In Denmark children have a class teacher who follows them throughout their school career from 6-15 years old. Our local village school only goes up to 12 years old but even so my children could expect to have the same class teacher throughout that time. The class teacher of my younger daughter has just taken leave to do further studies and so the class will have a new teacher when they return in a couple of weeks.
Before she left, my daughter's former class teacher gave each of the children a CD on which were hundreds of photographs which she had taken of them since they started school. I suspect that this would not be allowed in the UK school system. However I must say that I appreciated this collection for many reasons. It is nice to get a glimpse into a large part of my daughter's life which I otherwise don't have much access to. I guess that she will appreciate the archive when she is older (assuming that technology does not leave the CD behind as a storage medium). It has also changed my view of my daughter's schooling a little. I have the impression that the Danish schooling system swings too much in favour of analysing the social climate to the detriment of actual learning but being confronted by over 1000 photos I can be reminded that my daughter has had a multitude of experiential learning opportunities over and above the more organised trips such as to a Viking museum in May.
The pictures show them visiting a local pig farm (unpleasant but educational), the local tractor shop, trips to the homes of various classmates where for example there were horses, trampolines, ponds and other attractions to explore, the making of stone age tools (suitably masked with plastic goggles of course) and a myriad of other more mundane activities such as counting tree rings and hatching some chicks in the classroom, which they have undertaken over the five years 2003-2008.
Many of the pictures come from their outdoor lessons which were a part of the school timetable until they were about nine years old and so there is a preponderance of pictures of food preparation over the bonfire such as the one I have included in this post featuring my own daughter.
Keywords: Danish education, experiential learning, outdoor education
