School in Norway

A few days ago, someone posted a video on Facebook or Google+ about what Kindergarten in like in Norway. It's a documentary done by BBC Scotland comparing how much outside time students get in Norway as well as some other differences in what children are expected to do. Here's the video:




I was amazed at some of the things they show in the video. For example, that they spend one day a week outside. How wonderful is that? I love that they have a culture that is more interested in wearing clothing that is appropriate for the weather than "looking cool". One of my favourite quotes from this video is

"There is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing"

It's so true and I wish more people had that philosophy in Canada as well. Instead, we get students coming to school in shorts when it's way too cold for shorts.

I also enjoyed hearing their laid-back attitude towards students getting hurt. I certainly don't want my students to get hurt, but I also dislike the fear that if something happens to a child and they hurt themselves then we are totally at fault and there could be a lawsuit or whatever. I find that our obsession with keeping children safe also prohibits them from a great number of learning experiences. Imagine being able to take a Kindergarten class to a farm and interact that much with the animals! Or teaching little children how to safely use knives!

It's a very different culture and one I wish we could see a little more of in Canada and North America.