Danish Folkeskole Education

The folkeskole (English: people's school) is a type of school in Denmark covering the entire period of compulsory education, from the age of 6 to 16, encompassing pre-school, primary and lower secondary education.

Legend has it that Ansgar, a French Benedictine monk, was the first missionary to visit Denmark around 822, purchased the freedom of twelve male thralls and educated them in the first school in Denmark, at Hedeby in Schleswig. This was the forerunner of the religious houses which sprang forth over the entire country from about 1100 onwards. In their cloisters, boys from surrounding villages — and occasionally girls as well — received elementary instruction in the Mass and in dogma.

However, quite early trade and crafts demanded more practical schools. The primitive writing-and-counting schools had their origins here, usually with very mediocre teachers, but they were very useful and therefore they flourished, maintained by private support and by the guilds.

The Lutheran Reformation came to Denmark from Germany in 1536. As in Germany, Protestants quickly broke up the Catholic school system. The religious houses were closed and the vast estates of the Roman Catholic Church taken over by the Crown. This meant that the state also took over such tasks as education.

The Church Law of 1539 contains Denmark's first educational legislation with a formal requirement for schools in all provincial boroughs. While new grammar schools sprang up, laying the foundation of classical humanism among the higher strata of society, the broad masses had to be content with the old Danish schools or writing schools which provided a primitive form of instruction.

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