Community Lifestyle at DNS

What is DNS?

DNS is a non-traditional boarding school with an international student body. At DNS, students and teachers study, travel, work, cook and share their lives together for the duration of the programme. DNS can thus be described as an intentional community with an educational twist.

From the very first day of DNS in 1972, Tvind has been a place where people were living together; sharing their time, resources and visions. Due to this mix of cultures and nationalities, the people at DNS have developed a unique environment. The pioneering spirit of this unique education can easily still be felt today.

What does Community Life mean to us?

Community life means living and sharing life together. It includes daily life like preparing meals, cleaning, gardening, studying together, gaining experiences – for example by travelling together, preparing for and passing exams, arranging major events such as Peace Justice Conference, or harvesting potatoes.

Responsibilities

Being a student in DNS, you are not only responsible for yourself, but also for the functioning of the community. Each student has responsibilities, such as for example organising “school management”, where all of us spend a morning together, doing maintenance on our buildings, mowing the lawns, polishing the windows or something else. Others are in charge of the income and expense economy of the team.

Together we take care of cleaning common areas, recycling, repairing, study material and food shopping, helping the cook, gardening in the school’s organic garden and deciding on improvements. And most of the responsibilities involve more than one person at a time.

The responsibility areas are discussed at common meetings and divided between the students. The students’ responsibilities with respect to the running of the school are part of what makes DNS Another Kind of School.

Power of community: If not us, then who?

While contributing to all of this, the students realise how much they can reach together while tasks are shared between them. Another realisation is that “making a difference” takes hard work. Things don’t happen unless someone decides to get them done. During the training at DNS, the students have the opportunity to practice how to bring about change, and to experience the power of community, by being part of an intentional community of shared values.