Citizenship, democracy and lifelong learning

Today concepts of democracy, citizenship and lifelong learning are areas of action at the Folk High Schools. 
The way the Folk High Schools work with the concepts may not correspond excactly to Grundtvig and his ideas - they may even speak the opposit.
In spite of this Grundtvig is still useful in the visions of the Folk High Schools of today and their understanding of the concepts.

Grundtvig highlighted the will to learn and to meet across boarders as central elements in the education to life; the lifelong learning.

Cross-cultural meeting, conversation and learning does not come naturally, and neither across interests and social positions. But it can be learned through education and the will of the individual.

To Know Oneself

“First a human then a Christian” says one of Grundtvig’s many famous psalms. 
To be a human comes before being anything else – be it Christian or Muslim, Danish or Rumanian, carpenter or professor.

Grundtvig’s main focus was culture and on what cultural ground to meet as equals across differences.
More than a hundred years later after World War Two this was more relevant than ever. Prominent actors from the Folk High School movement and the political life now assumed that politics and education of the youth would be the place to meet to anticipate controversies between people.
And the Folk High School as a perfect place for this meeting.

International Citizenship

Some have taken the idea of the Folk High Shool even further placing the Folk High School as an international meeting place for cross cultural development. 

The definitions and understandings of the Folk High School are many and differs from person to person and tradition to tradition. But the main idea is the same:

The Folk High School as a place to meet across differences and become valid actors in society. To learn to live together in respect and reciprocity in spite of - or even because of - these differences.