School · 6 May 2024
Nobody said it existed
Good at school, bookworm, S on every essay. And I didn't even know the Odyssey existed!
I grew up in Hamar (good at school, but also one of the ones who were "good enough" so they could just sit in a corner and read while the teacher took care of the ones who needed it).
Like I said I was a bookworm and loved Norwegian, wanted to be an author. Got an S on every essay all through jr. high. But what I read was everything from Rocambole to Tom Clancy. Never once did a teacher say to me "here's something a bit more literarily advanced that you might want to try"...
At Katta I was interested in poetry, even though the only one we knew was Jan Erik Vold, we organized a poetry circle, got a poetry collection published with an introduction by Lars Saabye Christensen, performed on Hamar square, etc. Never was there a teacher at Katta who said "you're interested in poetry, here are some poets you can read. Here's an introduction to the history of poetry... Here's a short book by Andre Bjerke about verse rhythms"...
I didn't know what an iamb was until a couple of years ago!
From Rabbit Holes · Rette baker for smed, rhyme and rhythm · 19 May 2025
One day when I was walking around Brummundal library, while my wife was at the garden center right next door, I came across a book by André Bjerke called "Versekunsten: rytme og rim", a fantastic little book (you can read it here). I've gradually picked up that there are a lot of rhyme schemes, both trochees and iambs and identical-twin pentadactyls and other dinosaurs. But I can't remember learning anything about this in school, and I guess I maybe haven't quite understood why it's so important.
Read the whole thing: Rette baker for smed, rhyme and rhythm →
The only book I remember us ever reading in school was A Doll's House — which admittedly wasn't the most engaging thing we could have read back then, even though I'm fond of it now... And even though I was a bookworm and bright at school it was all Robert Ludlum and exciting American spies. Nothing wrong with that, but I didn't even know the Odyssey existed!
What the complaint actually is
I feel a bit "short changed", not because I think we should have learned Greek and Latin in school etc, but because I never even got to hear about a lot of these authors and movements — for example that reading the Greek classics can be smart because every single personality up until 50–100 years ago knew them very well, and assumed that everyone who read their books, heard their music, saw their play, heard their speech, shared the same background... If I'd had any idea of that, I might have been more motivated.
Actually I feel like there should have been a "cultural history" subject, where students are "exposed" to theater, visual art, music etc through the centuries (even if it's just a very superficial impression but at least some milestones)... Because otherwise you sort of start right in on Norwegian literature in the 1800s, but those authors didn't come from "nowhere", they were bathed in everything that had come before them...
And now in my forties I'm trying to give myself "the education I never got", mainly when it comes to history, culture and literature...
From a letter to a writer at Minerva, August 2025
What I see and hear
Both for us and for a lot of friends with kids at different schools the reading homework year after year has been "read for 15 minutes in a book of your choice". That's good for getting lots of practice, but I rarely hear about a teacher or librarian actively pointing strong readers onward. We haven't experienced that ourselves.
It makes me a bit tired. The worst part is that we know what works, and we had it in the old days. Readers with well-chosen texts that build on each other, that are beautiful and literary and maybe a bit difficult — that everyone reads together, and discusses. Learning poems by heart is actually not so dumb. Practicing reciting difficult texts. Reading aloud at meals instead of watching TV... I really like leafing through old readers — even Wergeland put together a reader for schools! There were a lot of nice texts in there. (Not many comics)
By all means, comics are fun, and can give you lots of practice and joy. But we can't stop there! Nor can we believe that most kids will just naturally pick slightly more challenging books, without support and inspiration.
And what we do instead
The Argument"Am I supposed to prove that drinking makes you happy?"My son and Erasmus Montanus
EssayFrom 1885, and just as exciting for itOld books and films for an eleven-year-old
The ListBooks that aren't at the front of the shelfThe ListWe have a house full of books from my childhood, go to flea markets, order from other libraries, and find fantastic books that he's learned a lot from —
but that's effort from the family and not something that's available to everyone.
I refuse to believe that reading novels and fiction is for the elite! But of course — some will get it from home anyway. Just plain unfair if the others don't get access!
What I'm looking for is someone who isn't just screaming about what has to go out of school, but that we need to bring in more literature, history, art... and we as parents have to help our kids too.
From a letter to an author, August 2024