I was able to cope with my life without this assistance.”
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