Mini history extended

To what extent did the secularisation

of Sweden change the Swedish school system?

by

Ola Hjalmarsson

History B

Howard Clark

May 23

Abstract

The Swedish school has a very distinct profile, and it has a very interesting history. This report shows how the church helped build the Swedish school, from its origin in Cathedral schools to the modern people’s school. It also tries to explain how the scientific subjects were regarded as superfluous by the church, which wanted the school to follow a more traditional, orthodox path. Furthermore it will explain to what extent the secularisation of the state has changed the Swedish school system. To do this, I have described the situation of the school during different time periods, and described what was done from the government and the church in order to change and improve it. The research question I have chosen is: To what extent did the secularisation of Sweden change the Swedish school system.

Table of contents

Introduction.. 4

The Birth and Growth of the Educational System.. 4

The Church’s role in the building of the School 4

Educating the masses – the State takes increased responsibility. 6

The Separation of Church and State. 7

Conclusion.. 8

Sources.. 8

Introduction

Religion has for years and years been a large part of many people’s world. It has offered guidance and support in times of need, but many crimes have also been committed in the name of religion. Many of the basic rules that our societies and cultures are built upon have their origin in religion. Values and traditions are inherited from past generations and what religion has built up either stands strong or falls. The majority of Sweden’s population has, for about 1000 years, followed Christianity. During those years, the church has, sometimes with, and sometimes without help, developed the school system on which we rely on today. Of course, much has changed during the years that the school has been (as good as) secularised, but the main foundations and the traditional values that are teached today has its roots in the church, and especially in the book that essentially was more important for the Swedes then the bible, Luther’s Small Catechism.

This essay is aiming to answer the question: To what extent did the secularisation of Sweden change the Swedish school system? To answer this question, I have chosen to look how the school evolved from the early cathedral schools to the schools we have today. It will also try to explain how the church has actively worked against a modernized school, focusing on scientific subjects rather then religious.

The Birth and Growth of the Educational System

The Church’s role in the building of the School

The church has been driving force in the construction of the school system. Ever since the middle ages, the Church of Sweden has been involved in the education of the people. They have, throughout the years, used varying means and had varying success in it’s strive to educate or, perhaps, indoctrinate the Swedish people. The access to books and the ability to read has for centuries and until recently, been a luxury only granted the higher stands in society. Many politicians thought (even as recent as the 18th century) that any form of governmental intervention to educate the masses was not needed, because it would make them “half educated” and more “recalcitrant” (Richardson, 46).

While there existed “city schools” for aspiring tradesmen, the only form of education received by the large majority of the population during the middle ages was given out by the church in the form of preaches from the Bible (however, the preaches were conducted in Latin). The Church had its own schools called “cathedral schools”, of which there was one in every diocese. This is where the priests were educated (Richardson, 19). Gunnar Richardson claims that:

“the cultural life during the middle ages was to a large extent international and the raising facilities and the raising methods that was introduced in Sweden were mainly copies of foreign patterns”(Richardson, 21).

Travelling abroad to study was not an uncommon phenomenon among higher stands and the opening of the first university in Scandinavia, Uppsala universitet, barely changed that trend. The university faced some problems and was temporarily closed after 1515, when Archbishop Jakob Ulvsson, the “driving force behind the establishing of Uppsala universitet” resigned. The university was closed for 80 years, but was restored once again and it’s “years of greatness started in the 1620ies” (Anna Malmberg, 1).

When Gustav Vasa came to power in 1523, he decided to make Sweden into a protestant Kingdom, with the state in control of the church. This meant that for the first time, the state was in control of the Church’s educational system. The printing press, a new invention by a man named Johannes Gutenberg allowed the New Testament (which was translated to Swedish, in a larger scale, for the first time in 1526 (Svenska Bibelsällskapet, 1), and maybe more importantly, Luther’s Small Catechism, which, according to Richardson was “a mean that, in question of pedagogic function during ideological schooling can very well be compared to the writings of Lenin and Mao’s Little Red Book” (Richardson, 39), to reach a larger audience.

During the 17th century, the church continued their efforts to educate the people, using different techniques, like adding a law that forced the people to attend the morning service in the church, with punishments in form of a fine for those who were absent. But even worse punishments waited for those who refused to follow the church because after the reformation, all other religious views then the Evangelic-Lutheran were banned and Catholics who openly expressed their faith were executed (Göranzon, 24). The witch hunts of the 17th century also promoted a more educated farmers stand (Richardson, 39).

Educating the masses – the State takes increased responsibility

The church did not want the school system to evolve into a system dedicated to science and other modern subjects. The 18^th century was a century filled with new discoveries, and liberal ideas were flourishing in Europe. Great thinkers like Newton and Voltaire inspired thousands with their ideas and religion became less important for the Europeans. In Sweden, the hunger for exotic wares and influences from other cultures had never been bigger. The Swedish botanist Carl von Linné was a pioneer in this time of increasing interest for the nature and all its miracles. An alternative to the strict picture of the world that the church stood for was finally given. But little happened to the school during these years:

“Regarding the social changes and the cultural reorientation that occurred during the 18^th century, one could no doubt have expected that the school system also experienced significant changes. That is however not the case (Richardson, 42).

