Skuleplikt

Also from the Norwegian class:

I found out tonight that Norway (or rather, the then kingdom of Denmark-Norway) passed a law for compulsory education for all children as early as 1739. There were several nations that had compulsory education programs before then, but none were so thoroughly put into practice, nor as inclusive. The aztecs, for instance, had compulsory education until age 16, but only for males; in Scotland, the Education Act of 1496 obliged the children of noblemen and freeholders to attend school, but this law was impracticable, due to tax problems.

Until these ideas of obligatory school (skuleplikt, in Norwegian) became established, most people in Europe were illiterate. Interestingly, the seed of these changes was the protestant priests' idea that everybody should be capable of reading and understanding first-hand the contents of the Bible. What a contrast with the Catholic church, that stuck to obsolete Latin for the longest time and still insists, even today, that the only authorized interpretation of the Bible is that made by the Church!

Anyway, the Norwegian school system of the 18th century was really interesting, particularly in rural areas. Rather than investing money in building schools, king Christian VI decided to train as teachers those men who, for one reason or another, were not able to join the military service. They would be assigned to a certain locality of the kingdom throughout the school year, and farmers in the area were supposed to set up a rota by which the teacher would be put up in each farm for a certain number of weeks. All boy and girl children in the district, aged 7 to 12, would attend classes at the farm where the teacher was staying, which in effect resulted in a kind of "roaming school" maintained by all.

When it was their turn, it was the obbligation of all host farmers to ensure a) the teacher's room and board; b) that some food was made available to students while at school and c) that the stove was turned on for lessons, so that the air was warm enough for lessons to be held.

I didn't know any of this. Must read more.