The history of the school
1970-1976: Bagsværd
1976-1988: Birkerød
1988-1989: Vesterbro
1989-1992: Frederiksberg
1992- Nørrebro
1968-1976 The beginning of Det frie Gymnasium
In May 1968 the student revolt in Paris starts to bloom - a revolt that spreads its values all over the world. It was all about a revolt against authority, the young generations fight to change society and the way we thought and lived in the 60's.
Already in February the same year a small group of students and teachers in Denmark were connected to create a entirely new and free school as an alternative to the existing schools. They wished for a democratic school with new subjects and a complete new way of creating education, planning the content of it and planning alternative pedagogical learning.
The group of people negotiated with the ministry of education with following issues:
- the right to a democratic structure for the students and teachers involved
- to abolish marks/grades and exams
- individual and independent studies and research
- a great deal of interdisciplinary work
- an integration of the life in and outside the school
- personal and social development at the same time as the intellectual development
- new: subjects: psychology/sociology, history of ideas, film and media critics, philosophy, creative subjects, a variation of workshops etc.
Most of the programme and the ideas and issues were a reality after two years of negotiating: in May 1970 the school was approved by the ministry of education.
The school established itself on behalf of a lot of fiery souls. Teachers had to be hired, furniture had to be organized, a building had to be found - all the dreams had to be discussed and brought to life!
The first building we borrowed was a factory that printed passports, produced Christmas cards and porn magazines. The school borrowed a whole lot of things from friendly souls and slowly the school grew and grew.
1976-1988 A private school in Birkerød
The school was now situated in Birkerød, a town in the suburbs around 20 miles North of Copenhagen. The pupils now paid school funds to make the school keep up its existence. Because of the increasing amount of money for the students to pay, the school decreased in applicants. From this grew something positive though: the creation of the primary and lower secondary school, Dragen.
1998-2009 The school of today
The school kept on wishing for an opportunity to be located in the centre of Copenhagen and in 1998 the dream came true. Det frie Gymnasium moved to some empty buildings in Vesterbro.
In 1992 we moved to our present address, though with a short stop of three years on Frederiksberg, the neighbouring municipality, and in the year of 2004 the school had grown into a size that demanded more space. So the school was extended with two new stories that were finished in 2006. The whole building is owned by Det frie Gymnasium.
Next year we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary of a school which constantly changes and improves, fights and develops. A school to be very proud of!