One of the most significant person who contributed greatly to Danish education is N. F.
S. Grundtvig(1783-1872). He was pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician.He was advocated the new style of school, "Folkehighskole".
The existing school system in that time was forced students to memorize text and take examinations. He considered it is as death of human soul and opposed all compulson in education. He believed in the both "necessity of the living sprit" and "development of basic skills". His vision of folkehighskole as follows:
There will be the common centre from which the institution branches out into all the main lines of practical life, and back to which it endeavours to gather and unite all the energies of society. Here, all the civil servants of the state who do not need scholarship but life, insight and practical ability, and all of those who wish to belong to the rank of the educated should get the very best chance of developing themselves in a suitable direction and of getting to know one another. (Grundtvig quoted in Lawson 1994: 614)
Besides he said, " most people did not need books at all, but only a genuinely kind heart, sound common sense, a kind good ear, a kind good mouth, and then liveliness to talk with really enlightened people, who would be able to arouse their interest and show them how human life appears when the light shines upon it. (1856 quoted in Borish 1991: 18)."
This idea was known and broaden widely in all the country round with supporting by the growing class of independent farmers. They liberated from landmords and influenced by the revolutionary democratic trends.
Then "Free School Movement" was occured. In 1852, Kristen Kold, one of the followers of Grundtvig, founded the first folkehighskole. These schools had no entrance or leaving examinations and instruction was confined to lecturers. The age of students was generally 18 to 30 years old. The farmers, who didn't receive any education before, studied in Folkehighskole and got knowledge. The almuni made the first agricultural cooperative association in the world. It has remained a part of nonformal Danish education today and influencing the state school system and offering alternative schools of liberal as well as practical education.