01
Hans Bæk
Senior teacher, Refsvindinge · 1919–1979
The one who originally passed the statement on. “I now trust myself most.”
Constituency meeting on Funen
Everything indicates that she said it
»Hvad ikke alle kan lære,
må ingen lære.«
– attributed to Ritt Bjerregaard, minister of education
“What not everyone can learn, no one may learn.”
The sentence has followed Ritt Bjerregaard for half a century. She rejected it on television in 1975, in two books, in the newspaper columns, and finally in a private message in 2018. But five witnesses, a meeting programme, a list of attendees and a printed international source tell a different story.
18 September 1975.
By all accounts spoken at the delegate meeting of Skole og Samfund (Home and School) at Hotel Nyborg Strand — Saturday 30 September 1972, between 9.15 and 10.45 a.m.
↓5
first-hand witnesses
three of them appear on the meeting's attendance list
1972
Nyborg Strand
the programme places her on the panel
1974
in print
just two years after the meeting
6
denials
from television in 1975 to Facebook in 2018
18 September 1975 · DR · The TV News
The denial, on tape
The same evening that Jyllands-Posten ran its front-page story about “the shocked world abroad,” Ritt Bjerregaard was confronted directly on the TV news. It is the first time she rejects the quotation — on national television.
FMWhat is this that one reads in the paper today, that in 1973 you are supposed to have said: “What not everyone can learn, no one may learn.” And that you were quoted for it at a major world conference in London.
RBNo, I don't think I recall a statement like that. I did see it in the paper and have tried to investigate whether I could have said something to that effect. I don't think I can have. And I would certainly find it a very unfruitful starting point for the education system as a whole if one did not reckon that people can also learn different things.
Clip: DR, The TV News, 18 Sept 1975. Publicly available via danskkulturarv.dk.
Who she was
Jytte Ritt Bjerregaard
19 May 1941 – 21 January 2023
- Minister of education 27 Sept–19 Dec 1973 and 13 Feb 1975 – 22 Dec 1978
- Architect of the major Danish school reform of 1975
- Member of the Danish Parliament for the Social Democrats 1971–1995 and 2001–2005
- Later European Commissioner, minister of food, minister of the environment, and Lord Mayor of Copenhagen
When the quotation surfaced, she was the country's most prominent education politician. That is why a single sentence could become so politically explosive — and why it kept resurfacing.
The question
Did Ritt Bjerregaard say something close to “What not all children can learn, no one may learn”?
If yes — where and when?
The answer is found in just one place: in the sources. Below they are laid out in the order in which they arose — from the meeting in 1972 to the last word in 2018.
The chronology
The case, hour by hour
From the meeting in 1972 to the last word in 2018. Follow the red thread – literally: every time the marker is red, it is Ritt Bjerregaard denying.
-
The meeting where it is said to have been spoken
Skole og Samfund holds its national course at Hotel Nyborg Strand on 29–30 September 1972. According to four later witnesses the statement falls here — during Saturday's panel debate on the government's draft bill for a new state school, where Ritt Bjerregaard sits on the panel as a member of Parliament's education committee.
-
The first time it appears in print
Teacher Kirsten Mørch Vaughan writes in the newspaper — the earliest known written trace of the quotation:
“Former minister of education Ritt Bjerregård [sic] has gone so far as to say that what not all children can learn, no one may learn.”
-
The quotation travels out into the world
Vaughan presents at an international conference on gifted children. In the printed text (p. 299) the sentence is attributed not to a named person but to the office itself:
“The ideal of influential political parties has been stated by the minister of education and goes as follows: no child may be taught anything which exceeds the capacity of any one child in the class.”
The ideal of influential political parties has been stated by the minister of education and goes as follows: no child may be taught anything which exceeds the capacity of any one child in the class. -
“The world abroad is shocked”
The story jumps to the front page of Jyllands-Posten under the headline: “The world abroad is shocked that Denmark risks letting the highly gifted become society's losers.” That same evening the clip runs on the TV news.
-
The first denial — on television
Flemming Madsen asks directly. Ritt Bjerregaard cannot recall the statement and calls it a “very unfruitful starting point for the education system.”
See the clip and the full exchange above.
