Christians Kold

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Christen Kold (lithograph from 1912)
Memorial plaque for Christians Kold in Thisted
Christen Kold's grave at Dalum Church

Christen Mikkelsen Kold or Kresten Kold (born March 29, 1816 in Thisted , † April 6, 1870 in Dalum (now part of Odense )) was a Danish teacher who was also a pioneer in the Danish university and free school movement.

Life

Kold was the son of the shoemaker Mikkel Christensen Kold from Thisted. After attending school, he did an apprenticeship as a bookbinder, but did not work long in this profession. He wanted to be a teacher. In 1831 he began to work as a traveling teacher (teacher who moved from place to place in sparsely populated areas to give makeshift lessons) in Fårtoft, a settlement in Thisted parish, a little east of it and very sparsely populated. A short time later he became tutor at Kovstrup farm in Sønderhå , where he taught the landowner's children. In the neighboring community of Snedsted , he then attended the (teacher) seminar Snedsted Seminarium.

Outside the seminar, Kold came into the influence of the religious movement "Divine Awakening" through his acquaintance with the salvation preacher Peter Larsen Skræppenborg . For Kold, this meant learning that there should be freedom in questions of school and faith, which at the time were closely linked in terms of organization and content. This brought him into tension with the public school and prevented him for years from getting a job as a teacher. He refused to let the students memorize Balle's textbook (a version of Martin Luther's Small Catechism with explanations by Bishop Nicolai Edinger Balle (1744-1816) and edited by him), which - often the only textbook - is the most important Part of the lessons in the then public school. Instead, he made "oral narration" the main teaching method. His refusal led to a legal battle with the publisher.

Pastor Ludvig Daniel Hass , a parish priest from Mjolden , had brought Kold to the neighboring village of Forballum on the island of Mors in the Limfjord as a private tutor in 1838 , but where he was excluded from the office of school teacher. Hass supported him in a new dispute with the firm of Balles Lehrbuch, which proved unsuccessful. In protest against the authorities, Hass resigned his post as parish priest and in 1842 brought Kold to travel with him to Smyrna (now Izmir ) in Turkey to work as a missionary for the Danish Mission Society .

After Kold had fallen out with hatred, he used his bookbinder training and through his work he earned enough money in the years 1842-1847 in order to not only eat, but also to save for the future, to his later school work in Ryslinge on To finance Funen . In 1847 he left Smyrna, went by ship to Trieste and "walked the way to Thisted, pulling his luggage on a handcart". When he returned from Turkey, he got a job as a private tutor with Grundtvig's pastor C. F. Hassenfeldt at the parsonage of Holmsland in West Jutland. There he was able to try out his ideas about schools and lessons with the pastor's children. He stayed at the rectory until 1848 when he became tutor for the son of pastor C. C. Østergaard in Sønder Felding . Kold immersed himself here in Grundtvig's works, which made a great impression on him. In 1849 he became tutor at the Ryslinge rectory. With the support of Grundtvigsch circles from Copenhagen, who bought him a house with a large piece of land in Ryslinge, he founded a "higher elementary school" here - the first in Denmark. It opened on November 1, 1851 with 15 students. After the demand for school places increased continuously, he moved his school to Dalby near Kerteminde in 1853 and finally built a spacious building in the municipality of Dalum near Odense on Funen in 1862 , where he taught until his death. The number of students had risen to 112 male students by then. Classes only took place in the winter months, as the students were needed as workers in the summer. In the summer only short-term courses were held, to which girls and young women were also admitted from 1862.

“His pedagogical methods were revolutionary (for the time). He opposed the common practice of trying to teach students something through mechanical memorization. He strictly adhered to the view that teachers should be so filled with their material and their calling as educators that the drive and energy filled with love for their work could invigorate the work of their students. However, his criticism of learning from books did not always have a favorable impact on many of his successors, who followed his example but did not have his genius ”

- Peter Manniche: Denmark. A social experimental field , Bad Nauheim 1953, p. 114

.

Kold's importance lies mainly in the fact that he implemented Grundtvig's school ideas in practical reality for both children and adults in such a way that they “took root in the people, especially in the country”.

Kold described his ideas about school and teaching in his Bogen om Børneskolen (Book About Children's School), published in 1850.

Throughout his life, Kold was directly involved in the establishment of around 100 free schools on Funen and Zealand .

He is buried in the Dalum churchyard.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Joakim Larsen: Kold, Christian Mikkelsen . In: Carl Frederik Bricka: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon , p. 347.

literature

Web links

Commons : Christen Kold  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kold, Christians
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kold, Christen Mikkelsen; Kold Kresten
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish teacher, mentor of the higher education and free school movement
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Thisted
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1870
Place of death Dalum (now part of Odense )