Instead of classes today, we had a field study, which, I believe, was solely designed to continue the consecutive days of pushing our morning alarms even earlier. For our first full day, we needed to be in the city for orientation at 9. Downtown Copenhagen is a 20 minute bus ride. The next day, Tuesday, was the first day of classes, which started at 8:30. And today we needed to meet in the city at 7:45. Apparently, sleep was confiscated by security back at Newark.
We boarded a bus - which left at 8:00 SHARP (the Danish don’t mess around - everything occurs exactly on time, on the dot) - and traveled for an hour (sleep!) to the Hillerød Pædagogseminarium - a school to train Pædagogs. A pædagog doesn’t really have an English equivalent. Not quite a daycare teacher, not a social worker, they are a type of social educator, trained to work with children. The emphasis is on social skills over academics. Children can be assigned a pædagog from the municipality to assist in the development of interpersonal skills and social maturity. Unlike in the States, this is not the same as being assigned a tutor because you are doing poorly - most children have interactions with a pædagog while growing up.
Now, a little overview of the Danish welfare and education system:
Danes pay the highest tax rates in the world. In regards to income, the tax rate lies on an exponential curve: the richer you are, the greater percentage of your pay is taken out in taxes compared to a lower income job. Consequently, both parents usually work full-time. There are hardly any part-time jobs, and minimum wage is about $20 (that’s U.S. dollars). But keep in mind that all items carry a 59% tax (and for instance, tax on cars is about 120%, which means for a $10,000 car, you are paying an additional $12,000 in tax alone). Water, in stores or restaurants (they don’t come free - learned that one quickly), is DKK 20 (about $3-4). Jan, one of my professors, told us that for every DKK 100 (that is, 100 kroner - the plural of krone) he earns, he pays DKK 70 in taxes. And the surprising thing is that no one complains - it is part of the way of life and accepted by all. The Danish, as a generalization, work very hard. In return, the government invests a lot of money into the people. Healthcare is free, as well as the welfare system. If you are unable to work, the government will take care of you. This means, for instance, that there are hardly any very wealthy people in Denmark as well as low numbers of very poor individuals.
As a result of two parents working full-time (and with all the tax revenue the government collects), the education system in Denmark is also free. Most children are in preschool (or a type of daycare) by the age of two. The first thing about Danish education is that it is much more relaxed than the American system. The Danish believe that poverty should not disadvantage children. Thus, all schools have a similar level of quality - egalitarianism is a major concept in their philosophy. Also important is a level of emancipation, where the children can go off on their own without adult supervision. Daycares usually have a room that is off-limits to all adults where the kids can be themselves and develop their interactions with one another. And most strikingly, there is the concept of en god barndum: “the good childhood.” I saw this in action at the kindergarten daycare I visited that afternoon, Georgs Æske, which included half a dozen children with special needs - each with their own personal pædagog. Aged 3-6 years old, they were spending a few days at a camp, almost entirely outdoors. It was no big deal for the children to run around the fields by themselves, just as it was nothing for them to use sharp knives to whittle sticks (nor, in a home or school setting, for children as young as 4 to use real forks and knives in their everyday meal, unsupervised). or use handsaws to cut firewood. En god barndom is focused on experience. Children will fall. They will cut, bruise, and burn themselves. And they will be just fine and learn from it. This focus on experience is something we lack in America, to a degree. For instance, if a child falls down on the playground, this will instigate a chain: crying, screaming, a trip to the nurse, bandages, ointments, incident reports, etc. - all to ensure freedom from liability in this lawsuit-loving, over-protective country of ours. If a Danish child has a cold or the flu, no medication is given to them; doctors will usually not prescribe anything but rest and tea.
While we were there, we observed the children help put up tents to sleep in (they decided themselves they wanted to sleep with sexes separated even though no one would have given a second thought toward co-ed tents). And my first reaction was that it is true: they are all very, VERY blonde with very, VERY bright blue eyes. Oh boy, I must’ve stuck out like a sore thumb.
Emma, the girl on the left, has ADHD and is under medication for it (which is not very common). She kept asking why we were speaking Swedish and not Danish (the Danes make fun of the Swedes any chance they can get - which can be quite often).
After an hour ride back to the city, we were just in time to get on another bus, though this one headed to the Carlsberg Brewery located in Copenhagen. Carlsberg is the local brew and the fifth largest in the world. It’s found everywhere in Copenhagen. It is the standard…and a quite good standard, if I may say so myself. The tour was interesting and I don’t think the woman in charge said one friendly word to us the entire time. But the end reception was definitely the highlight - it's all about the connections you have.
