Seppo Niemelä
The heritage of N. Fr. S. Grundtvig
It is a great honour for the tradition of popular adult education in the Nordic countries that the new action of the Socrates programme has been named Grundtvig. Although not as widely known internationally as his fellow countrymen and contemporaries Sören Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen, N. Fr. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) was a remarkable figure in Denmark. His influence on adult education in the Nordic countries has been significant, not only in Denmark but also in Norway, and, perhaps surprisingly, in Finland. Finns made excursions to the Danish folk high schools early on, and there are still 34 folk high schools in Finland which designate themselves as Grundtvigian.
In Denmark, Grundtvig is also known as poet, historian, linguist, initiator of religious and social reforms; in a way, he is a symbol of Danish identity. Grundtvig was an original and versatile personality. His ideas evolved through external and internal crises, and his published works are numerous.
As great men often do, also Grundtvig has become a symbol for an entire era that witnessed how a nation gained access to learning and education in the wake of the rise of a nation state and democracy. The fame and personality of a man of this stature easily gets used as a justification for an astonishing variety of trends.
Most often, however, Grundtvig has been the figurehead for ideas of popular education, general education and nationality; in the latter sense even in the circles of the anti-EU movement of Denmark. The left wing of the 60s searched for common features in Grundtvig and Marx, e.g. rebellion, questioning of the prevalent values, and taking a stand with the people against established institutions.
In certain reform movements' opinion the three periods of mental crisis Grundtvig experienced were in fact moments of clarity; visions of truth. Grundtvig has sometimes been described as a Dionysian figure for the purpose of promoting sexual freedom. Rumour has it that the young Grundtvig once fell desperately in love with the lady of the house where he worked as a family tutor. Grundtvig's youngest daughter was born when he had reached the age of 77.
A renowned Danish scholar of the traditions of education, Mr Ove Korsgaard, has recently brought up some of Grundtvig's universal ideas. One of these is the idea of establishing a joint Nordic university in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is not an entirely impossible idea that Grundtvig in today's world would reflect on cultural questions concerning the entire Europe, instead of concentrating in issues on Denmark and nationality.
The life of Grundtvig is summarized in the following article written by Ms Heidi Siestoe. It reveals that Grundtvig himself actually never established a folk high school, nor acted as a teacher in one. He was the ideological father of popular education and folk high schools, but it was other men, Christian Kold in particular, who realised his dreams.
The meaning of history
Grundtvig represents those 19th century philosophers who were primarily interested in the meaning, or the purpose, of history. His interest in these questions resulted in four works on world history, one on the history of church, and, in a way as a part of this series, one work on Nordic mythology. In this, Grundtvig belongs to the same category of philosophers as Herder and Hegel, Marx in a certain sense, and the Finnish thinkers J.V. Snellman and e.g. Yrjö-Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, whose works include a study with the title "Leading thoughts in the history of mankind".
Various philosophers saw different, although parallel, meanings in history, from the realisation of humanity to communism. In Grundtvig's opinion the purpose of history was, concisely, to introduce the individual to the entire truth on himself. This kind of consciousness can only be reached gradually, under a long period of time.
The history of the spirit, or consciousness, is crucial in the field of history. The result of the process is omnipresent light; striving towards this light is the connecting thought in history. For Grundtvig the Enlightenment (oplysning in Danish) was the engine of history. The road to the light was based on mother tongue, speech, and also "the living word", i.e. spoken language and lecture halls, which later formed the core of folk high school.
Grundtvig saw history as movement, change and evolution. As time passes by, the man's idea of himself, God, and the world slowly but surely becomes clearer. A similar fundamental experience of the world was widespread in the 19th century, shared by many reformers of education.
The people and the civic society
It was Herder who created the foundations also to the Grundtvigian theory that the universal culture, evolving in the process of history, consists of smaller parts, national cultures. An individual should adopt primarily the cultural heritage of his own nation. By doing so, the individual became a member of his own people; at that time, the people was seen as a rather mystical, excessively individual entity. An invisible spirit guided the destinies of peoples, much in the same manner as Adam Smith's invisible hand guided economy.
The function of liberal education and folk high schools was to develop the consciousness of ordinary Danish citizens in such a manner that common people would turn into a nation (almue - folk). The objective was popular-national enlightenment. In this process the history and mythology, the language and, particularly, the vernacular of the people were essential. This programme proved to be functional and had a major impact in the development of Denmark.
Characteristic of a good folk high school was the abundance of song. In addition to folk songs, the liberal education movement also created a song tradition of its own. In Denmark, as in the other Nordic countries, folk songs started to gain respect. Grundtvig himself was a productive writer: he wrote the lyrics for some 1000 religious hymns.
The word people ("folk") has a central status in the Grundtvigian tradition in all the Nordic countries. Here it means approximately the same as the anglo-saxon expression civic society. The people is a force which, when united voluntarily, may achieve extraordinary accomplishments, both as smaller communities, within organisational activity or cooperative systems.
A visitor may choose any Nordic country and witness the concrete results of this influential movement by the number of buildings of various societies, labour organisations and cooperatives. Almost without exception, popular adult education in some form has sparked these activities. This is the Nordic practice of the Grundtvigian spirit.
Nationality
Grundtvig belongs to an era when philosophers were not necessarily supporters of democracy. Like Hegel, Grundtvig supported autocracy, particularly during his earlier years, although he gave considerably central weight to the voice of the people (folkestemmen). A competent ruler could interpret the voice of the people. The level of the people's consciousness was a crucial question.
The era of Grundtvig was also the era of national awakening. In Denmark this issue was even more burning than generally. Denmark had lost vast areas in several wars; occasionally, the entire future of the country was at stake. In this sense, Finland and Denmark have a lot in common. Both of them have confronted the Eastern giant; both of them have realised the importance of popular education: "what is lost physically, must be regained mentally".
Nordic popular adult education has indeed supported the development of a nation-state, emphasizing the national identity. At one time this feature was vital, the ground of a welfare society. We can ask, however, whether this feature has actually been one of the reasons for difficulties in international cooperation, both at a Nordic and later at the EU level. The popular adult education movement may have a reason to examine the relations between specific and general, national and universal in Grundtvig's original ideology.
Heritage
The Finnish philosopher J.V. Snellman once ended an impressive series of lectures by stating modestly that "these same truths will be discovered in the future, although they will be called by different names". It may be that a modern-day reader of Grundtvig shares these thoughts. Concepts which appeared to be essential two hundred years ago have little meaning for a modern reader.
Still, the heritage of Grundtvig is alive and well. The original and wide-ranging popular education movement is an essential part of it. Acquaintances with similar activity in other European countries may well prove to be productive.
Both Grundtvig himself, and, hopefully, the Grundtvig action of the Socrates programme, go on reminding us of several important things. The Danish folk high school offered, from the very beginning, practical and vocational education. That alone, however, was not a goal challenging enough. The fundamental objective of learning is reaching "the light"; that every man gradually gets acquainted with the truth of himself and the world he lives in, and that he puts down root as a member of his own community.
The objective of learning shall be to fulfill human potential, also as a citizen and as a member of the community. In Grundtvig's times, and even now, the nation, close communities and the civic society are important communities. Today, more clearly than ever before, we are also part of communities larger than one nation. The question of a democratic EU, and even more extensively, of a global civic society, is today just as burning as the question of the birth of national democracy once was.
