Homeschooling Not Allowed

Before we enrolled our son, Kaleb, in public school in Norway we were required to have a meeting with the rector and the school administrator. They are two very serious men and they seemed quite concerned that we decided to put Kaleb in their particular school. They talked rather sternly about how important it was for Kaleb to obey the rules and not be a disturbance and they questioned our reasons for homeschooling him all these years in America (it’s only allowed under special circumstances in Norway). In Norway, socializing is their number one goal. Academics are an afterthought. Everyone is treated equally and above all else, everyone learns tolerance for one another.

The school where Kaleb attended is a sort of experimental school in that it has no individual classrooms – it’s all open with areas for the students to move around throughout the day as they progress from one subject to the next. One student acting up can disturb 90 kids all at once so they made sure we knew they have zero tolerance for goofballs. It was boot camp for social behavior, which was one of the main reasons why we moved there. We put Kaleb in fourth grade even though his age would have placed him in fifth, but with not knowing the language, we decided it was best to put him back a year. It was a good move.


Kaleb met one of his main teachers a few days before school started. She explained the school schedule and how the days are structured. When the bell rings, the children come in from outside and take off their outside clothes (jackets and boots, etc.), put on their inside shoes, and line up in the changing room to wait for her to escort them to their areas. Instrumental music plays in the background as she greets each student every morning with a handshake and the student must give her a greeting in return. When they break out into groups to work on different subjects they are assigned a partner to work with so that by the end of the school year all the kids have worked one-on-one for several weeks with all the other kids in their class.


Kaleb told her he hoped kids would want to be his friend because he was “special” since he was from America. She nipped that thinking in the bud right away when she responded with, “In Norway, we are ALL special.” Okay, then.