24 Months Book

One World
Institute Norway
Course Plan 2012 - 2015
Fighting with The Poor / Single B-certicate

24 months
+
OWU Licentiate Degree in Polyhistory
36 months

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WELCOME TO ONE WORLD INSTITUTE NORWAY
ONE WORLD INSTITUTE NORWAY
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1
Welcome to One World Institute Norway
By the headmasters, Gert Olsen and Sissel Skjennem
Page 5
2
Small Articles on Big Issues
From the teacher council
Page 11
3
The Programs and their Content Elements
The course plan 2012 to 2015
Fighting with The Poor / Single B-certicate / 24 months
OWU Licentiate Degree in Polyhistory / 36 months
Page 37
4
Appendix
Contact information
Other One World University partner schools
Page 61
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INTRODUCTION
by the headmasters, Gert Olsen and Sissel Skjennem
From the Teacher Council at One World Institute, we bid you a hearty welcome. We look
forward to spending the next two or three years together with you, carrying out programs full
of life-important subject matter and out-of-the ordinary methods, getting challenged on many
fronts, and learning and gaining much new knowledge, experience and wisdom, as well as a
host of useful skills.
We nd the life we live a precious one, our own as well as that of every person on Earth. A
human life is so full of possibilities and potential; for rich learning, cultural and artistic ex-
pression, beauty in so many aspects, interesting and inspiring relationships, inventiveness and
ingenuity, development and productivity together with others, living with and caring for our
planet with all its beings, dreaming dreams, creating visions, making it all happen and doing
the humble tasks of the everyday.
Being of such precious value, every life should be a good one, and all humans should have,
as their most basic human right, the chance to fulll their aspirations. But this is not how it is.
Extreme inequalities in the distribution of wealth mean that half of humankind is relegated to
the ranks of The Poor. For half of us, life is a daily struggle to make ends meet to cover the
bare necessities: getting sufcient and healthy food, having work and a place to live, getting
basic education for ones children, and living with and not dying from diseases that could
have been prevented.
At One World Institute in Norway, we have, since we started our training programs in 1978,
chosen as our main topic the conditions of people on Earth, especially those in the Third
World. We dig into the past to learn how history has shaped developments, we take stock of
where we stand in our present time, and we dare to state our expectations for the future and
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be our part of shaping it. We are all part of and stand in a personal relationship to these ques-
tions. This makes the content of the programs a very important matter both for participants
and teachers.
At One World Institute, we invite you to study about, learn, understand and act upon the main
contradictions in the world today, and investigate and take a stand to how you can act for the
good of the many. The world needs people who will take action, show examples and make
way for intercultural cooperation and values that others can follow, and which have a decisive
impact for the benet of The Poor. It is not just about helping someone. It is about joining
peoples struggle for a better life. Through practical action, you gain an understanding of and
a deep respect for other people, and you come to take a stand against narrow-mindedness,
inequality and poverty.
The training at One World Institute is based upon the dialectics of theory and practice. We
want to get close to what we are learning about. We use the real world as our classroom, and
we seek out the people who live in the middle of the issues to be our teachers. Thus, we study
from reality as well as from theory. What we learn, we teach to others, sticking our necks out,
trying out our conclusions, and in this way learning the subject matter again, but on a new
level. From learning, we take action. A basic question in any training is the relationship of the
trained person to the people he is to work among and the society within which he is to work.
The training therefore has a practical approach.
You will learn through studies and practice what works and what does not work in the process
of producing development and ghting with The Poor. The actual and practical participation
in changing the world together with other people is demanding, but through it, you make a
decisive impact and furthermore, it places you in an optimal learning situation.
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Producing development is a collective process. Thus, the training challenges the culture of
individualism that most of us have been brought up with. This naturally creates conicts,
and most people have little or no training in formulating and solving conicts together. So
within the training, we utilize the situations that arise to train cooperation and conict resolu-
tion, how to take responsibility for each other and how to work in a collective setting towards
achieving common goals. Cooperation is not a technical matter. If you do not invest your en-
gagement and act with responsibility, you will not benet from it. But if you do, you will not
only develop a strong comradeship with your teammates and teachers, you will also acquire
foundational skills in cooperating and working with others that will be useful to you for the
rest of your life, wherever you are and whatever you do.
At One World Institute, we also invite you to take part in a pioneering venture in a eld of
study which is at the same time ancient and highly modern that of Polyhistory, carried out
in cooperation with One World University in Mozambique.
The modern-day polyhistor is not one who, like the polyhistors of old, has read all the books
in the world. But she is no less a diligent professional. In our denition, she is someone who
knows something about almost everything. She is a very broad-footed person who can make
connections and nd solutions across traditional intellectual divides, and who will further-
more act upon her ndings. The modern-day polyhistor is needed in todays world to take part
in solving the complex problems facing humanity, by keeping an overview and being able,
through a very broadly based knowledge, to straddle seemingly unconnected elds of learning
to seek solutions to problems that the specialists, because of their relatively narrow eld of
knowledge, do not have a broad enough perspective to solve.
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Dear You.
Whether you are joining a team Fighting with The Poor, or the three year OWU Licentiate
Degree program, you are in for a busy time with many challenges, studies, practical work,
travels, discussions, comradeship and collective living, twenty-four seven. You will grapple
with dening issues of our time. Throughout the program, you will be mobile and on the
move, changing your location and what you are doing according to the necessities within
the elements of the program: Studying, presenting and debating life-important issues at the
school; going for investigations around Europe, travelling on the cheap; on to fundraising ac-
tions on the streets of large cities, or emptying clothes collection containers, or talking with
prospective new site hosts to expand the collection; returning back to the school, concluding
and producing products; going skiing or hiking in the high mountains in the pristine nature
around the school; cooking, cleaning and shoveling snow; producing the plan for the next
period and nding consensus about it; on the move again, this time on tour, presenting, speak-
ing, broadcasting in TV and radio, holding public debates and teaching in school classes; then
travelling the world, investigating, meeting, travelling more, and going on new investigations;
arriving at the destination in Africa or India, ghting with The Poor; returning to the school,
producing products for the Public Arena, and then going on tour again with new perspectives
and important messages.
Throughout the program, you will move as a human being, both as an individual and as your
part of the collective of students and teachers. It will not be easy going, but you probably
guessed that already. We invite you to go together with us and pull it off.
See you at One World Institute in Norway!
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11
SMALL ARTICLES ON BIG ISSUES
O
n teaching and learning
The schools learning and teaching is a rare bird and denite-
ly out of the ordinary. It has each student and the student body in
the middle of everything and playing the leading part.
This is deepened through a collectively based organization of the
schools program. The content and methods used within teaching
and learning demand that all, students and teachers alike, act to-
gether both theoretically and practically within the program top-
ics and their elements of life and learning, as well as within all matters of running the school
and its everyday.
A
sprightly program and personnel
The schools teaching and learning processes are character-
ized by being tted into a rich, consuming and consummate pro-
gram that is sprayed with highlights, efforts and results.
The headmaster and the teachers of the school represent no ten-
dencies to be average, boring or act as teachers frequently do in
schools around the world, lecturing, writing on the blackboard
and asking the students to repeat what they learned from a book
or from writing down in their notebooks, or other dusty ways of acting traditionally within
teaching and learning. Quite on the contrary, the schools personnel takes on many efforts to
create and involve the students in engaged and relevant learning processes.
A
ll fully engaged
Thus, and contrary to tradition within schools worldwide,
the teachers of this school are fully engaged in all the schools
matters and activities and work in close cooperation with the stu-
dents.
In sum and essence, this means that the school is operated and
shaped by all the people acting within a collectively functioning
unity, be they headmaster, teacher or participant.
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A
n atmosphere with a vengeance
All this makes for an alert and rich inter-human atmosphere
at the school, where teaching and learning takes place and is forti-
ed and inspired through group meetings and common meetings,
where all aspects of life at the school are treated and new learning
topics are debated and crafted.
Thus, the process of following the program and beneting from
it is frequently treated in the working groups and among all at the
school, so the quality of the learning is constantly on the move forward.
P
edagogical principles proling the school
Within the program, some necessary demands of relevant content and lucid methods are
included and must be satised in order to fulll the expectations
of the program. Also, the program has a certain physical frame-
work that is a part of making it possible.
In this connection, we shall clarify in brief the pedagogical prin-
ciples that lie at the heart of the school and run through its ev-
eryday of learning and teaching, making it all worthwhile for stu-
dents and teachers alike.
