For the first half of class we had a guest instructor, Christian Nielsen, who worked as a pedagogue, social educator with psychiatric patients, and is now an external lecturer. Christian presented on the welfare state in Denmark. He described the welfare state as a political system in which the government is responsible for its citizens by ensuring a minimum standard of living available for everyone. The Danish welfare system and the United States Constitution developed and emerged from the same school of thought, during the Enlightenment period, but their views on childhood are very different.
The United States was created as the land of free, home of the brave, equal opportunity, then why are there so many limitations and restrictions on children? Emerging from the Enlightenment which was a time of change, skepticism of ideals grounded in tradition and faith, and advancing scientific knowledge, the American colonies developed with principles of freedom. These new freedoms were focused on the ability to come to a new country, start a family, find work, and establish a base. With the industrial revolution just around the corner, the focus shifted to the rights of the worker and later women's rights in the factory and work settings. I think a lot of the reason the United States and Denmark continue to have such varying views on childhood treatment and education is because of the varying age of these two countries. Although both histories are plagued with war, conflict, famine, unity, and change, Denmark is still significantly older than the United States. Perhaps Denmark has had more of an opportunity to focus on the rights and freedoms of the adults and are now able to take children into consideration, whereas the relatively young United States is still struggling to find the balance of equality and equity. The United States is on its way to recognizing children's freedoms; however, we still have a long way to go.
In April 2013, there was a lockout in schools throughout Denmark. Thousands of teachers and children did not attend school for three weeks because of a disagreement between the local government and teacher unions. Local governments attempted to rectify change in the education system in order to promote a higher standard of education without the teacher's input. The Social Democratic Party was seeking to increase the number of work hours without an increase in pay. Teachers weren't on strike, they wanted to go back to work and find a solution to the local government's demands; however, employers were initiating the lockout and keeping teachers and children out of the schools. The lockout ended after intervention of the federal government in the industrial action between the Danish Union of
I was happy to be done with class and was ready for a nap, but Lindsay and Natalie had different plans for the day. We first went to get lunch before walking to a Danish beauty school to get our eyebrows waxed. There are many things wrong with this situation. First, we are in a foreign country with a different primary language, so if I say I want to keep my eyebrows it isn't guaranteed that the message got through. Second, this is a beauty school, so not only do we have the language barrier, but we are also guinea pigs and test subjects to practice on. Third, I really don't like putting hot wax on my face that close to my eyes and having someone rip it off. Fourth, after the deed is done there is always a red line across your forehead where your eyebrows once were and you have to walk around the rest of the day with an arrow practically tattooed to your brow. I think I'd rather have a unibrow than be a guinea pig in the beauty school, I'll just stick with doing my own eyebrows for the next few weeks and potentially for the rest of my life.
I spent the rest of the day relaxing and attempting to stop my cold before it could develop any more symptoms. It had been a fairly relaxing day, and once 10pm rolled around it was time to decide whether I would go out or not. There were a lot of external forces working against me. I was getting sick, I had to be in class the next morning at 8:30am, and sleep is important. I went back and forth for quite some time before throwing some makeup on, changing my clothes, and walking to the bus stop with Lindsay. Standing at the bus stop I realized that I must had put my contact in wrong because it was irritating my eye, my sore throat was also beginning to come back, I was completely exhausted, and I soon realized that I probably made the wrong decision to come out. It is more important for me to stay healthy than to go out for one night, and I didn't want to jeopardize the remainder of my time in Europe. Just as the bus was pulling up I changed my mind, slipped away from the crowd, and walked back home. So the night wouldn't be a total bust I picked up some ginger ale and a candy bar on the walk home before laying down to watch a movie. It turned out to be a successful night after all.
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