How do Iowa’s schools compare with Norway’s?

I am writing to you from the future. When my clock reads 7 a.m. in Norway, yours strikes midnight. Seven hours may not be much in the future, but it is enough. There are elements of life in Norway that make me think that I might be living in the future. Not just seven hours in the future, maybe seven years, likely even more.

Since August I have lived in Norway with my family. From my base in Oslo, I am guest teaching at schools all over Norway. A Fulbright Scholarship supports my travels and teaching as something like an ambassador for education. I have traveled the width and breadth of Norway. To date I have visited 17 of the 19 'states” of Norway and taught at over 40 Norwegian high schools. The local name is 'vidergåendeskoler” - a school to widen one's education.

At first thought, Norway may seem like a very different place. Well, in some obvious ways, like geography and climate, it is. But there are plenty of similarities between Iowa and Norway.

The cultural roots of Iowa owe much to the influence of Norwegians as well other Scandinavian immigrants. Although Norway may be two and a half times larger than Iowa, most Norwegians live in the southern region, an area roughly the size of Iowa. Both societies have a strong connection to agricultural roots. Nostalgia for the old farm is strong, whether you're from the prairie or the fjord.

Norwegians take pride in their educational system, as do Iowans. We all also struggle with finding the money it takes to maintain a system that will continue to be a source of pride. Politics are messy on both sides of the Atlantic. And even though Iowans and Norwegians beam about cultural harmony, we all find a lot to fight about.

Democracy and capitalism are the systems through which we meet our challenges and plan our goals in both societies. Maybe it's because Norway is an independent nation, or because they live on the edge of civilization, or maybe it's because I'm paying attention, but I feel like Norwegians are living today in what will be the world conditions for Iowa tomorrow. Conditions such as the carbon limit, immigration and refugees, climate change, high-technology jobs, an aging population, and the list goes on. I can't say that the Norwegians have the answers, but I can say that they have examples worth paying attention to.

In the 21st Century, many challenges for Norway will be the same challenges for Iowa. In guest columns over the next few Sundays I will talk about three areas in which the conditions in Norway are powerful lessons for Iowa: food production, transportation, and education. I think we have enough cultural similarities to use the present Norway to tackle our predictable challenges of our future.

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Schools in Norway, like schools in America, have looked to Finland as if it were a miracle worker with education. 'If only we could get the results of Finland…” is a plea I've heard on both sides of the Atlantic.

Similarities abound for schooling in Iowa and Norway. We share anxiety about the rural and urban divide over quality. The Norwegian government continues to pressure for consolidation in a passive-aggressive manner that would put our leaders to shame. Parents in both societies are concerned about the intensification of measurement and testing for students. Both governments seek higher qualifications for teachers. The Twitter handle for the Minister of Education here is @konservitiv. The dropout rate is a real source of anxiety, and the pressure to do something about bullying is visceral.

My intimate experience in visiting and teaching in upper secondary schools all over Norway has given me confidence to relate some observations and make some claims. Norwegian students have more choice in career paths, but Iowa students get many more opportunities to explore their interests. And how students live the school experience is noticeably different.

The tradition of upper secondary schools (think high school) in Norway was exclusive. Like most of Europe, they were intended for the collegebound. For teens who were not so academically inclined there was trade school. These dual systems persist in Norway, however their differences are no longer as sharp.

In Iowa, a teen interested in the trades must wait. They must wait until they have survived the full academic gauntlet of high school. Only after they have earned a high school diploma, then there are tuition-based certifications through our community colleges and trade schools. In Norway, teens can opt to take the trade-school track for free, and complete a course of study that qualifies them for a real working life. It's admirable that we want all kids to be college ready but it is unrealistic and counterproductive.

Teens in Norway are remarkably similar to the teens in Iowa. I often break the ice with a new group of Norwegian teens with the claim that they look, dress, and (I make a demonstrative sniff for effect) smell just like my students in America. Giggles need no translation.

Like American teens, my Norwegian students are obsessed with their mobile phones, resistant to homework, and punctually challenged. But like Iowa teens, they are also founts of energy, consumers of knowledge, and bright hope for our futures.

Most of my time has been with the college-oriented classes. My stays with each class are brief, so I have developed an appreciation for the feel of the system more so than the curriculum. The feel of the Norwegian high school is more relaxed and informal than Iowa schools. The students have a greater freedom to come and go from school, and coupled with a varied schedule and generous public transportation options (you have to be 18 to drive in Norway) the environment is more like a junior college.

The systems are different because Norway and Iowa are different cultures, we have different histories and needs. I feel that on the whole our similarities are greater than our differences. One system is not better than another.

There is one area, however, in which Iowans have beaten the Norwegians at their own game. To visit an Iowa classroom is to enter a museum in miniature, a Wonka-like factory for learning with walls of inspiration, colorful posters, and the idiosyncrasies of the teacher on display. In Iowa the teacher 'owns” the classroom, we treat it like a second home. For many of us it is.

Not so in Norway. From a cubicle farm, Norwegian teachers rotate among different classrooms. The 10-15 minute passing time fulfills the cultural demand for a coffee klatsch as well as toting materials about the school. By comparison, Norwegian classrooms are rather plain and dull. The bare walls and anonymous nature of the rooms don't inspire. Instead they only seem to amplify the institutional feeling of a school.

The goal for most of Norwegian life is for things to be 'koselig.” That is, a gathering or a place should make you feel warm and happy. Cozy isn't the correct translation but it's as close as I can get. Forget Feng Shui or trendiness, if it's not koselig then it's no good.

No, Iowa and Norway schools aren't that different. Our hopes for children, our concerns about the system, and democratic process make our experiences quite similar. One system is no better than the other in terms of results, but I will be glad to return to my koselig classroom in Iowa.

' John Lawrence Hanson, Ed.D., is a teacher at Linn-Mar High School on a Fulbright Scholarship in Norway for the academic year. He blogs about his experience at johnlhanson.wordpress.com