1. Both theoretical and practical studies
The schools learning processes comprise both theoretical and practical studies, as the
school sees this as an absolute necessity for the process of learning and as a rst precondi-
tion for beneting from the schools program.
2. A high degree of reality
The higher the degree of reality of the program, the more is
learned, meaning that old and ordinary stuff might be thrown
away and substituted with new ways of learning on the spot
from meeting people and environments.
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3. Coherence and overview
The more coherence is present in the schools teaching, learn-
ing and everyday, the more overview and understanding is
generated within the individual, the student body and in the
results of the learning.
4. The program generates motivation
Motivation is a structural part of the schools everyday that lets you take in new stuff, try
out and experiment with energy and a light head, processing attitudes and sharing exciting
tidbits of all kinds with your teammates.
5. Immersion and work
Immersion in your program activities will make you demand
more immersion and deeper learning, and working to make
it all happen demands ever more work with the effect of get-
ting deeper into the stuff and the processes.
6. Self-determination
The background of self-determination is the experience of a group of people who want
to solve a task together, and its result is democratic sympathy and creation of own ideas
for the good of personal equanimity and the function of the group.
7. The collective is the partner of aloneness
Collectiveness is a core element of the school. In our edition, collectiveness is not a mod-
ern, smart form of behavior that will quickly go away. We seek it not because we might as
well do so, but because we cannot do without it.
8. Liberation through coherence of conception and action
In the schools structure and program, you nd a thousand possibilities of practicing the
direct path from imagination to action through dialectical processes where imagination is
a main precondition for new action.
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9. Mobility is a precondition for learning much
In all schools, students of any age must move beyond the
premises of the school, meeting real life and people, getting
engaged through moving and interacting with the phenom-
ena and reality of environment and people.
10. Practice and theory, experience and awareness
Knowledge is a precondition for experience. This demands that the teacher is integrated
in the teaching and learning processes. Learning of a subject matter cannot be separated
from the conditions in which it takes place.
C
ommon meetings
It is the Common Meeting that governs the school. Com-
mon meetings are used for discussing and working out the de-
tailed contents of the program elements and the particular meth-
ods with which to get the most out of the topics and actions.
This secures that the program is continually realized and brought
further within and among the students, and also serves to assist
and bring along those of the students or groups who need good
advice or comments to their work.
The schools Common Meeting unites everyone, with the headmaster in the lead and with all
teachers and students participating. The meeting treats many issues of the school and is part
of planning the process, courses and results of the learning and teaching, as well as the daily
life of the school and the immediate future to look forward to.
Meeting points also comprise the different lines of necessary and instructive practical work to
be done, so everything functions to standard. Such tasks must be performed to a high level of
quality, so the vivid training at school is supplemented by attaining a thorough level of quality
in the everyday life while moving through the program.
A
new way of learning called DmM
Here, we shall acquaint you with a modern way of learning, called DmM from its original
Danish abbreviation, which shall also be its name for this purpose.
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The DmM system was created in 1995 by a larger conglomerate
of teachers who had been working together for a long time, and
who still uphold this cooperation.
The DmM system radically changes the distribution and type of
work that is allocated to the teacher and to the student respec-
tively and, what is more, it changes and improves the students
ability and potential to learn and work, both independently and
collectively.
In the old and tedious school that we all know, the teacher has the knowledge and the patent,
the initiative so to say, of the learning processes, and the teacher is the one who knows and
directs all matters that are studied in school, according to the curriculum of the specic train-
ing institution.
With DmM, this is history!
DmM is a digitally based system that builds on each student hav-
ing access to a computer that is connected to the schools digital
library, where all the varied and rich contents of the three learn-
ing categories of Studies, Courses and Experiences are located.
Thus, the digital library holds the content of all the varied subject
matters that the students will study and is always available to all.
The DmM categories of learning are in short: Studies, Courses and Experiences.
* Study tasks are furnished with a short title that in few words nails down what the piece of
learning is about.
The study tasks take up half of the school time and are chosen and solved by each student
through own choice, with all tasks being forwarded to the teacher,
who will certify, add to and in general comment the nished tasks.
* Courses make up a quarter of the school time. Here, the teach-
er is the host and performer and is obliged to deliver extraordi-
nary, interesting and solid teaching that engages and enlivens the
students through many methods.
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* Experiences make up the last quarter of the time, in which
the students either dive into already suggested experiences that
are available from the database or invent their own experiences,
which are elaborated in writing and treated or commented by the
teacher. The experiences let the students into an abundance of
impressions, feelings, experiments and new knowledge, with stu-
dents designing and concluding in writing or in other ways.
O
ur kind of teacher
The teachers of the school will teach you throughout. They are, apart from supporting
and elaborating the subject matter that the students will work with and pick up during their
time at school, also closely connected to and spearheading the schools program and teaching
efforts.
As a teacher, you must act as a main and stabilizing light for the students, a human gure who
beams out condence and demands within all spheres of the schools activities: The teach-
ing of the subjects, the welfare and progress of each student, the plans for the instruction at
all levels, and the overall and detailed plans for the whole time period at school, so it can be
overviewed and crafted in many and vivid details within each of
the periods at all the schools courses.
And mark thee, never launch the same plan from one school year
to the next! Each new year merits a specic and novel plan, which
may still build on some of the former elements, but must be ar-
ranged and glide over the scene in new ways and settings around
the program elements, thus adding not only to the efforts and
results of the students but also to the inspiration of the teachers, who must renew the instruc-
tion and are thus also challenged and inspired in own right.
The plans must be so good and hold so much quality and attraction that all at the school, stu-
dents, teachers, as well as the headmaster, will come to look forward to what is ahead.

O
f a varied ilk
The teachers of the school are of a varied ilk. All are trained and skilled in personally
practicing a full to the brim collectively based school life that encompasses everyone and
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spreads a well-intentioned, welcoming and productive school life and, not least, a forthcoming
atmosphere within all the activities of learning, working and playing.
T
he teacher council as a collective
The schools teachers constitute a Teacher Council that col-
lectively cares for all the schools affairs, and which is responsible
for the core value of the training. The schools teachers are a
united group, and are personally skilled in leading and practicing
a lively and collectively based school life, spreading a welcoming
and energetic atmosphere around the elements of learning and
teaching and the many other spheres of the school and its every-
day.
In a world with new multitudes of people, with increasing levels of complexity and new
calamities by the day, the teachers have to constantly train themselves in new stuff, sticking
together and working in unison to organize and improve the quality and achievements of the
schools content and methods and the students benet from the training.
T
he students also form a collective
Also you, who opt to become student at the school, will be-
long and work in groups with your fellow students and teachers
within the program and in the everyday. This means that you will
get to know each other well and get ever closer to each other
while sharing and assisting each other in the learning, the life pro-
cesses and the practical tasks that unfold at the school.
E
vents for people around the school
The Teacher Council represents liveliness in the everyday and within the ways and means
of the training, also beyond the school proper. As an example, people living around the school
are often invited to participate in courses, debates, or other gatherings, not only to learn, but
also to teach, for example as examiners at Peoples Exams.
The Teacher Council will also take upon itself to, together with the students, arrange cheerful
events for neighbors and other, who thus get to know more about the schools programs, daily
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life and ethics. They will also lead and take part in actions and community work, securing that
the undertakings make a difference for the life of the people in the area.
T
aking charge of your own instruction
You who enroll as students at the school are the most impor-
tant human force to secure the progress of the program with its
theoretical and practical undertakings, and to make sure, together
with your team, that you get as much as you can from the content
and benet fully from living and working within a larger group of
people, enjoying shared tasks and experiences.
You, the students, are supposed to take charge of your own instruction, and you will come to
regard this as a foundational value that might well take on existential signicance.
L
earning from many aspects
At this school, you will nd that learning is not rst and foremost about listening to
the teacher, although you, as a student, will in many instances be listening intensely to the
teacher.
The schools program consists of a range of intense and spirited
activities that constitute the sum of learning and life processes
carried through by a group of people who for a considerable pe-
riod of time share a program with each other that demands coop-
eration and efforts, and which at the same time is sprinkled with
elements that are inspiring and also quite out of the ordinary.
Thus, learning will also take place through communication, delib-
erations, through working out your plan for learning and sticking to it, and putting to use what
you learned, the methods you used, the ideas you got from it and the results you harvested
from the training.
Q
ualifying the core production together
A school is not a mechanical operation, but a place for people to grow more knowledge-
able, skilled and serious, understand the world and its beings and get an inkling of its future,
learning to do much and going for more than anticipated, with both brains, minds and hands.
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Teachers are primed and trained with help from their teaching
colleagues and the headmaster, and most importantly, when it
comes down to it, will come to learn most of what they need
through own practice and efforts.
