{"id":24304,"date":"2019-09-15T12:43:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T16:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=24304"},"modified":"2019-09-13T10:02:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T14:02:24","slug":"danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/15\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish kids absent from school for a month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two youngest passengers on our Northwest Passage cruise were 13 and 15, public school students in Denmark. I asked the parents what kind of bureaucratic obstacles there had been to taking the kids out of school for a month. &#8220;None,&#8221; replied the dad. &#8220;The teacher said that they&#8217;ll probably learn more on this trip than in school.&#8221; Hurtigruten&#8217;s promise of working Internet on the <em>Roald Amundsen<\/em> did not materialize due to (a) limited satellite coverage, and (b) inability of the ship&#8217;s antennae to point low enough. Had the disconnected children experienced trouble in completing their assignments? &#8220;They weren&#8217;t given any,&#8221; said the father. &#8220;The curriculum in Denmark is standardized at the federal level, which can be great, but for children who are stronger than average academically it means they have no trouble catching up if they miss a month.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[I also learned from this family that Denmark has instituted a busing system for children of immigrants. If a born-in-Denmark child does not speak Danish well, he or she is bused away from the neighborhood school, which presumably will also contain a bunch of children who speak a non-Danish language, to a school full of Danes. Where are these folks from? &#8220;Syria, after four straight years as the biggest generator of asylum-seekers in Denmark, lost its crown to Eritrea last year, but this year it is back on course to generate the highest number. &#8230; Uffe \u00d8stergaard, a Danish university academic specialising in identity history who works for both Aarhus University and Copenhagen Business School, has suggested in a Politiken opinion piece that Europe should build a wall around its perimeter&#8230; &#8221; (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/cphpost.dk\/news\/international-round-up-syria-continues-to-supply-the-most-asylum-seekers.html\">CPH Post<\/a><\/em>)]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The two youngest passengers on our Northwest Passage cruise were 13 and 15, public school students in Denmark. I asked the parents what kind of bureaucratic obstacles there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,52,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-europe","category-travel-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Danish kids absent from school for a month - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/15\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Danish kids absent from school for a month - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The two youngest passengers on our Northwest Passage cruise were 13 and 15, public school students in Denmark. I asked the parents what kind of bureaucratic obstacles there [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/15\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-15T16:43:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"Danish kids absent from school for a month\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-15T16:43:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":278,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Education\",\"Europe\",\"Travel Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/\",\"name\":\"Danish kids absent from school for a month - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-15T16:43:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/15\\\/danish-kids-absent-from-school-for-a-month\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Danish kids absent from school for a month\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"description\":\"A posting every day; 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