I read with great interest your website about Tvind. I was a volunteer teacher at the original Efterschool in Ulfborg Denmark in the early 90′s. I was there for nearly two years, living and working for the organisation.
How did I end up going to Denmark? Well, as you may recall it was during the Thatcher era, and I was made redundant, and was sick and tired of claiming the dole, even though I had a degree in English and Drama. Saw this ad in, I think it was The Guardian, applied and went to Redhouse for an interview.
I would say there was about a dozen of us there. We were interviewed by a couple of Danish people, I think one of them was called Bent, which was his Christian name. As you can imagine this struck a rather humerous chord with us English, but we let it pass. After the group interview, I suggested a general discussion group amongst ourselves as it seemed too good to be true. This went down quite well, but only after I told those who were interviewing us that they should leave.
In the end, I decided to go to Denmark, I think one or two were recruited for English, or it may have been a school in Wales, where they had a Special Needs facility there. One man went to the hotel in Norway, I remember seeing him there the following year.
Well, I arrived in Ulfborg, was met by the headmistress, and taken to the school. The first weekend was a weekend home for the kids, and I was left alone with a couple of real tearaways. I wanted to return to England after that harrowing experience, but Karen, the head made me a deal, that was acceptable all round.
I got on quite well with her, and a couple of other teachers, they treated me well, but the others were a bunch of stuck up arrogant pigs, who used to shout and scream at teachers who didnt agree with their point of view.
One teacher from another school on the same site told me how they sometimes used to deposit millions of Danish Crowns into her bank account so it couldnt be traced. Also the head told me that I would be paid, I can’t remember the exact amount, but they claimed about three times that from the local authorities, and the money was used to improve the schools, and fund other projects.
The actual teaching programme was a joke, so was the Travelling High School where the students had to raise money to fund their trips to India. My headmistress told me that she was one of the earliest members in the organisation, how they built the different schools, and the swimming pool.
When they asked me if I would like to join the Teachers Group I politely, but firmly declined as I didnt go along with the loss of identity and individuality it would mean. They took my decision well, and didnt try to get me to change my mind.
There were some good times, we did a lot of travelling with the kids, and a lot of them were really good, nice kids too. However, I was glad that I made the decision to leave, it was all done amicably, and I gave them six months notice. There was something not quite right, something that was out of kilter, I think it was all the secrecy, the underhandedness, they even claimed that the famous windmill was a work of art, and therefore got a grant from the Danish Arts Council!!!
As volunteers, we used to meet up every so often for the weekend, share stories and experiences, most of us left, disillusioned after a couple of years.
Maybe mine is not as harrowing experience as you would like, but it was a time that I would NEVER want to repeat, I wouldnt even consider visiting Denmark again, and certainly would never want to be in contact with any of the TG.