From this vantage point, the teacher is his or her own part of
founding the skills of the students and their ability to act with
sense and seriousness in what lies ahead.
The Teacher Council must act together and passionately like a brain trust, and must perceive
itself as the schools trouble-shooter. It is of strategic importance for the school to build
and renew itself continuously in the everyday, and permanently protect and develop its work
and operation with determination and with ever new creations and ideas, acting in new ways
when handling the general welfare of the students, the everyday, the teaching and learning, the
schools many activities, and the ways to serve the values of the future.
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hours, 7 days a week
Importantly, the school is a boarding school. This lets
the school entail and promote a rich panoply of many aspects
of learning and working together, theoretical as well as practical,
thus in sum constituting a broad and exacting experience for you
to carry on and take with you during your next challenges in life.
Apart from the daily day training and learning activities within the schools program, many
other, colorful and diverse activities will take place while you are in residence at the school.
Frankly speaking, you are in for a learning experience with a high yield, reading and under-
standing books, preparing for what the next period will bring, discussing and debating the big
issues of our time and world and the future of humanity, going on travels and investigations,
alternating between working in your own company and in your
groups, and working with the practical and encouraging endeavors
of running all the schools daily affairs and its shared boarding
life and facilities: tending the garden farm, renovating the kitchen,
crafting the menus for the next month, enjoying nature, discuss-
ing own future, doing sports together and many more intensely
interesting topics and matters to treat and get hold of.
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You will no doubt benet from these and many more aspects
of the schools environment and activities. The panoply of ac-
cessories to the schools solid training and life will add to and
further enhance your interest, results and the human quality built
up through the program and the shared life.
A
school that does more
This school does much more than what traditionally takes place in most schools fre-
quented by children, teenagers and adults around the world.
One reason for this is that the vast majority of schools worldwide are day schools, with the
students frequenting school during a limited chunk of the day, while passing the main part
of the day within a family environment or other pastime that seldom makes for an inspiring
atmosphere of learning.
U
ntraditional program elements
As you can read in this book, the schools programs are un-
traditional and at times even amazing. What is more, they are also
demanding and taxing and lets you do much work. From this, it
follows that you who enroll in the schools teams may become
interested in joining the schools work, because its programs and
ways are beyond what is most often on offer and how schooling
frequently unfolds for many people.
L
ooking for something extraordinary
The students, teachers and others involved in and around the school are, on purpose and
by design, living together under conditions that allow for many angles and aspects of sharing,
enjoying and challenging life together within its multiple, and even existential, shades.
The boarding life is shared within a main and variable context and program, to which those
who enroll are attracted, and within which they have decided to do their part when enrolling
at the school, thus bringing together a solid, engaged and differentiated group of people from
all walks of life.
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S
eeking broadness and getting much out of life
To join the school and get much out of it, the students must
deliberately want to be part of carrying out the program content
and sharing the everyday with the others with all what it takes:
Taking on unknown and unfathomed challenges, doing what you
never imagined in life and school, learning with zest and high ef-
ciency, doing good for yourself and your teammates, going for
gold as to life, comradeship and human qualities, entering deeply
into how mankind stands with the global conditions and the future of the 21st century, in-
structing and teaching in far-away lands, practicing humanity on a broad level and representing
an eagerness to nd reliable human company, maybe even picking up qualities and friends for
future activities and thus improving the prospects of life considerably.
T
he students are the main actors
At this school, learning is arranged to be captained by the
students themselves and not rst and foremost by the teachers,
although they, of course, also do their magic of teaching within
the program.
But the teaching and the everyday matters of life at the school are
rst and foremost decided and run by the student body, with the
support and rich experiences of the headmaster, teachers, guest
instructors and other employees.
M
any ways of living and learning
Below, we shall in very short terms point to and shine
a light on a great many activities that, according to the specic
people and teams at the school, form part of the schools con-
crete life and learning. They are accessible for students one by
one and all together and are crafted so as to add color and zest to
the everyday of it all.
In other words, you have enrolled to fulll a specic program, but
within the program, there is time available to ll up with values invented in the process.
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A
cavalcade of elements from school life
* Enjoying and being part of a collective life
* Taking hikes in the schools surroundings
* Hosting evening programs of quality
* Delighting in cooking healthy and tasty food
* Enjoying the headmasters morning assemblies
* Tending the schools garden farm enjoying the work and company
* Visiting, talking and getting close to the lives of The Poor
* Working to upgrade and beautify the premises of the school
* Taking part in running the schools affairs in well organized ways
* Inviting neighbors to Open Days with exquisite and fun programs
* Arranging Olympic Games and competing in sports
* Learning to raise tuition money and gaining from the skill
* Receiving guests at the school from many countries
* Learning a new language
* Enjoying green hour actions to harvest ecological greens
* Producing your own healthy snacks
* Discussing habits and transforming them to a higher level
* Forming evening clubs at the school in wished for activities
* Using a day to survive in nature
* Raising values in kind for a good purpose
* Agitating for the schools next teams in many and illustrious ways
* Hitch-hiking and speaking to those giving you a ride
* Using a whole weekend to beautify your school and have fun
* Learning about personal health and good habits of life and for life
* Inviting neighbors or other schools for an orienteering run
* Arranging tournaments and competitions of different kinds
* Trying out on-the-job training that is useful for you
* Going through Peoples Exams with high marks showing your results
* Producing tasks, studies and courses for the DmM digital learning system
* Choosing to investigate a specic topic and acting on the result
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* Forming a school choir or orchestra performing for others
* Arranging a secret weekend
* Singing, singing, singing together inviting Bob Dylan?
* Learning to paint big pictures to be used as decoration
* Visiting active artists in the surroundings to learn from
* Making a dancing club enjoying the beat
* Crafting and carrying out a street performance
* Discussing the schools material standard in order to improve it
* Getting hold of vast and impressive nature experiences
* Taking a drivers license to learn and be certied as a bus driver
* Establishing animal husbandry at the school or for neigh-
bors
* Refreshing and intensifying the schools security readiness
* Inviting friends and relatives of the students and teachers
* Starting up and beaming out a radio station with choice
stuff
* Writing a book, solving how to publish and spread it around
* Insisting on always crafting concrete results from your learning
* Insisting on the headmaster holding morning assemblies for all at school
* Delighting in serving your co-students with sound and needed advice
* Understanding the crucial link between practice, theory and practice again
* Securing that the common meeting has a grip on the schools economy
W
ho will teach?
The programs at One World Institute in Norway demand out-of-the ordinary teach-
ers. The schools teachers have a wide range of experiences and
knowledge from travelling and working in many different coun-
tries. They are a diverse bunch, of different ages and nationali-
ties.
The teachers at One World Institute have as their biggest passion
to create a life changing and high quality program, teaching and
training adults to make a difference in the world. You will nd the
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teachers living at the institute and engaged in every aspect of the
school and the program.
You will nd them active in their teaching and leadership tasks,
performing these, together with the students, with their founda-
tion rmly rooted in the program, in the Teacher Council as a col-
lective force and as their part of the institution of the Common
Meeting, the schools governing body. Thus, you will nd your
teachers learning as well as teaching, listening as well as speaking, making investigations, digging
deeper, taking action and speaking out, forging their singular part in the sum of collective pro-
cesses of learning and action that make up the journey through the elements of the program.
Apart from leading the programs, the Teacher Council is also in
charge of operating two productive units collecting second-hand
clothes and shoes in Norway and Sweden, in cooperation with
Development Aid from People to People Norway and Humana
Sweden, respectively.
The Teacher Council welcomes you. Expect us to throw in our
lot with you and your teammates. Expect us to demand much, from you as well as from our-
selves. Expect comradeship and straight talk, and doing it over if it was too sloppy the rst
time around. Expect cooperation. Expect lots of fun and seriousness. Expect politics in the
broadest sense of the word. Expect to roll up your sleeves for practical work and theoretical
study. We look forward to our coming ventures and adventures together!
T
he schools own production
Production is a core activity of humankind. Throughout our lives, we spend most of our
time producing something in order to earn a living. Production is
the basis for a society to survive, and if it is to thrive and develop,
that society must produce a surplus.
At the foundation of any productive unit lies its production.
What kind of product shall it produce? Who will pay for it? What
is its purpose? What are the politics of it? What values does the
product represent? Who shall benet?
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Following that, how shall the productive unit actually earn the
money it needs to cover its expenses? And what will it take to
earn a surplus, which not only allows for feeding, clothing and
housing those who produce, but also allows for expansion and
development?
