Uteskule

Last week, Sara's class spent a few hours outside having their version of a picnic. Sara said there is an area behind the school called the Uteskule, the Out School, where the teachers take the kids to play or have a cookout.  I pictured a bunch of trees, a few picnic tables, and maybe a tire swing or a basketball hoop.  Not even close. The Uteskule is what most Americans would call a...well...it's more of a...sort of...like a...place where a homeless person sets up camp. On a good day.  There is an old mattress on the ground, a bunch of hubcaps and some old buckets.  Someone has taken a tarp and attached it to a few posts that are nailed to a tree to make a shelter, complete with an old red door. There are rusty beach chairs, a fire pit, a huge old jug that held vegetable oil, and even a shovel with a broken handle.  And best of all, the kids love it. They jump on the mattress, make a drum kit from the hubcaps and buckets, and barbecue sausages over a fire pit. It was one of Sara's favorite times at school. Can you imagine trying this in the States?  Even if the school teachers got the school administrators to approve it, and the administrators convinced the superintendent to allow it, the parents would have a fit. They might even file a lawsuit. Come on, America...let's take a lesson from our Norwegian friends and relax a little. It might even be fun.

To see more Uteskule pictures, click here!!