The purpose of the folk high schools is expressed briefly and concisely in section 1 of the Folk High Schools Act "The purpose of the folk high school is to promote general education and public education".

General education and public education - what exactly is it? Perhaps these points can provide examples of elements in this that you can recognize yourself in:

• Getting to know yourself better
• Learning to live with others
• Getting to know the world - and believing that you can change a lot that is important
• To learn to take responsibility for the community, your own future and also our common future

It is often not so important to have good answers if you want to create good reflection, but to ask good questions. Examples of this can be:

• What is worth knowing?
• What did I learn at the folk high school?
• What is different from previous school years?
• Is folk high school a waste of a year in a lifetime? Do I really have time for that?

Perhaps one of the answers to what is different about a year at folk high school than other school types is that we have a greater focus on EQ than on IQ.

What is IQ?

Intelligence quotient is a measure of a person's intelligence. IQ is usually stated as a score on a normally distributed scale that has a mean and median of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. This means that about 68 percent of a normal population scores between 85 and 115 and that about 96 percent of a normal population scores between 70 and 130.

What is EQ?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, assess and control one's own, others', and a group's emotions and emotions, to distinguish between them and use this information in thinking and actions

Being a socially intelligent being with the ability and willingness to care for his fellow human beings is perhaps also the essence of creating a good and meaningful life. Through the interaction with others, you can gain greater caring ability, security and self-insight. The ability to listen to others and also to dare to say no if you feel it is right is something you will enjoy for the rest of your life. Sometimes everyday life is not the way we want it to be. Then we need the ability to withstand adversity, and also a good portion of self-insight to get on the right track. We must have the courage to fail, and the ability to cope with discomfort.

If you have good self-insight, you will also more easily gain the trust of others. That those around you express their respect and trust in you is important for your self-respect and sense of mastery.

In such a crowded environment as at a folk high school, you have people you have to relate to around the clock and throughout the school year - it does something to you! We hope that the year has been significant for you in a positive sense and that you (at least eventually) feel that you have grown and learned something important about yourself - through others.

Feeling secure and knowing yourself is important for a good life.

We humans need good mental balance to deal with a hectic world of great change

Yuval Noal Harari, author and historian

Here are some key elements of what can be a good life:

• Believe (on yourself, your friends, fellow human beings future)
• Hope (about greater justice, good solutions to important problems, hope for a good life for yourself and others)
• Love (to your loved ones, people you get to know)
• Word (to make important and correct choices)
• Will (buoyancy and demands on yourself to act, willingness to change what is not good enough, willingness to make an effort)

I hope the year at folk high school helps you further with the training of emotional intelligence. Perhaps it has set in motion a number of processes and raised awareness of the importance of social competence in interaction with others.

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