At One World Institute, the course programs constitute the main
production, but within the frame of these programs, we are con-
tinuously producing a range of different and very interesting products. Here are some ex-
amples:
* Making reports, presentations, radio broadcasts, documentaries, and other products for
the Public Arena
* Teaching people of all ages
* Improving buildings
* Growing vegetables
* Cooking delicious and healthy meals
* Fighting with The Poor
* Building muscles, stamina and new brain connections
* Improving health
* Gaining knowledge and insight
* Acquiring wisdom
* Getting new ideas
* Building comradeship
* Earning money through fundraising and creating values through practical work
* Collecting second-hand clothes
As a student at the school, you will together with the teachers be involved in carrying out
all these productions.
T
he economy at One World Institute
One World Institute is a non-prot organization. As a private independent entity, the
school raises its own funds through tuition fees, as well as through some fundraising activities.
We save money and keep tuition fees low by not having practical staff employed. Instead, we
run the school together, students and teachers, from cooking, cleaning, maintenance and food
26
production, to organization and planning. In this way, everyone
learns a variety of different skills by taking on the many practical
and organizational tasks involved in running a productive unit.
The teams manage their own economy and budget, keeping track
of and taking decisions on what to spend for the program, ma-
terials, food, transport and travel, in addition to the xed amount
for running the institution.
H
ow do I pay for my course?
When you enroll for a course, you pay a non-refundable enrollment fee. Before you start
on the course, you pay a tuition fee. The enrollment fee and the tuition fee together cover a
part of the expenses for the course.
You will cover the remaining expenses in several ways, depending on which course you enroll
for:
Collecting second-hand clothes and packing them for export.
Fundraising on the streets.
Finding jobs in the Norwegian labor market during saving-up or work periods.
Raising funds as an integral part of the course will teach you to take charge, plan, and orga-
nize, go for a goal and succeed, stick together in the team, and have stamina and be productive
while doing physical or other work.
Moreover, it means that you do not accumulate debt during the course.
Each team will have a common fundraising goal, giving you the challenging but rewarding task
of sticking together to reach the goal and taking the necessary decisions and discussions about
how you will do it and how everyone can contribute in the best way.
The teams may also decide to have common economy throughout
the course, sharing the responsibility for income and expenses.
The amount of the tuition fee will vary, depending on the length
and type of the course you are joining and which year you plan to
start. When you contact us about enrolling for a course, we will
go through the detailed economy with you and answer any ques-
tions you may have. You do not have to be rich to join a course
27
at One World Institute, and we have many experiences in how students can earn and save up
to pay the tuition fee.
T
he life of the school
The campus at One World Institute is characterized rst and
foremost by the programs that the teachers and students at all
times are in the middle of carrying out. The program and the way
you plan within it denes what is taking place during any given
day: The planning, the preparations, carrying it out, the mistakes,
the discussions, the obstacles, the personal and collective barriers
you overcome; the people you meet; the products you produce;
what you learn from it all; the successes and failures; using what you gained to build on in the
new period, and looking ahead to what comes next. So the dynamics of the programs consti-
tute a main artery in the life of the school.
The Teacher Council constitutes another. The teachers represent
the continuity of the school and its idea, its Charter and its peda-
gogy. The headmaster and teachers have the task of bringing the
best experiences forward from one team to the next, and they
will also instigate changes and call for turning things upside down
when needed. The schools headmaster and teachers moreover
exchange experiences and ideas and develop programs in a lively
cooperation with other schools around the world that practice the same pedagogy and carry
out similar programs to those described in this book.
A third artery is the daily running of the school with all its many elements. At One World
Institute, all teachers and students live at the school and run the school together, twenty-four
seven, and this fact alone makes for an out-of-the-ordinary cam-
pus, as well as an excellent training ground for practical, organiza-
tional and comradeship skills and collective living.
When we say that we run the school together, we mean it quite
literally. From handling the economy, doing the administration,
enrolling the students for the next team, producing our own
food, taking care of guests, to maintaining and beautifying the
28
buildings, planning the next period, cooking and cleaning, and
devising the menu plan, we simply do it all together, students and
teachers, organizing and reorganizing ourselves according to how
we nd it best tting to the program and to the things that have
to be done.
You will also nd many traditions at the school. The best of them
have lasting value, such as Building Weekends, Open Sundays and
the weekly common action, where we do larger practical tasks such as expanding the Garden
Farm, deep-cleaning the school, uniting for an action to inform about the program and enroll
participants for the next team, or maintaining needed areas of the school buildings. On your
team, you will be your part of making new traditions, adding to the avour and bounty of the
school life.
P
reparatory meetings
The discussions about how you will carry through your pro-
gram starts with one or more preparatory meetings. A prepara-
tory meeting typically lasts a whole weekend. If possible, it is
held at the school itself, and if that is not practicable, at a location
convenient for the enrolled participants. If it is not possible to
meet physically, online meetings can be held.
The purpose of the preparatory meeting is partly for you to ac-
quaint yourself thoroughly with the program, and partly to get started with the planning and
preparations together with your fellow students and your teacher.
Examples of the points on the agenda of the preparatory meeting are:
Telling each other about who you are, getting to know your teammates.
Going deep into the program to understand the idea of each period and know the content
and methods.
Expressing your anticipation to the program, with its demands and possibilities.
Taking decisions on the team economy.
Making the team budget.
Making a list of practical preparations that need to be done, and doing them.
Taking a stand to the frames of the school.
29
T
he frames of the school
In order to ensure the best possible conditions for the programs at One World Institute,
the Teacher Council has from the start set frames regarding alcohol and drug use while in the
program:
1. Nobody who participates in a course can take alcohol while carrying out the program.
This also applies when travelling to or from home travel.
2. Nobody who participates in a course can be involved with euphoriant or narcotic sub-
stances. This applies whether you are at school, travelling, on home travel, or in Africa or
India during travel and work periods. In short, it applies all the time.
3. Former drug users must have been free of heavy drugs for a minimum of 18 months
before the course starts.
*
A participant who does not comply with the drug and alcohol frame is not longer on
the course.
*
The main arguments for this decision are:
Re. 1) and 2) Learning about and investigating the present-day reality is both physically and
mentally demanding, and so is taking action as a consequence hereof. Drugs and alcohol will
be a hindrance to the implementation of the program and an impediment to the social life
and comradeship between people during the course. Moreover, the program takes place in
countries with severe punishments for possession of drugs, and the projects where you will
work in Africa or India have strict rules against alcohol or drugs.
Re. 3) The experiences of the school and its participants have shown that students who have
been drug addicts have the best possibilities of completing the course to their full benet
when they have been free of drugs for a longer duration before the course.
T
he place and the buildings
One World Institute is situated in the yer mountains in
Gudbrandsdalen in Norway, 36 km northeast of the small town
of Lillehammer. Here, the Institute rents facilities from Horn-
sj Hyfjellshotell and shares the environment with the staff and
guests at the hotel.
30
The schools accommodation area is separate from the hotels
accommodation, and consists of mostly double rooms, all with
bathrooms. The training facilities consist of two large and several
smaller classrooms and a combined library and common room.
The Institute shares its dining room with the hotel staff, and the
kitchen produces food for both hotel guests, staff, students and
teachers.
The facility at Hornsj has an indoor swimming pool and saunas, a gym and table tennis. For
outdoor activities we have canoes, some bicycles, equipment for football and land hockey, and
skis for cross country and downhill skiing in winter. Hornsj lies in the midst of mountains
and forests in the Norwegian wilderness. It is magnicent for hiking, skiing, bicycling and run-
ning, including going on survival trips for several days with simple tents and sleeping bags.
T
he school and its surroundings
One World Institute started its activities in September 1978
under the name of Den reisende Folkehgskole the Travelling
Folk High School. During the rst years, in which the school was
recognized as a 4-year experimental project supported by the Min-
istry of Education in Norway, the programs consisted of travel
courses to Africa and Asia, and later to Southeast Asia and North
and South America.
From 1983, the school no longer received nancial support from the state, and the students
and teachers have since relied entirely on their own efforts to nance the programs. Common
fundraising periods taking jobs in the labor market or raising funds on the streets in Scan-
dinavian cities became a part of the programs. At this point, the school also moved to its
current location at Hornsj.
Since then, the institute has trained thousands of Development Instructors working at Huma-
na People to People projects, ghting with The Poor in Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola and Guinea Bissau as well as India and Central Amer-
ica. During the 1980s and most of the 1990s, the teams traveled and worked together in bri-
gades, each group focusing on either literacy campaigns, tree planting or health and sanitation.
