The Provincial Folk School in Finland. Indiana University Monograph Series in Adult Education, No. 3

Purpose, teaching program, teachers and principals, students, and school-state relations are various aspects of Finnish provincial folk high schools treated in this document which covers three major periods of development: 1889-1916; 1917-1939; 1946-1966. The schools focused on economics, vocation, retraining, patriotism, social preparedness, self-knowledge, self-improvement, and responsible citizenship. Although many of the programs of the early folk high schools were general, some concentrated on civic education--others on practical subjects. All periods showed a high percentage of Finnish-speaking participants, a smaller percentage of Swedish-speaking ones, and a representative number of teenagers; while the third period showed a decrease in the percentage of students from the agrarian population. It was only after 1925 that folk high school principals were required to have an M.A. degree, teacher training, and experience in teaching in the folk high school. State aid which was made statutory in 1926 absorbed 70% of the total cost by 1959. The folk academies were and have remained more theoretical and academic than the folk high schools. (A glossary of terms and an annotated bibliography are included). (nl)