Well, today was the day to see if all of that hard student work paid off with good presentations. All day today were presentations of one form or another; I served as the “outside” evaluator for one class. In this class there were eight groups with PowerPoints on various topics from the 80s. Remember, that was the common thread holding all this past week together. One group did a presentation on a Danish furniture company, a company that has a similar history to Wal-Mart – well, in its humble beginnings and owner’s philosophy at least. Another group discussed the creation and rise of a Danish chocolate milk drink called Cocio that is manufactured right here in Esbjerg. This group had free samples – I liked their presentation; it was tasty. All the groups in this class did very well. Their research was good, not to the level I am accustomed to with university students at the graduate level, but these are not university grad students. For their level they did alright. These in-class presentations were from the first year students, and they lasted until around noon. Around noon was the lunch break, which is a little later than usual, but this is an unusual week. But following lunch was a different type of presentations by the second year students. For this round these students set up booths in the gymnasium, where the assembly was held. They created representations of their chosen topics. And this was for prizes. One group set up a disco and the members were wearing disco-style clothing – things I had not seen in thirty years. These kids were really into the spirit of the afternoon. (By the way they won the competition.) Another group, all girls, set up a faux-sex shop, apparently something that immerged in Denmark in the 80’s. They were all dressed up as “window” girls, women who would stand in the windows and lure men in. This group also handed out free condoms. I have noticed that the Danes are very open, relaxed, and at peace with their sexuality.
Another group had set up a faux-Blockbuster video store and had movie posters from many of the box office hits of the 80s. They had free popcorn. All of the presentations were great; again, not to the level of what I expect from my students, but we are talking a different level of students here, a different goal with the research, and a different approach to the assignments. I was impressed, especially with the recreations of the second year students. They really got into the spirit of the projects. I think all of the teachers were impressed. I know I sure was. Following the demonstrations and the clean-up of the gym, the students quickly departed for their Potato Week break. Potato Week in Denmark goes back to the time before mechanized farming when potatoes (all crops for that matter) were harvested by hand. Of course all hands available were needed to harvest – including children. So about potato harvest time schools would take a week long break so the children could aid in the harvest. Well, when the harvesting became mechanized and the children were no longer needed for picking spuds, the Danes decided to keep the week as an Autumn Break. Schools still get out for a week, but now students run around, relax, play video games, or do whatever this age of Danish students on Potato Week break normally do.
The teachers, well they did what I think more of us at NSU should do – they socialized. They sat around in the teachers’ lounge area and talked; someone brought in some beers, and they – we – sat around, drank a few beers and just talked to one another. They talked about school and their students, of course, and not in a nasty way but a bragging way. They talked about sports. The weather. Politics. They asked me what I thought of Denmark so far. We discussed tribal politics, but someone quickly changed the topic back to the weather. Wait – that was me. They asked what I was going to do for Potato Week, and I told them of my loosely formulated plan to travel around Scandinavia. We had a good time just sitting and talking. Following about an hour of this I left to head to my house. Nothing spectacular once there, just sat and watched some German language TV and thought about what I would do during the coming week.
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