Community Lifestyle

DNS · The Necessary Teacher Training College is a non-traditional boarding school with an international student body. At DNS, students and teachers study, travel, work, do sports, cook and share life together for the duration of the programme. DNS can thus be described as intentional community with an educational twist.

From the very first day of DNS in 1972, it has been a place where people were living together, sharing their traditions, views and opinions. Due to this mix of cultures and nationalities, the people at DNS have developed a unique place. The pioneering spirit of this unique education can easily be felt even today.

What does it mean?

Community life means the living and sharing life together.  It includes daily life, which includes preparing meals, cleaning, gardening and so on,  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 life. Each student has responsibilities, 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, and develop skills within this area.

Together we take care of cleaning common areas, recycling, repairing, study material and food shopping, helping the cook, gardening in the school’s organic farm and decide for 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 is the  part of what makes DNS Another Kind of School.

Develop your humanity by being practising it on the campus

DNS shares the Tvind campus with three care homes where humans shaped by different life stories live and grow. For the most part, these people struggle with some tough personal or developmental issues which prevents them from living independently. They need a stable and sheltered home space – and that is why they have their home in Tvind. The care homes have professional staff who are in charge of the individual development of each and every one of the residents at the care homes, but the students and teachers at DNS have always played an important part by practising their humanity at the campus.

This means creating a friendly atmosphere at the campus, where everyone is welcome. Especially people from the care homes, who sometimes cannot conceal their flaws. It means extending your humanity beyond your personal needs, and to share it with those who need it. It means being that special friend who is willing to take responsibility for the development of a friendship. It means playing sports together in the evenings. Or sharing important football moments in front of the television as a guest in one of the “villas”– aka the care homes. Or sharing a passion for chocolate cake, or donkeys, or making fantastic Instagram posts.

The DNS students play an important part in enriching and simply by being the best version of themselves – and in that process develop their personal skills, their communication skills, their interest in others, their HUMANITY, for the benefit of all. Including themselves, and their future students. It is a skill you will be able to use in almost any work place.

Power of community: If not us, then who?

While contributing in all of this,  the students realise how much they can reach together while tasks are shared between them. Another realisation is that “to make a difference” for real, is 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.