All the work was carried out in cooperation with Humana People to People projects. During
31
the 1990s, the focus changed from campaigns to permanent proj-
ects, focusing on a wide array of development issues based on a
commitment for long term involvement. Thus, the participating
students got individual positions at development projects, work-
ing directly under the project leadership. Today, Development
Instructors are organized in Trios, each Trio working together at
one project or at a National Headquarters.
The Development Instructors have worked as teachers at the DNS teacher training colleges
and as Special Forces in TCE Total Control of the Epidemic ghting HIV/ AIDS. They
have worked in Farmers Clubs, Child Aid projects, Childrens Towns, vocational schools and
in the clothes and shoes sales that raise money for the projects in the countries.
Another important part of the programs at One World Institute is to bring the knowledge
and understanding we gain to the Public Arena: giving presentations, going out on the streets
with events and exhibitions, visiting universities and schools to talk about and debate the big
issues of today and how we want to create the future, broadcasting radio programs, producing
video lms, writing news articles, teaching young and old in a variety of ways, and listening
and learning from their point of view. We also take part in job fairs and festivals where we do
information and agitation work to enroll participants for the next teams.
A very special thing about life at One World Institute is its re-
markable setting in the highlands of Norway, just on the border-
line between two ecological systems, the forest and the mountain.
This gives us a rich and varied nature to enjoy all year round,
covered in snow and ice or rushing through the short, but intense
seasons of spring, summer and autumn: from light green to deep
green and then yellow, red and purple, and from almost no day-
light in winter to no nights at all in June and July. We belong to nature and love our neighbors,
the ora and fauna, and enjoy the freedom of ample space and deep silence.
Another feature of school life is our coexistence with Hornsj Hyfjellshotell and its guests,
providing an arena for interaction in many different situations such as guiding tours, entertain-
ing with cultural events, arranging games and competitions, telling about the schools activities
in different ways, holding presentations about big issues of our time and about our travel and
work, talking, discussing and getting to know some of the guests.
32
Another special event at One World Institute is Building Week-
ends, which we hold each month. The whole school gets together
and takes on a project to improve the buildings or grounds. This
is an opportunity to get big things done that the daily program
does not allow for, an opportunity to learn to lead and organize
many people around a project task, a time to get together in ac-
tion. It is a way to keep costs down, secure the necessary main-
tenance of the place, and learn more about production, productivity and quality. And a great
satisfaction to enjoy the improvements afterwards.
S
ports
Whatever your tness level when you arrive at One World Institute, you can look forward
to improving your health, strength and stamina and getting t for
ght by enjoying sports and exercise of different kinds, individu-
ally and with your teammates. Living in the midst of spectacular
nature, we naturally favor the outdoors: skiing, running, bicycling,
walking and hiking, orienteering, canoeing on the lake, or playing
football and afterwards it is good to get back indoors and warm
up in the sauna and swimming pool!
F
ood production
With soaring food costs, one billion people going hungry every day, fast food and junk
food causing malnutrition, obesity and health problems, food production based on fossil
fuels contributing to global warming and climate change with all these problems and more,
the question of how to produce and supply healthy food for all is a burning issue of our
time.
At One World Institute you will be involved in food production
on several levels and from different perspectives. You will study
the issues globally and locally, getting the facts and investigating
the consequences for ordinary people. What is the cause of the
obesity epidemic in the western world, and why is the food we buy
in supermarkets unhealthy and decient in nutrients? What does
33
it mean when giant corporations control food production with
prot as their only goal? While working in the schools garden
farm, you will also learn how to plan and start garden farms as an
important action when ghting with The Poor in Africa or Latin
America, and how to solve obstacles such as getting water for ir-
rigation, making compost from local waste materials, and ghting
pests without using harmful poison or expensive fertilizers.
You will study and try out simple, efcient and sustainable ways of increasing crop yield, so
farmers can prevent soil erosion and utilize scarce water supplies on their land. You will get
hold of solutions for nancing, transporting and distributing nished products, equipping
yourself with these tools and others to put at the service of The Poor.
So look forward to getting your hands dirty and your brain busy on multiple fronts when it
comes to food production.
A
bout One World University, Mozambique
When joining as a participant at One World Institute, you
will also enroll as a distance learner at One World University, Mo-
zambique. Depending on which program you enroll for, you may
earn a single or double B-certicate, or you may earn a Licentiate
degree.
One World University, or OWU for short, was started by Devel-
opment Aid from People to People in Mozambique and the Fed-
eration Humana People to People in 1998. In the following years, the school went through a
process of recognition in close cooperation with the Pedagogical University of Mozambique.
In 2005, OWU was approved by the Council of Ministers in Mozambique as a private univer-
sity. It was accredited to deliver academic courses and degrees from the level of bachelor to
PhD with a nationally recognized qualication, and was given its ofcial name ISET Insti-
tuto Superior de Educao e Tecnologia, in short ISET/ OWU.
One World University currently has three faculties: the Pedagogical faculty, the faculty of
Fighting with The Poor and the faculty of Polyhistory. The university offers courses, either on
site at its campus in Changalane or through distance learning.
34
A licentiate degree from OWU corresponds to a Bachelor of Arts
degree, and a B-certicate corresponds to 1000 study hours.
One World Institute has entered into an agreement of coopera-
tion with OWU in Mozambique, allowing its participants to earn
a degree from OWU as distance learners while following a course
at One World Institute. When participating in an OWU degree
course, you will as part of the program go through the relevant
curriculum and take the required exams from OWU in Mozambique, and you will be assigned
a tutor who will be your contact person in all matters concerning your OWU degree.
G
etting the most out of the program
At One World Institute, you can expect to do a lot, learn a lot, and experience a lot. Your
studies and work are about life important stuff. You will be challenged on many fronts, you
will be busy and productive, and you will through the program grow and develop as an indi-
vidual and as part of the collective comprising your teammates and teachers.
So we urge you to get the most of it. Do not hold back, but throw yourself into the program
with gusto and take part in planning, constructing and shaping it
in every way. Immerse yourself in all the many areas of school life.
Enjoy the practical work and become good at it. Learn about and
speak out about the pressing and urgent issues facing humankind
and our fellow species on this globe. Ponder, investigate, study
and discuss with your teammates and with the many people you
meet. Find solutions for how we must act, and try out the solu-
tions. Do things you never thought you could do, like going on investigation, travelling on the
cheap, meeting strangers and making friends with them. Find out what the news media does
not tell you, and realize how much you can do when you act in unison with others.
In short, we encourage you to grab all the opportunities the program has to offer and go for
it full throttle, getting the very most out of it.
35
37
THE PROGRAMS AND THEIR CONTENT ELEMENTS
O
ne World Institute Norway
Course Plan 2012 - 2015
YEAR COURSE DURATION PERIOD
2012
Fighting with The Poor /
Single B-certicate /
24 months
24 months
Mar 2012 - Feb 2014
24 months
24 months
Sept 2012 - Aug 2014
2013
24 months
24 months
Mar 2013 - Feb 2015
OWU Licentiate Degree
in Polyhistory
36 months
Sept 2013 - Aug 2016
2014
24 months
24 months
Mar 2014 - Feb 2016
in Polyhistory
36 months
Sept 2014 - Aug 2017
2015
24 months
24 months
Mar 2015 - Feb 2017
in Polyhistory
36 months
Sept 2015 - Aug 2018
38
Program number one:
In this two-year program, all your focus will be on world affairs and the conditions and lives
of people on Earth. You will ask the difcult questions about why, with all our knowledge
and wisdom, our technological skills and vast resources, our inventiveness and diligence, and
the compassion, love and humanity that we all possess, humankind has not gotten rid of pre-
ventable diseases, stopped all wars, or quenched the misery of The Poor. You will seek the
answers, search for solutions, and then you and your team will go Fighting with The Poor.
Throughout the program, your studies and work will lead to a B-certicate as distance learner
from the faculty of Fighting with The Poor at One World University, Mozambique.
In the rst period, you will study and investigate international relations, the division between
North and South, rich and poor, the world economy and international nance, globalization,
how international bodies function, how poor countries get caught in debt, why The Poor are
increasing in number, how the worlds resources are used, who decides on the international
stage, and what people are doing about it. You will read books, have courses, solve study tasks,
ask questions, go on investigations, interview experts, visit people, put up hypotheses, debate
and conclude. You will be digging deep and digging broad, and you will be writing, speaking
and showing. And you will use the full strength of the collective to build a foundational un-
derstanding of todays dening issues for humanity and for our globe.
