Tvind is the name of an international school centre in the small town of Ulfborg in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
, founded in 1970.
History
History began when a group of Danish intellectuals got together in the late 1960s with plans to form an experimental traveling folk high school. They wanted to gain knowledge about the third world and to find solutions to combat poverty.
Location of Tvind -
In 1972 a base was found in West Jutland on a plot of farming land called Tvind, where several schools were built as well as a teachers training college. All of the schools received public subsidies in accordance with the very liberal Danish law of education at the time.
Progression in the 1970s and 1980s -
The Tvind Corporation soon became a popular center for youth
counter cultureCounter Culture is a 2005 compilation double album by English folk/rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper featuring 25 classic Roy Harper songs, cherry picked according to his mood in April 2005. This collection spans 35 years of song writing and is intended as an introduction for anyone who's not sure...
in the 1970s and 1980s. They undertook social development projects in the third world and developed some groundbreaking social and environmental experiments. For example in the mid 1970s Tvind, in a massive collaboration effort with students and teachers, constructed what was then the world's largest electricity producing windmill on the school grounds.
Tvind schools began to emerge and in 1997 there were 32 schools allocated all over Denmark, including the teachers training college, traveling folk high schools, youth schools and schools for youngsters and adults with special educational needs. An estimated 40.000 children, youth and adults have attended the Tvind schools since the foundation first began in 1970.
The Teachers Group -
The Tvind schools were and still are run by the Teachers Group which is an international community that bases its principles along the lines of having a common economy, common time and common distribution (of what actual work position to take up). Since 1970 the Teachers Group has grown to have approximately 1000 members.
A global corporation -
Through out the years the Teachers Group has expanded, with its varied global activities and growing status, some people consider it to be a "modern global corporation." Others might argue that no articles of incorporation for a "Teachers Group" as such exist, and that the group could be more accurately described as a decentralized network of people organized around common goals.
The teachers group, now maintain to run a network of schools, industries and agricultural productions throughout the world, as well as collecting used garments from the public and selling them in Europe, South America and Africa. A large number of properties around the world have also been purchased by the members' joint savings.
Members of the Teachers Group also run a number of development aid projects in the Third World, through development aid organizations affiliated to the Humana People to People movement.
Humana People to People -
Humana People to PeopleDisclaimer: Humana people to people has come under intense scrutiny of its practices, which evidence supports that they are not really a charity and are manly for-profit...
was founded in 1977, inspired by the Teachers Group. The enthusiasm of the teachers that had traveled over the third world generated projects and actions to do more. They wanted to do more in the third world to raise the quality of life, to reach more people and to target fundamental issues to acquire humanizing conditions for people in need.
These factors are still in process today and there are now 35 national associations connected to the Humana People to People movement. The associations are working in 42 countries around the world, operating over 265 projects and involving more than 10 million people on a daily basis.
They are still expanding and strengthening each year and in 2007 the Humana movement started their first project in Latin America, headline being “Fight Poverty”.
Accusations of Crime
Starting in the late 1970's, negative media was linked to the Teachers Group. Some argue that they were due to a waning faith in socialism and scandals related to the radical pedagogic methods used by the Tvind teachers. Others would argue that the negative media attention has its roots in Danish domestic politics and profit motive to produce sensationalist journalism.
The Tvind schools were soon put under scrutiny and criticism. Not so long after all the bad press in the 70s, the founder of Tvind Mogens Amdi Petersen disappeared from the public eye.
Amdi Petersen was not seen until 2003 when he was arrested in the USA for charges of tax evasion presented by the Danish government.
In 1996 the Danish government passed a controversial law cutting government funding from a number of specific Tvind schools, However in 1999 this law was judged by the Danish Supreme Court as contradicting the Danish constitution.
In 2006, Mogens Amdi Petersen and other prominent members of the Teacher Group faced tax evasion and fraud charges in a Danish court.
On August 31, 2006, Mogens Amdi Petersen, Tvind spokesperson Poul Jørgensen, Kirsten Larsen, former Chairman for the Humanitære Fond Bodil Ross, Financial Director Malene Gunst, lawyer Christie Pipps and Ruth Sejerøe-Olsen were all acquitted of charges. Former Secretary in the "Humanitære Fond" Sten Byrner was found guilty on a lesser charge. He was given a one-year conditional sentence
[Fakta: Tvindsagen fra 2000 til 2009, by Soeren Munch, Jylland-posten, January 20,2009]. The public prosecutor appealed the verdict to a higher court. However this appeal is still pending due to Mogens Amdi Petersen and the other accused disappeared shortly after being acquitted at the lower court
[..]
In January 2009 Tvind spokesman Poul Jørgensen was found guilty of fraud, and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. He was said to have been responsible for money being diverted to private businesses, and not declared for tax purposes [ ][..]
As of January 2009 Petersen, Larsen and three senior Tvind members were wanted by InterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
, and their locations unknown.
Accusations of Cult Status
There have been accusations made by several commentators, defining Tvind as being a cult. A web page sponsored by the Rick RossRick Alan Ross works as a consultant, lecturer and "intervention specialist," with an interest in exit counseling or deprogramming people from cults. He runs a blog at CultNews.com and in 2003 founded the Rick A...
Institute has links to over fifty articles documenting [Tvind page at Rick A. Ross Institute] cult-like aspects of the Tvind movement.
List of Tvind Schools
- DRH Juelsminde, Denmark
- DRH Holstead, Denmark
- DRH South Sealand, Denmark
- DRH Bustrup, Denmark
- CICD, England
- One World Volunteer Institute, Norway
- CCTG, California, USA
- IICD, Massachusetts, USA
- IICD, Michigan, USA
- CID, St Vincent and the Grenadines
- KNEC, Durban, South Africa
- TCDG, Sikkim, India
- YID, Yunnan, China
Tvind websites
Criticism
- PlanetAid-Alert.org
- Humana Alert
- Material on Tvind collected by the Rick A. Ross
Rick Alan Ross works as a consultant, lecturer and "intervention specialist," with an interest in exit counseling or deprogramming people from cults. He runs a blog at CultNews.com and in 2003 founded the Rick A...
Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements
- Denmark's Tvind – a BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
programme featuring former members of the "Teachers' Group"
- Enigma of The Leader – a Guardian Unlimited
guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news...
article on the current Danish court case
- Behind The Green Box – a CBS5 article and news report on the friendly "Gaia" label bins that are soon to be banned...