OLD SCHOOL

We homeschool our son, Kaleb, but the year we lived in Norway he attended the fourth grade in public school.  It was amazing he learned anything, since his school days only went from 8:30am until 1:00pm and there were at least five recesses during that time.  Every Monday they’d be given the homework assignments for the week.  The school took great care to not overburden the children so it could be done in less than 20 minutes a day.  The smart ones did it all on Monday afternoon so they’d have the rest of the week to play with their pals.  Even now, there is discussion that children shouldn’t be sent home with any homework at all, as it hinders their social life, which is so very important to them.

When my husband attended elementary school in Norway, it was just after World War II and there weren’t enough school buildings.  He was on an every-other-day schedule.  He attended school Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  His older brother attended the same school Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  They were sent home with plenty of homework to keep them busy on the days they were not in school, as their social life wasn’t considered such a priority back then.  

An old friend of ours who grew up in the 1930s in northern Norway, had an even more unusual school schedule.  Because it was in such a remote region, it took hours for the kids to row or walk to the nearest school. The younger kids, ages 7-9, were dropped off for three weeks in a row, then they were home for six weeks while the older kids used the building. They were all on the same schedule at different times – three weeks on and six weeks off.  They were sent home with some work to do in the interim, but most of them had to help on their family farms so the expectations of actually doing it were pretty low.

Our friend said that school got “very interesting” as he grew older when hormones raged and the social aspect of school dominated their lives.  The oldest group of students were in the 14-16 year old range.  All the kids slept on cots in the attic of the school, with the school marm sleeping downstairs.  There was only a thin sheet hanging from the ceiling that separated the boys from the girls.  In his words, “There was always a little hanky and a little panky going on after hours.”  He said they never had to teach sex education in school in those days because and they all learned about it first hand – right in the schoolhouse.  

And we think what goes on in our schools today is shocking.