School regulations 1792

On 9 March 1792, C. D. F. Reventlow finally received Christian VII's approval of the school regulations that he had prepared the year before. With the royal confirmation of the statutes for his schools, he was ready to implement his visions about the education of the rural communities' children.

The regulations did not just stipulate requirements on the interior design of the schools, maintenance of school roads, teachers' salaries and the content of the teaching; in the attached teachers' instructions, they also included comprehensive guidelines on how to conduct classes. C. D. F. Reventlow wanted schooling to be friendly and the pupils' attendance to be based on enjoyment rather than on sheer obligation. For this reason, the youngest pupils were not to be kept at the school for too long, and physical punishment was to me minimised. In order to gain the parents' support, the schoolyear was arranged to follow the agricultural working calendar with holidays when it was time to sow and harvest, and the extent of user payment was to be kept at a minimum. Education was to be for all, including the girls and the poor; only through a good intellect, a Christian heart and a healthy body would tomorrow's prosperity be guaranteed for the rural population and, in the end, for the Reventlow family and the Danish state.

The estate archives for Christianssæde, which are now found at the Reventlow Museum Pederstrup, still contain the handwritten school regulations from 1792 on which C. D. F. Reventlow procured the royal approval.