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Särskilda ämnen & övrigt => _Archives => Discussions in English => Archive - Swedish history => Ämnet startat av: Mary Nelson Keithahn skrivet 2010-02-13, 19:11
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My grandfather, Anders Nilsson (anglicized to Andrew Nelson when he immigrated to Minnesota in 1885) was born in Hjarsas in 1857. At the time of his death in 1927, his brother Nils (Nels Nelson) who had left Sweden with him, wrote my father that he had graduated from Elementarläroverket in Kristianstad when he was 17, which would have been about 1874. The handwriting is in pencil and faded, so I am not sure if I am spelling the name of the school correctly. I would like to know what kind of school this was and its proper name.
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The name of the school seems to be quite right. It is not easy to translate the kind of school to nowadays system in Minnesota, though. Let me say that it was theoretical and not for everyone.
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Thanks for your prompt reply. Glad I have the name right. By Theorectical do you mean academic rather than vocational (teaching a craft or skill)? When you said it was not for everyone, do you mean that you had to pass competitive exams to enter, or do you mean that it was expensive and not everyone could afford it?
My grandfather painted in oils most of his life, and gave most of them away. My cousins and I have some of his paintings but most are lost to us now. I wonder if he would have learned to paint at this school. Would it have been part of a theoretical education? Was painting something a young person in this time would learn?
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That school was a so called Secondary school
After three years in folkskola, children who enjoyed school and had good grades could choose to switch to a secondary school called Högre allmänna läroverket. Högre allmänna läroverket was not free, so most students came from well-off families. However, some children with good grades got free education at högre allmänna läroverket because their parents could not afford to pay for it. In 1905, högre allmänna läroverket was divided into a lower level, 6-year school called realskola and a higher level, 4-year school called gymnasium. In 1971, fackskola merged with gymnasium and yrkesskola to become gymnasieskola
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Sweden#Secondary_school
If you quit at an age of 17 it's certainly realskola
(Meddelandet ändrat av rannug 2010-02-15 14:42)
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Yes, I mean academic, although for children between ten and seventeen. You had to pass exams to enter. There was a fee to pay also, but if your parents could not afford that, they didn't have to pay. But books were not free, either.
Painting in oil was not a regular part of the education at a läroverk. Painting in water colours or wax was. I think your grandfather learnt most of his painting skills from another painter, and not at school. And by trial and error, of course.
To Bo: As this was an Elementarläroverk, not a Högre allmänt läroverk, I think it was just a realskola. But I may be wrong, as this was so early as in the 1870:s. By then 17-year old students could be found at universities. They had often spent their first years at school at a private preparatory school, directed just to meet the enter exams to the läroverk at a high speed.
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Now I have found out that Elementarläroverk was the same as högre allmänt läroverk, but existed before 1878, when the later name was introduced. What I still don't know is if there existed a realexamen so early. Else Nils Nilsson's grade was higher. But that is also a little dubious, as the exam was done at the university by then.
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Mary, read the story about the school:
http://www.buf.kristianstad.se/soderport/EN/skolan_skolanshistoria.asp
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How the school looks today:
http://webnews.textalk.com/se/article.php?id=199575 (http://webnews.textalk.com/se/article.php?id=199575)
I attended the realskola between 1961 and 1963.