The second period will see you concentrated, earning and saving money in a common action,
working two or more jobs and nding audacious means of living cheaply. Then come the
travel preparations: Planning the travel route, making the budget, choosing your project and
your Trio, training project skills, preparing project actions, learning the languages you need,
getting visas, getting t for ght, and a thousand other things to attend to.
Finally, with a diverse rucksack, you are on the road. The third period is the travel period, and
it nds you immersed in people and experiences. You live with families, make friends with
truck drivers, and sleep in strange places. You go on investigations, seeing for yourself what
39
FIGHTING WITH THE POOR / SINGLE B-CERTIFICATE / 24 MONTHS
you previously read about in books, and letting the people who
live the stories be your teachers. Meeting with your teammates,
you tell your tales and share your knowledge, discussing, conclud-
ing and deciding on where next and what next. And all the while,
you write the Journal and gather pictures, sounds and lm, docu-
menting what you learn. More investigations, more travelling and
new countries bring you to your nal destination, to the project
in Africa or India.
Arriving at the project, you are ready for living and working and standing shoulder to shoulder
ghting with The Poor. You go to work in your Trio, as instructed by the Project Leadership
and according to the needs of the project: running the project, improving the quality, expand-
ing the work and carrying out actions with the people at the project and in the surrounding
communities. Throughout the period, you continue writing the Journal and producing all
kinds of documentation to use for bringing it to the public in the last period.
Returning to the school, your heads and hands are full of new
skills, knowledge and energy. You meet in the team, concluding
on the studies, the travels, the work and experiences, consolidat-
ing your knowledge and understanding. You decide upon, gath-
er, qualify and produce products for the Public Arena, and then
you go on the road again: making a road show, producing radio
broadcasts and documentaries, holding public debates, distribut-
ing books, making speeches, teaching school classes, performing and discussing with people
on the street, visiting work places, and much more, all the while learning double by teaching
what you know to others.
Finalizing and celebrating with exams, having earned your B-certicate from One World Uni-
versity, and from the new foundation you have built for yourself and with your teammates
throughout the program, you are ready to take your next steps in life and into the future.
40
Outline of the program
THE FIRST YEAR: GOING GLOBAL
PERIOD 1: WORLD STUDIES
6 months
Studying and investigating dening issues of humanity and our globe:
International relations, the conditions of poor and rich, North and South, the
worlds resources, globalization, world economy, debt, global institutions, media,
Global Warming and Climate Change, food production and We, the People.
PERIOD 2: GETTING IT READY PERIOD 3: ON THE ROAD
3 months
Saving up money in a concentrated
period. Working, living cheap and
preparing for travelling and project
work.
3 months
Travelling to a project in Africa or India.
Investigating, studying and getting
experiences on the way.
THE SECOND YEAR: FIGHTING WITH THE POOR
PERIOD 4: PROJECT WORK
6 months
Arriving at the project. Standing shoulder to shoulder Fighting with The Poor.
Working in the Trio. Making pre-schools, Garden Farms, Farmers Clubs, ghting
HIV/ AIDS with TCE, teaching would-be teachers, teaching youngsters at PTG
schools, working in Child Aid. Working at the project, improving it, expanding it
and making actions with people in the community.
PERIOD 5: BRINGING IT TO THE PUBLIC
6 months
Gathering all what is learned and producing products for the Public Arena. Going
on the road with it all. Publishing in the Digital Showroom on the OWU Website.
Finalizing with exams.
41
42
43
I YEAR
II PERIOD
ONE - 6 MONTHS
III TITLE
WORLD STUDIES
IV LOCATION
BASE AT THE SCHOOL WITH INVESTIGATIONS IN
THE NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN FIELD
V CONTENT ELEMENTS OF THE PERIOD
1. Studying how the world has been divided into rich and poor countries.
2. Finding out why there are rich countries in the North and poor countries in the
South studying imperialism and colonialism.
3. Deciding on the countries and the projects to travel to in Africa or India.
4. Studying the countries you are travelling to.
5. Making investigations on international relations in ofcial ofces located in the
North such as UN ofces, the World Bank, IMF, and companies investing and
exploiting resources in third world countries.
6. Understanding the world economy and why third world countries are in debt to
international banks.
7. Understanding globalization and how it affects The Poor and the relations
between North and South, and what people and countries are doing about it.
8. Forming Trios around your work at the projects in Africa or India.
9. Choosing the project where you will work in period 4 in Africa or India be it
Child Aid, Farmers Club, TCE, Fundraising, DNS, starting up a new project or
working at an NHQ National Headquarters.
10. Communicating regularly with the people at the project, nding out what to train
and prepare to serve the project well.
11. Training the skills you need when working at the project as a Trio.
12. Governing the school through the Common Meeting and running the school
together in all aspects: practical work, sports, garden farming, cooking, cleaning,
maintenance, building weekends and more.
13. Studying about The Poor global facts, what it means to belong to The Poor and
how the Poor have struggled, and still do, to survive and improve their conditions.
14. Studying global phenomena hitting especially The Poor, such as Global Warming
and Climate Change, with the consequences of oods and droughts and the issue
of food production.
15. Training in being adventurers and survivors, living and travelling under very
humble conditions, not using much money and always nding a way out by
ingenuity, being smart and sticking together with your comrades.
16. Building up stamina, physical strength and courage for being an appropriate
ghter with The Poor.
44
I YEAR
II PERIOD
TWO - 3 MONTHS
III TITLE
GETTING IT READY
IV LOCATION
ONE OR MORE PLACES IN EUROPE TO FIND THE
BEST PLACES TO WORK AND DO FUNDRAISING
1. Exploring the national and European eld to nd the best places to work to earn
and save money.
2. Working in all kinds of workplaces: factories, shops, restaurants; cleaning ofces,
supermarkets and hospitals; or carrying out private enterprises such as painting
houses for rich people each has at least two jobs.
3. Deciding on and practicing common economy in the saving-up period.
4. Doing fundraising in the streets through different means such as talking to people,
performing with street theater, selling pamphlets about the projects in Africa and
India, showing exhibitions, playing music and singing.
5. Travelling around cheaply by hitchhiking, moving rental cars, making agreements
with truck drivers, walking and biking.
6. Living cheaply with regard to both housing and food, nding good ways to do it in
healthy ways as well.
7. Preparing the travel to the country of destination. Deciding on the travel route.
Deciding and preparing the means of travel. Planning how to carry through the
travel in a safe manner.
8. Studying the travel countries their people and their conditions, history,
geography, economy, food production, education and current situation.
9. Studying parts of the curriculum for the B-certicate in Fighting with The Poor.
10. Staying in contact with the people at the project, considering and discussing in the
Trio how you can contribute to the project and putting up suggestions, knowing
that the project has the nal say.
11. Training physical strength through sports and an active lifestyle.
12. Building up good comradeship in the Trio and in the group as such: challenging
each other to go for the goals, sticking together to eliminate obstacles, solving
conicts, seeking common ground and having fun while doing it all.
13. Training language skills to use on the travel, in the country of destination and in
the work at the project.
14. Organizing and running life on the move together, so the daily doings function for
everyone in the group.
45
46
I YEAR
II PERIOD
THREE - 3 MONTHS
III TITLE
ON THE ROAD
IV LOCATION
TRAVELLING AND ON THE MOVE BY ALL MEANS
1. Living on the road, being on the move, nding means of transport and places to
sleep, talking to people on the road, being curious to understand and know about
the countries you are travelling through.
2. Travelling rst through rich European countries by means of hitchhiking,
agreements with truck drivers for a long haul, moving rental cars from one town
to another or other free transportation invented.
3. Making investigations in the various countries, meeting people, visiting their
workplaces, staying in their homes, understanding their ghts, meeting their
culture and values and sharing thoughts with them about the world and the future.
4. Telling people about your venture to a third world country, trying out bringing to
the public what you have so far experienced and learned.
5. Travelling solo, in Trio or double Trio as planned beforehand, meeting in groups
sometimes during the travel to share experiences and keep up the moving spirit.
6. Getting used to being on the move, watching and reecting on the differences
coming from the North going to the South e.g. through Morocco and the Sahara
desert or through Turkey and the Middle East to Northern Africa. Finding cheap
trains and buses where other transport is not available, and nding a way to travel
cheaply from the Middle East to India if that is the country of destination.
7. Putting up investigations on a higher level, asking tough questions to self and to
the group, getting hold of more answers and putting up new questions.
8. Taking notes and pictures, writing reports and discussing the seen and the
experienced. Gathering plenty of documentation for the 5
th
period of Bringing it
to the Public.
