The first day of school was a busy one for Harold. When the boys were in the room the teacher said, “Write your name on the paper which I shall give you.” Harold wrote his name in clear letters.
After the teacher got the names of all the boys he said, “Now I shall tell you what lessons you will have each day. You may write them down on a time plan.”
Harold and his classmates knew what a “time plan” is. The storekeepers in the bookstores had given them pretty picture cards with blank places on them where the pupils could write the names of the subjects and the time at which each would recite. So when the teacher told them the lessons they would have each day they wrote them on their time plans. Harold’s time plan looked like the one shown here.
Most of the subjects the Norwegian girls and boys study in the third grade are the same as those which American pupils study in the third grade. American girls and boys study English; but on Harold’s time plan instead of English is Norsk. Norsk is the name for the language of Norway.
In one of the reading texts which many children read the first picture is a flag of Norway. Across the page from the picture is a poem about Norway. The poem is in Norsk of course. Children in Norway learn that poem so that they can say it without looking at the words.
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt, over vannet,
med de tusen hjem;
elsker, elsker det og tenker