-
Hans Bæk: “I stand by it”
Senior teacher Hans Bæk comes forward as the one who originally passed the statement on to Kirsten Vaughan:
“It has not been possible to pin an exact time and place on the statement, but senior teacher Hans Bæk, Refsvindinge, Funen, tells Jyllands-Posten today that he is the one who originally reported the statement [to teacher Kirsten Vaughan]. It was made, he claims, at a meeting in Ritt Bjerregaard's own constituency on Funen, but, he continues, I am aware that it is one assertion against another. I now trust myself most, and so I stand by it: Ritt Bjerregaard said: What not everyone can learn, no one may learn.”
-
Grønbæk: time and place
Physician Jørgen Dahl Grønbæk gives the precise occasion: he heard the words “on 30 September 1972 at Nyborg Strand at the delegate meeting of Skole og Samfund,” and he does not mince words:
“To deny it is merely a cheap attempt to lie one's way out of one's own statement.”
-
Ritt demands proof
Ritt Bjerregaard answers back and reverses the burden of proof:
“When one speaks as sharply as Dr. Grønbæk does, accusing me of lying, it must surely be in order for me to demand clear proof that the quoted statement came from me.”
-
Two signatures
The answer comes: two witnesses who were present at the meeting submit their signatures and confirm that they heard the statement. With that, Ritt Bjerregaard's own demand of 7 May — “clear proof” — is in fact met.
-
The denial goes into print
In the book Strid. Politiske taler og artikler (Strife. Political Speeches and Articles) Ritt Bjerregaard makes it a matter of distortion:
“One of the grossest distortions is expressed in a statement that has been attributed to me, and which reads: ‘What not everyone can learn, no one may learn.’ More than once, both orally and in writing, I have had to deny having spoken in this way.”
-
Vestergaard: “with my own ears”
Twenty years later the case flares up again. Journalist Annelise Vestergaard:
“Ritt Bjerregaard's (alleged?) words that ‘what not everyone can learn, no one shall learn’ were revived […] I have reluctantly put the word alleged in parentheses. Reluctantly, because for some twenty years I have been convinced that with my own ears I heard Ritt Bjerregaard say those since-famous words. If I have recently come to doubt it, it is because it has proven exceedingly difficult to find proof of my claim.”
-
Grønbæk confirms Vestergaard
Grønbæk comes forward again and places Vestergaard at the very meeting:
“It is correct, as Annelise Vestergaard seems to have heard it with her own ears, for she was herself present [at a national delegate meeting of Skole og Samfund at Hotel Nyborg Strand in 1972 or 1973], which I remember so clearly because there was a subject I would have liked to discuss with her, but I did not manage to make contact.”
-
“No, I did not say that”
From Brussels, where she is now European Commissioner, Ritt Bjerregaard answers briefly and bluntly:
“In a couple of contributions — from Annelise Vestergaard on 4 June and from Jørgen D. Grønbæk on 9 June — JP has again claimed that I am supposed to have said: “What not all children can learn, no one shall learn.” I repeat: No, I did not say that.”
In a couple of contributions — from Annelise Vestergaard on 4 June and from Jørgen D. Grønbæk on 9 June — JP has again claimed that I am supposed to have said: “What not all children can learn, no one shall learn.” I repeat: No, I did not say that. -
The prime minister uses the sentence
Anders Fogh Rasmussen turns the quotation into a political slogan in his opening address — now in the variant “shall no one learn”:
“We must do away with the levelling school, where they say: ‘What not everyone can learn, no one shall learn.’”
-
“Plainly nonsense”
Pia Gjellerup (Social Democrats) asks the prime minister who actually said it. Fogh acquits her — without naming names:
“If someone will not own a statement, one should not pin it on that person either, and I did not. […] Pia Gjellerup should be glad of the contribution made here to cleansing the debate of something that is plainly nonsense.”
If someone will not own a statement, one should not pin it on that person either, and I did not. […] Pia Gjellerup should be glad of the contribution made here to cleansing the debate of something that is plainly nonsense. -
The quotation lives on
In his farewell speech as leader of the Liberal Party (Venstre), Fogh uses the sentence again — as the very embodiment of what he set out to overturn:
“Parents want their children to learn something at school. Gone is the destructive attitude that ‘what not everyone can learn, no one shall learn.’ Now there is a demand for skill and proficiency.”