A new school order was however issued in 1725, but it had little effect. “the orthodox and harsh mood was as clear as ever” (Richardson, 43). Even though the Swedish church no longer had any obligations to the Catholic church and the Pope, that might have influenced the church’s decision to continue down the road of orthodoxy and strictness, it still choose to do so. A suggestion concerning a reorganization of the universities to, “fit the needs of education in the society” was proposed by a raising committee. It also suggested a modernization of the teaching school, adding a numerous subjects including math and physics (Richardson, 43). The suggestions, however, were not put in action as a result of the church’s refusal. More urgent, according to the priests, was to do something about the “declining knowledge about Christianity” that was noted among the masses (Richardson, 47). Even though the church was not the most modern institution of its kind, it did succeed in managing 400-500 schools in the beginning of the 19^th century, slowly fighting the “compact analphabetism” that previously was so widely spread among the commoners (Richardson, 48).

With the 19^th century came the industrial revolution and the need for educated workforce that could manage the new technology and all the administrative work that came with the increased number of industries. During a time period of 70 years, the Swedish population was “almost doubled”, much thanks to the progress made within medicinal research, with the introduction of the vaccine as the most important milestone (Nyström, Nyström, 214). The school system had to be modernized in accordance to the ideas and valuations of the 19^th century, and in 1842, a new school regulation was adapted, stating that “every parish should establish permanent schools with approved teachers for children between seven and thirteen years old” (Nyström, Nyström, 219). Conservative groups in the society was however sceptic to the idea of the state being in charge of the people’s education, except for when it came to religion (Richardson, 55). Even though the state had increased its influence over the school, according to the municipality laws of 1862, the vicar still was, in capacity of chairman of the school board in his municipality, the one responsible for the school activity. This continued until 1930, when the Law of school governing came, leaving the municipality in control of the school (Brohed, 14). Richardson describes the elementary school during the beginning of the 20^th century:

“Regarding the inner work of the school, it was characterized to a large extent by soulless and mechanical by-heart reading. (…) The curriculum of 1900 did recommend a more restrained way of dealing with the by-heart reading but on one point the demand was made even clearer: that every weak learn and be able to recite by heart one word of memory from the bible.”(Richardson, 108)

This suggests that the church’s continued involvement in the school was preserving the quality of the school, using the same technique it had used for hundreds years, instead of developing it, using alternative pedagogic methods.

The Separation of Church and State

The relationship between the state and the Church of Sweden has been discussed and altered much since Gustav Vasa’s reformation in the 16^th century. The first party programme of the social democrats from 1897 suggested an abandonment of the state church, and they were supported in the matter by many of the nonconformist churches claiming that “[no] form of Christian “state religion” was needed to create loyal and good citizens” (Brohed, 115). In 1920, the question about religious freedom and the state church was once again put in focus in the social democratic party. It was suggested that a process should be set in motion that would ultimately separate the church with the state. One of the motives was to gain more control over the educational system (Brohed, 35). But no real actions were made until 1956, when a bill was made, suggesting that the bonds between the church and the state should be cut. The arguments were that “a secularisation had taken place both among the citizens and in the community as a whole” and that “Faith is a deeply personal matter and the state can not take a standing regarding religious belief” (Brohed, 260). The investigation that was launched after the bill had been discussed in the two chambers led to a series of reports that was published during the time period 1963 to 1968 (Brohed, 262). A committee was appointed in 1968 that, after four years of investigations, presented a proposition that suggested that some of the tasks currently handled by the church would be given to the state, and vice versa. The proposition was, however met with great controversy, and the decision was postponed. In 1988, the government gave orders of another investigation, with the purpose of investigating economic and legal questions within the church. Brohed explains that the investigation “opened the way for the four party government (…) to appoint the church committee with Carl Axel Petri as chairman” (Brohed, 278). The church committee made a report that set the guidelines for the coming process of the “final divorce” between church and state. In January 2000, the separation became complete.

The church’s role in the school, had, however, ended much earlier. Gradually, its control over the school declined, to the point where nothing was left of what was once the only authority taking on the task of educating the people. The school commission of 1946 started a process that would eliminate the only things that were left from the time when the church ran the schools: the morning service and the Christian knowledge classes. After two more investigations, one in 1957 and one in 1960, the Swedish school system could finally be regarded as religiously neutral.

Conclusion

One can assume that without the success of the social democratic party during the end of the 19^th century, the school system would have not been the same as it is today. It was the social democrats that first raised the questions about freedom of religion and the separation of the state and church. Many conservative forces wanted to keep the school focused on religion even in times of scientific progress and modernisation. The secularisation has definitely excluded obstacles and speeded up the process of evolving that the school has gone through. The Swedish school system has gone through a series of changes that all have left their mark on the institution that now remains. The journey from the early cathedral schools to today’s top modern universities has been a long one, and while it sometimes has complicated the process of developing, without the continued efforts of the church, the school we see today would not have been what it is.

Sources (All translations made by the author)

Brohed, Ingmar, “Sveriges kyrkohistoria 8” [Church history of Sweden 8], Verbum, 2005

Belinda Thruban, ”En undersökning av skolavslutning i kyrkan” [A research of the end-term celebrations in the church], Högskolan Kristianstad, 2005

Malmberg, Anna, http://info.uu.se/fakta.nsf/sidor/historik.id42.html , Uppsala Universitet

Nyström, Hans and Nyström, Örjan, ”Perspektiv på historien A” [Perspective on the history A], Gleerups, 2001

Richardson, Gunnar, ”Svensk utbildningshistoria” [Swedish educational history], 7th edition, Studentlitteratur, 2004

Svenska Bibelsällskapet, ”Svensk bibelhistoria – 1500-talet”, http://www.bibeln.se/om_bibeln/om_sv_bibel1500.html