9. Studying in books on Kindle about the countries you are travelling through and
the country of destination.
10. Setting up camp for a few days to study part of the curriculum for the B-certicate
in Fighting with The Poor: The politics and economy of globalization, the worlds
population 2010-2050, wars and The Poor, big issues of our time.
11. Finding good ways of sticking together in the Trios and in the group as such
during the travel period.
12. Training to speak up, speak with people in different languages, write about and
hold speeches of what is seen and experienced.
13. Deliberating and discussing in the Trio on future perspectives for people in the
countries you are travelling through and in the country of destination.
47
48
I YEAR
II PERIOD
FOUR - 6 MONTHS
III TITLE
PROJECT WORK
IV LOCATION
BASE ON PROJECT IN AFRICA OR INDIA
1. Arriving at the project in Africa or India, having left behind a courageous journey
where fundamental human capabilities have been turned around, refreshed
and energized by knowing that things such as travelling can be done in a totally
different way than the mainstream tourist travelling.
2. Ready for doing the work needed at the project, bringing plans and materials from
the previous periods.
3. Getting to know the people at the project, the vision and idea of the project and
the many concrete tasks to be carried out.
4. Carrying out the tasks as dened within the necessities of the project and by the
Project Leadership.
5. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with The Poor: building preschools, starting Garden
Farming, doing literacy campaigns, eradicating malaria, teaching about big issues
of our time while working as a teacher at DNS, starting income generating
activities, working as a TCE Special Force in the ght against HIV/ AIDS as a
few examples.
6. Winning over obstacles to move matters, joining forces to get results, also when
they do not come easy, inventing solutions from the means at hand, or getting
hold of the means needed.
7. Studying and working with your Specialization in Fighting with The Poor,
nalizing with a Peoples Exam and a written thesis at the end of the period.
8. Planning and going for investigation in the area, listening to stories of people
from all walks of life, asking questions and getting wiser about the country you are
working in and connecting it to what you learned in the previous periods.
9. Developing the project with its productions, its routines and its actions, more
members, better implementation and wider reach.
10. Acquiring skills in information work: making interviews, taking notes and pictures,
writing summaries and reports, recording video lm.
11. Living together with the people at the project, being a good example of living a
humble life while improving things with small means to better the daily life.
12. Mobilizing people for community actions.
13. Working in the Trio to make all possible improvements at the project, and
cooperating and sticking together with the project leadership throughout.
14. Holding one Open Sunday each month, preparing the topics, the entertainment,
the organization and mobilization of the people.
49
I YEAR
II PERIOD
FIVE - 6 MONTHS
III TITLE
BRINGING IT TO THE PUBLIC
IV LOCATION
BASE AT THE SCHOOL WITH PERFORMANCE
TRAVELS IN THE NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN
FIELD
1. Returning to the school with heads and hands full of new knowledge and energy
for Bringing it to the Public.
2. Meeting in the team, showing and telling, exchanging experiences and knowledge,
distilling it and making it common knowledge.
3. Gathering the documentation and deciding on products to be able to bring true
journalism to the Public.
4. Producing articles, pamphlets, videos, radio broadcasts, presentations, exhibitions,
songs, street theater, speeches for debate forums, books and more.
5. Practicing and training reporting and documentation skills on a new level.
6. Bringing it to the Public: Every 14 days reporting from the studies and actions
carried through at the projects, including the big issues from Fighting with
The Poor: General education, health issues, alphabetization, food security and
production, income generation and more getting the message out.
7. Studying further the curriculum for the B-certicate in Fighting with The Poor,
making all tasks into comprehensive and new knowledge reports for the Digital
Showroom on the OWU Website, bringing the truth to the public.
8. Studying on a new level globalization and the international relations between
North and South, the rich and the poor, concluding and producing new
knowledge based on own investigations, experiences and studies.
9. Going on tour in the European eld to spread the new knowledge in a thousand
ways speeches and theater in the street, newspaper articles, lectures at
universities and colleges, debates and other public events, radio broadcasting, TV
reports, exhibitions leading to clearer understanding and inspiring to action.
10. Passing the nal exams for the B-certicate in Fighting with The Poor.
11. Sticking together as a team, deliberating own future and a possible common future
for some.
12. Concluding on the program, using the last time together to throw up future
perspectives for The Poor and the big issues of our time.
13. Arranging a big Open Sunday, Peoples Exam or other event with more than 500
guests.
14. Preparing to leave the school for extraordinarily useful jobs.
15. Understanding and taking a stand to the concept of Open Future.
51
OWU LICENTIATE DEGREE IN POLYHISTORY
Program number two:
OWU Licentiate Degree in Polyhistory
The OWU Licentiate Degree course in Polyhistory lasts three years and is carried out in
cooperation with One World University in Mozambique, leading to what corresponds
to a Bachelor of Arts degree.
The faculty of Polyhistory with its curriculum has recently been approved by the Gov-
ernment of Mozambique, and is the only one of its kind in the world. So when enrolling
for this 36-month program at One World Institute in Norway, you will be partaking in
a pioneer endeavour, the details of which are, at the time of writing this booklet, still
under development.
Below, we present to you a brief description of what we mean by the study and practice
of Polyhistory.
Creating a modern POLYHISTOR
* During the three years of OWU Licentiate training in Polyhistory, you shall set your
sails for an extraordinary journey.
All your masts shall have their sails hoisted.
We shall leave you standing at the rudder, a navigator in your own right.
* During these three years of training, you will jumpstart your career as an architect of
designing solutions to complex issues.
Your courage shall ourish, when confronted with modern complexities.
Our teachings will train you in the art of designing solutions.
We shall leave you as an architect, standing amidst the construction site, designing solu-
tions to its complexities.
52
* During these three years of Licentiate studies, we shall together build up you, the stu-
dent, to become you, the polyhistor.
Through the training, something about almost everything shall become something,
and that is it, and that almost everything shall become almost everything, and nothing
less.
You will feel and experience the crossbreeding dialectics of knowledge fragments, re-
sulting in sudden, and more often than not surprising, formation of solutions.
You shall be weighed down by the mass of knowledge and understanding gained
therefrom, in spite of apparently skating the surface of depth traditionally reached
for.
You shall leave no stone unturned, no scripture untouched, no digital message board
left alone during your journey across the Seven Seas into the Paradise of Wisdom, stem-
ming from the all-round approach of the study, onto the coast of complexity in need of
solutions and into the palace of the rich state of possessing knowledge and understand-
ing of something about almost everything, that true basis for creating solutions of hard
core complexities inside the tunnel of Open Future.
* During these three years of OWU Licentiate studies, we shall teach you and you will
learn to access knowledge of almost any eld and any issue under the Sun.
We shall let you wonder how the combination technology, based in your brain, allows
you to crossbreed knowledge. You will become able to sharpen it to the level of under-
standing. You will become a brain-based medium for using it.
We shall teach you to call these processes practical intellectualism, featuring billions of
shallow knowledge fragments symbiotically interacting.
We shall together, you and we, practice our intellectualism practically. We shall together
make use of our new abilities as these have been arrived at by studies, designed not for
depth or detail but for something like being broad-footed and networking, of almost
everything, all subjects, all crafts, all arts, all produce and productions.
* During these three years of Licentiate studies at OWU, you will discover and recog-
nize our claim that the very broad knowledge base has become increasingly necessary
because of the challenges that mankind faces.
53
We shall show you that this world of ours in the era of globalization is so intricately
linked, and that the challenges and problems are so linked as well, that no specialist, act-
ing alone or in unison, will be able to shoulder them.
We shall openly claim that the world needs a new polyhistor breed.
Before it all starts, we shall serve you with a close-up portrait of this new poly-
histor breed. But before that, we shall inspire you by noting how it all began.
1.
Polyhistor is a word of Greek origin. Poly means very or many. Histor means
wisdom or knowledge acquired through inquiry. A polyhistor thus means a person of
great wisdom, a person with knowledge in many elds.
To be a polyhistor was an ideal in ancient Greece. In the rst century BC, a Greek who
got the name Alexander Polyhistor was taken to Rome as a teacher by a rich slave-
owner. He is said to have written numerous books on all the elds of knowledge. Only
fragments exist today, but they show his breadth of scholarship, which ensured him a
place among the polyhistors of ancient times.
In the classic Islamic world, a similar ideal existed of the learned man. Omar Khayyam
of the 11
th
century is one of the most famous poets in history. He was also very ac-
complished in mathematics, music, medicine, physics, technology, geography and as-
tronomy.
It was the Arab ideal of general scholarship that later ourished in the old Timbuktu.