-
“Not a shred of proof”
In the memoir Valgt (Chosen) Ritt Bjerregaard gathers her explanation: the quotation was invented by a scorned woman:
“A statement, made up by a woman who in the mid-1970s had been refused permission by the Ministry of Education to set up a private upper-secondary school, could be repeated again and again. She claimed I had said it. I denied it, but she persisted without being able to state where it had happened, or having even a shred of proof. Like the prime minister twenty years later, she ended up saying that it was at any rate what lay in what I stood for — ‘the spirit of it.’”
A statement, made up by a woman who in the mid-1970s had been refused permission by the Ministry of Education to set up a private upper-secondary school, could be repeated again and again. She claimed I had said it. I denied it, but she persisted without being able to state where it had happened, or having even a shred of proof. Like the prime minister twenty years later, she ended up saying that it was at any rate what lay in what I stood for — ‘the spirit of it.’ -
The letter in the mailbox
Prompted by Valgt's claim of “not a shred of proof,” the present author hand-delivers a letter into Ritt Bjerregaard's mailbox — with all the details and enclosures. It ends:
“[W]ith these five testimonies it seems almost unreasonable to say that there is ‘not a shred of proof.’”
With a request for elaboration.
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The last word
After a polite reminder the answer came. It became the last thing she said about the matter.
19 JanuaryDear Ritt Bjerregaard, may I expect a reply to my letter, which I delivered to your mailbox on 17 December, about the “what not everyone can learn…” statement27 JanuaryDear Hans Frederik Brobjerg
I have written everything there is to say about that matter in the book VALGT.
kind regards
Ritt BjerregaardThe last word
Five first-hand witnesses
Those who heard it
Over the years five people come forward — independently of the newspaper trail that Kirsten Mørch Vaughan set in motion — and say the same thing: they heard her say it. Four of them place it at one particular meeting — the delegate meeting of Skole og Samfund at Nyborg Strand in 1972.
02
Jørgen Dahl Grønbæk
Physician, Højslev · 1922–2017
Gave time and place: 30 September 1972. Returned to the matter in both 1976 and 1998.
Nyborg Strand, 1972
03
Robert Madsbøll Elkjær
Veterinarian, Gedsted · 1928–
Confirmed the statement at the same meeting.
Nyborg Strand, 1972
04
Maren Lynge Bilstrup
Teacher, Ørum school · 1933–
Confirmed the statement at the same meeting.
Nyborg Strand, 1972
05
Annelise Vestergaard
Journalist · 1926–2008
“With my own ears” — convinced for some twenty years.
Nyborg Strand, 1972
Source criticism
The evidence, document by document
One witness can be mistaken. Five can be mistaken together. So we ask the two questions that decide the matter — and let the original documents answer.
Was Ritt Bjerregaard even present — and did she speak?
Yes. The meeting programme places her on the panel.
Skole og Samfund's own programme for Saturday 30 September 1972 shows a panel debate on the draft bill from 9.15 to 10.45 a.m., with presentations by the education committee's representatives. Ritt Bjerregaard stands at the top of the list of speakers. The attendance overview confirms that she was invited as a member of Parliament's education committee.
Were the witnesses there?
Yes. Three of them appear on the attendance list.
The attendance list from Viborg county contains three of the named witnesses: veterinarian Robert Elkjær, physician Jørgen D. Grønbæk and teacher Maren Lynge Bilstrup. They were not chance observers from outside — they were registered participants at the very meeting where they place the statement.
Isn't it just the same source repeating itself?
No. But the strength lies in the witnesses — not in the newspaper texts.
It is fair to ask. Kirsten Mørch Vaughan's note in 1974 and the English conference text in 1975 are indeed the same voice — and she was not herself present at the meeting. She relayed what senior teacher Hans Bæk had told her. The independent confirmation therefore does not come from the London text, but from the four other witnesses — Grønbæk, Elkjær, Bilstrup and Vestergaard — who were themselves present (not relayers of Mørch) and came forward in 1976 and again in 1998, placing the statement at the same meeting. The London text proves something else, but important: that the attribution was already in print only a few years later — and reached an international publication. It was not a late rationalisation.
