W is for Wonderful wonderful Copenhagen. Healing with words. Day 23. #atozchallenge

wonderful |ˈwəndərfəl|
adjectiveinspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good;marvelous 

I wasn't sure if I would make it back in time from my trip to Copenhagen to post for W, and there is no W card in my deck so Wonderful wonderful Copenhagen it is, just because that's where I'm at, and it's a cute song. 

Here's some things about this Royal city you may not know. It is the home of Hans Christian Anderson, (even though many New Yorkers seem to think he was American).  There is no gate around The Royal palaces, you can stand within meters of their front doors.  There are bikes everywhere

Most Danes believe there is no such things as bad weather only bad clothing, and nearly everyone speaks English (or at least understands it).  Some Danes I have met, say 'it's better to sit in a bar and think about church than it is to sit in a church and think about going to a bar.

While I was in Copenhagen there was the usual delights of any Europeen city, I will tell you more about it soon. A peculiar thing was that there were lots of teenagers and children wandering around town, because this month they have had no school, and it wasn't holiday time.

The teachers in Denmark were on a forced lock out for 4 weeks. Approximately 70,000 wonderful teachers were locked out of their schools because they wouldn't agree to working up to an extra 3-4 hours per day.

It was unprecedented and fascinating.  Mid term exams are drawing near and there have been no lessons for a month, students will have to repeat levels, there are many people training that will lose job opportunities. Some students will have to make up time after hours and on weekends, affecting families even further. Here's more information from Workers World here.

As of yesterday, the lock out has been called off.  A new law is expected to be passed soon, in reality the problem is still not over, and a lot of people want to know what is going to happen to the money, over 100 million dollars, the government has saved in teachers wages.

Today is a public holiday in Denmark, called big prayer day, (created to roll many religious holidays into one public holiday) so school resumes Monday, after 4 weeks off. The first feedback I saw from a student on my schools facebook page was 'finally the lock out is over, now we are locked in again."  A lot of students referred to the extended break as a luck in, my youngest bonus child missed his teacher but others are praying they never have to go back.

Check out Copenhagen's top 10 attractions here.

Here's a short clip of the song Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen from the cast of Wallman's, a theatre restaurant in a century old circus building, where we are celebrating an annual family tradition, I will share some photos and tell you more about the trip soon.

What would you do if the government banned teaching in your country for a month (or more)?
How many hours a day do you think children should be at school?

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Find out how I chose my theme by reading the intro blog at A-Z challenge list. Words of change.  Please add more words to the list in the comments - and I'll gratefully link your words back to you.