In Denmark we have some boarding schools called "Efterskoler". They are not as strict as boarding schools abroad or at least so I am told.
But they do offer a some alternative lifestyle suited for those in our society who wants Danes to forget their social heritage and position themselves to a more globalized world where traditions and social standings in every of our small communities are forgotten and erased.
But do we not have a thousand year old culture which we need to deliver knowledge about to our children before they go out and make their impact on the world. How can we give them good tradition Danish values when we back out of the parenting role before time and leave it to some closed boarding school environment to give our children our values and learn our firm standards of character?
I fear that they are left without essential parts of their social heritage if they leave the family unit too soon. Denmark is a society where social heritage matters even up to the royal family. The result is peace and low crime when people in general know what they can make of life and how important it is to act properly because you know that your children will not be born equal with the rest of the children but they will start out from the level in our society you have achieved.
The youth culture of a country must never been equal with being confined in a boarding school where their individual character is shaved off so they can fit in the enclosed group at all cost. We need people who have a social heritage which stand out, so they can be leaders rather than just anonymous followers. You cannot create a peer group leader; you can only find the individual.
Some Danish firms use a lot of money trying to build the careers of their employees. It is a fatal mistake. Team-building based on sharing a single glass of wine or a beer Friday afternoon is the only thing which works. Luckily most firms realize that.
The families can learn from the firms. They can keep their children in the local schools. They can improve the social status of their child by hosting parties at home instead letting the children hang around in the cities. They can cooperate with volunteers in biker clubs who host parties for the local youth now where most of the parties hosted by schools or the authorizes has been targeted against minorities in the society which practice a more restricted form of partying.
The government has realized that the numbers of teenagers attending the boarding schools are too high and it has proven to be too costly for our society. They have introduced cuts and of course the boarding schools are protesting. It is a shameful form of marketing because the reason for the cuts is not ideology. It is necessary because Denmark almost singlehanded has decided to pay the debts of countries like Greece for no reason. We in Denmark all have to bear our burden. The boarding schools should take responsibility instead. It would certainly suit them.
They are complaining about risk of losing clients. They should not fear. The authorities in a lot of towns have troubled teenagers which they can ship to the boarding schools instead of the juvenile halls. There are parents who originally wanted to ship their children off to some third world country where they could be teach into submission by the use of corporal punishment which is forbidden in Denmark and therefore under watch by the social services. They can use the boarding schools instead. So where is the possible lack of students?
I had a son in one of these boarding schools, which you can read something about if you two years back. It was a terrible ordeal for both him and me as parent, which I wish for no other parent to relive.
Therefore consider me biased, but I truly believe that we all have to bear the burden our politicians have put upon us - also the boarding schools.