The sentence that wandered
The wandering quotation
An invented quotation tends to stand still. This one shifted slightly each time it was repeated — a fingerprint of oral transmission, not of a single fabricated slogan. (The Danish wording is kept here; that drift is the point. English in italics.)
- 1974 »hvad ikke alle børn kan lære, må ingen lære«what not all children can learn, no one may learn Kirsten Mørch Vaughan
- 1975 “no child may be taught anything which exceeds the capacity of any one child in the class” London (print)
- 1975 »Hvad ikke alle kan lære, må ingen lære«What not everyone can learn, no one may learn Flemming Madsen, TV
- 1976 »Hvad ikke alle kan lære, må ingen lære«What not everyone can learn, no one may learn Hans Bæk
- 1998 »Det, som ikke alle kan lære, skal ingen lære«What not everyone can learn, no one shall learn Annelise Vestergaard
- 2002 »Hvad ikke alle kan lære, skal ingen lære«What not everyone can learn, no one shall learn Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Verdict
What do we have?
For
- Five first-hand witnesses; four place the statement at the same meeting.
- A meeting programme that places Ritt Bjerregaard on the panel that day.
- An attendance list that places three of the witnesses in the room.
- The attribution was in print already in 1974 — only two years after the meeting, not a late invention.
Against
- 1975 · The TV News: cannot recall the statement.
- 1976 · Jyllands-Posten: demands “clear proof that the quoted statement came from me.”
- 1979 · the book Strid: calls it “one of the grossest distortions,” something “attributed to me.”
- 1998 · Jyllands-Posten: “No, I did not say that.”
- 2017 · the book Valgt: the statement was “made up”; the opponent had “not a shred of proof.”
- 2018 · Facebook: simply refers to Valgt — and falls silent.
- And: no audio or film recording from the 1972 meeting. The case rests on witness testimony.
The statement can be documented. The denial cannot. The weight of the contemporary sources points to Ritt Bjerregaard having said something very close to the famous words — at Nyborg Strand, Saturday 30 September 1972, between 9.15 and 10.45 a.m.
She managed to reject it six times over 43 years. Twice — in 1976 and in 2018 — clear proof was laid before her; both times Ritt Bjerregaard refused to address it.
Sources
Where it comes from
All material is from the public domain and reproduced for documentary purposes.
Television
- DR, The TV News, 18 September 1975 — Flemming Madsen interviews Ritt Bjerregaard (via danskkulturarv.dk).
Newspapers
- Frederiksborg Amts Avis, 8 December 1974 — Kirsten Mørch Vaughan.
- Jyllands-Posten, 18 September 1975 — “The world abroad is shocked.”
- Jyllands-Posten, 13 April 1976 — Hans Bæk.
- Jyllands-Posten, 23 April 1976 — Jørgen Dahl Grønbæk.
- Jyllands-Posten, 7 May 1976 — Ritt Bjerregaard.
- Jyllands-Posten, 16 June 1976 — two witness signatures.
- Jyllands-Posten, 4 June 1998 — Annelise Vestergaard.
- Jyllands-Posten, 9 June 1998 — Jørgen Dahl Grønbæk.
- Jyllands-Posten, 3 July 1998 — Ritt Bjerregaard, “No, I did not say that.”
Books
- Ritt Bjerregaard: Strid. Politiske taler og artikler (1979).
- Ritt Bjerregaard: Valgt. Erindringer II (2017), p. 224.
Conference
- Kirsten Mørch Vaughan: “Denmark” (1975), p. 299 — international conference text on gifted children.
Parliament
- The prime minister's opening address, 1 October 2002.
- Answer to §20 question, 9 October 2002.
- Anders Fogh Rasmussen's farewell speech as leader of the Liberal Party, 17 May 2009.
The meeting
- Skole og Samfund's national course, Hotel Nyborg Strand, 29–30 September 1972 — programme and attendance list.
Correspondence
- Letter to Ritt Bjerregaard, delivered 17 December 2017.
- Facebook Messenger, 27 January 2018.
Image sources
- Portrait 1997: Etienne Scholasse / European Commission — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
- Portrait 1995: European Commission (EC Audiovisual Service) — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
- TV stills 1975: DR, The TV News — publicly available material.
- Newspaper, meeting and book facsimiles: reproduced for source-critical purposes.