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.