In early Renaissance Europe, learning was highly praised. One of the most famous
polyhistors of all time was the Italian Leonardo da Vinci, who lived around 1500. His
paintings, sculptures and architecture are among the most outstanding ever created. He
researched a multitude of elds and invented new technologies.
At that time, printing had been invented, and the number of books was growing. In
the 1600s, the Dane, Nicolas Steno, studied and taught at universities across Europe.
54
He made discoveries in geology and anatomy and ended as a scholar of theology
and a bishop. He did one of his most famous discoveries in the mountains of Italy,
where he discovered the fossilized teeth of a shark in a geological layer. Had he not
been an anatomist, he would not have realized that these stones were made by im-
prints of teeth, but the discovery led him to propose a revolutionary new theory of
geological strata and their formation. Thus the breadth of his scholarship enabled
him to see what others could not. But he was to become one of the last traditional
polyhistors.
Before it all starts, we shall inspire you by taking you on a compact ride from
back then to modern times.
2.
Times were changing. There were simply too many books to read. No one person could
any longer be well versed in all the known literature. It ceased being an ideal among the
learned.
The world of scholarship changed. Whereas a university once meant a place of univer-
sal studies, where all students would engage in all elds of study, these institutions now
developed schools for the study of specialties such as medicine, law or natural science.
Over time the number of elds grew, and today a researcher may specialize in the mo-
lecular structure of certain composite materials or a similar narrow eld. The results of
this movement away from the old polyhistor tradition into a new tradition of extreme
specialization have been astonishing. The knowledge and understanding of the world
we live in have become extremely detailed.
This is a good thing, but the development has not been without problems.
Specialists have often isolated themselves from the real world in academic ivory towers,
removed from any social responsibility of their academic endeavors.
It is a pedagogical principle of One World Institute that from one place you do not see
far. This applies also to the specialist who insists on seeing the world only through the
55
prism of his narrow eld, so that he does not experience the urge to apply his knowl-
edge for the full benet of humanity.
Some of the limitations of specialization are acknowledged in modern research. Many
scientic breakthroughs occur on the borderlines between subjects, where different
ideas meet and fertilize each other.
Thus, in the scientic world of cutting edge research, a countertrend can be seen of
increased integration of once distant subject areas.
In recreating the polyhistor tradition, our aim is not limited to cutting edge research. We
seek cutting edge social change.
Before it all starts, we shall inspire you by presenting our edition of modern
Polyhistory.
You will remember that
The traditional polyhistor was someone who knew everything about everything. A man
or a woman who had read all the books in all the known libraries. We realize that this
has not been possible for the past 300 years.
3.
We dene a modern day polyhistor as someone who knows something about almost
everything.
This, we claim, has become possible with the rapid development of technologies for
handling and processing information: computers, the Internet, images from around the
world, the large number of scientic magazines and scholarly books published, as well
as the prominence of world languages, such as Portuguese and English, as mediums for
accessing information and knowledge of almost any eld and any issue under the Sun.
We furthermore claim that it has become increasingly necessary to have a very broad
knowledge, because the challenges faced by people in the world today are great and so
intricately linked in the era of globalization that no specialist acting alone will ever be
able to solve them. Therefore, a new tradition is called for.
56
The classic polyhistor was a wise person, who spent his or her life developing and shar-
ing wisdom with others, tireless in studying and teaching.
We put a similar demand on the modern polyhistor. We intend to train across the whole
spectrum of human knowledge in the arts and sciences, train methods of studying and
learning and train teaching as a craft, a science and an art.
But our polyhistor is not meant to become a teacher as his or her profession.
Being a Polyhistor is the profession.
The modern Polyhistor thus zigzags between solving problems, studying, teaching, orga-
nizing, contributing knowledge and understanding to people and country, supporting the
need to advise the downtrodden, writing poems, composing music, and learning more
and more, and then again more, for the sake of broadening her or his foot further, al-
lowing new knowledge to lead to new understanding, leading to new solutions, leading to
solving advanced complexities for the sake of mankind and all other life on this planet.
We see a world so complex that a citizen who is a specialist, with deep knowledge in
one or a few elds, may still have great trouble getting an overview of the world and its
challenges and using his specialist knowledge in the most benecial way for mankind.
57
Even the person with little formal education needs in our day and age to know some-
thing about many things in order to understand what is going on and act as an informed
citizen. Thus, we want to train and further the ideals of a polyhistor and capacitate edu-
cators in the dissemination of broad knowledge about our complex world.
The broad-footed polyhistor, not the deep-rooted specialist, can solve the complex
problems of our time.
The challenges of our time demand a holistic view of the world.
Specialists will not be able to solve our problems. Humanity needs the modern polyhis-
tor.
By knowing something about almost everything, the brain of the polyhistor reaches out
broadly, for elements that in ensemble lead to solutions of the complex problems that
challenge mankind.
You who do not want to settle for becoming a doctor or lawyer or teacher or
farmer or plumber or politician, you who want to contribute extraordinarily, you
who feel that the time is ripe for a new breed of practical intellectualism, to you
we say this.
Seek out the OWU Licentiate Degree in Polyhistory for the sake of getting a
solid start on a rare career, becoming part of the future while living in the pres-
ent, and becoming the rare bird that solves the puzzle of hazardous nestling.
58
59
CONTACT INFORMATION
61
O
NE WORLD TRAINING INSTITUTES WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP
The programs described in this book are offered by a group of training institutions around the
world whose Teacher Councils practice similar pedagogical ideas, cooperate with each other
and develop programs together.
If you would like to join a specic course that One World Institute Norway does not offer,
but which is available at one of our partner schools, we shall be happy to assist you to get into
contact with the school offering the course you are interested in.
The courses are:
Fighting with The Poor / Single B-certicate / 18 month course
Fighting with The Poor / Single B-certicate / 24 month course
Fighting with The Poor / Double B-certicate / 24 month course
The Climate Compliance Conference / 6 month course
OWU Licentiate Degree in Pedagogy / 36 month course
OWU Licentiate Degree in Polyhistory / 36 month course
The schools are:
Institute for International Cooperation & Development, Michigan, USA
Institute for International Cooperation & Development, Massachusetts, USA
Richmond Vale Academy, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Eastern Caribbean
College for International Co-operation and Development, United Kingdom
One World Institute, Norway
The Travelling Folk High School, South Zealand, Denmark
The Travelling Folk High School, Holsted, Denmark
62
Institute for International Cooperation &
Development, Michigan
Address: 56968 Dailey Road, Dowagiac,
MI 49047, USA
Phone: +1 269 591 0519
E-mail: info@iicdmichigan.org
Website: www.iicdmichigan.org
Institute for International Cooperation &
Development, Massachusetts
Address: 1117 Hancock Road, Williamstown,
MA 01267, USA
Phone: +1 413 441 5126, Fax: +1 413 458 3323
E-mail: info@iicd-volunteer.org
Website: www.iicd-volunteer.org
Richmond Vale Academy
Address: Chateaubelair Post Ofce,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Eastern Caribbean
Phone: +1 784 492 4058 and +1 784 458 2255
E-mail: info@richmondvale.org
Website: www.richmondvalecacademy.org
College for International Co-operation and
Development
Address: Winestead Hall, Patrington,
Hull HU12 0NP, United Kingdom
Phone: +44 1964 631826, Fax: +44 1964 631695
E-mail: KarenB@cicd-volunteerinafrica.org
or MarieF@cicd-volunteerinafrica.org
Website: www.cicd-volunteerinafrica.org
OTHER OWU PARTNER SCHOOLS
63
One World Institute Norway
Address: Hornsj, Hornsjveien,
yerfjellet in yer municipality
Mail: OWI-Hornsj, P.b. 47, 2636 yer, Norway
Phone: +47 6126 4444
E-mail: diprogram@drh-norway.org
Website: www.drh-norway.org
The Travelling Folk High School, South Zealand
Address: Lindersvoldvej 5, 4640 Fakse, Denmark
Phone: +45 2367 4906
E-mail: info@lindersvold.dk
Website: www.lindersvold.dk
The Travelling Folk High School, Holsted
Address: DRH Holsted, Skolegade 3, 6670 Holsted,
Denmark
Phone: +45 2947 6277 or +45 2020 1045
E-mail: info@drh-holsted.org
Website: www.drh-holsted.org
One World Institute
Norway
Hornsj, Hornsjveien | yerfjellet in yer municipality
Postal Address: OWI-Hornsj, P.b. 47, 2636 yer, Norway
Tel. +47 6126 4444
diprogram@drh-norway.org | www.drh-norway.org

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