Nymoen School

Today this is an open, but unmanned, museum where you can find out more about the history of the school at Blaafarveværket. The culture trail around Nymoen goes by Nymoen Skole.

Did you know Modum Sparebank was constituted in Nymoen School's premises? In the archive we find a document signed on 15 February 1841 in which the management of Blaafarveværket gives permission to use the school's premises. Here is the document in its entirety:

«Blaafarveværket har intet imod, at Sparebankens Direction indtil videre indrömmes Dispsition over Nyemoens Skolelocale hver 2.den Lönningsdags Eftermiddag fra Kl. 3 af, saa at i samme Indskud og Udlaan af Sparebanken kan foregaae.

Ogsaa vil Værket drage Omsorg for Localets Opvarmelse og Oplysning, samt Reengjörelse för og efter Afbenyttelsen, forelöbigen 2 Gange, hvorefter vi skulle opgive og fordre erstattet de dermed forbundne Udlæg, og dernæst forvente betimelig Underretning, om Directionen hermed finder sig tjent. Hvilket i anledning Hr. Pastor Bechs Skrivelse af Dato herved meddeles.

Fossum d. 15.de Februar 1841. ærbödigst pp Modum’s Blaafarve Værk Gv. Benecke»

Nymoen School until 1898 - When the factory school was taken over by the public sector

Both Nymoen and Skuterudflaten continued to be run by Blaafarveværket. After the bankruptcy in 1849, British owners, Goodhall & Reeves, and then Saxon owners, Der Private Sachsiche Blaufarbenwerk-Verein, took over. As long as the mill was in operation, it was required by law to maintain a school.

During the improvement of the public school system in Norway in the 1860s, the difference between the factory schools and the other schools in Modum levelled out. At the same time as the public schools were improving their services, the Blaafarveværket's Saxon owners wanted Modum municipality to take over the running of the factory schools. The municipality did not want this, and the mill continued to run the schools until the early 1900s.[8]

The school programme at Nymoen School in 1863 was as follows: There were 19 weeks and 4 days of compulsory school, plus 25 weeks of voluntary school that year. The teaching week was 30 hours, with Saturdays off.[9] The teaching consisted of Bible history, catechism, Bible explanations, reading, arithmetic (including decimal fractions), the history of Norway, geography of Scandinavia and Norwegian.[10] School teacher Lars Olsen had 90 pupils in the upper and lower classes.[11]

Ten years later, in 1873, the school programme had been reduced. For the upper class, only 54 days of compulsory and 54 days of voluntary school were offered.[12] In total, the 31 students had 215 days of legal absence and 70 days of illegal absence.[13] Pupil Peder Hansen Nymoen had the most absences. Throughout the year, he had only attended 28½ days of compulsory school and 14 days of voluntary school. Nymoen was employed by the plant and was confirmed this year, which may explain his high absenteeism.[14] Paulina Andersdatter was the best in her class and had been present every day, 54 days compulsory and 54 days voluntary.[15]

Business teacher Brekke

It seems reasonable to assume that the school programme was somewhat shaped by the teacher. Hans Jensen Brekke took over as works teacher at Nymoen in 1872. For the 1886 school year, we see that the teaching included much of the same as in 1863, but was greatly expanded in the subject of music. The pupils had to be able to sing "Kom mai du skjønne milde" and "Ja vi elsker".[16] Singing at Nymoen was not new to Brekke. His predecessor, Olsen, established a mixed choir at Nymoen in 1862.[17] Brekke was also the son of Hans Brekke, a teacher at Skuterudflaten school, who was also a church singer.[18]

The last school year we'll be looking at today is 1898, the year in which mining operations ceased. Brekke had 53 pupils who only had 15 weeks of compulsory school, plus 3 weeks of voluntary school.[19] Bible teaching had been reduced, and secular subjects had been further expanded with science subjects in addition to those previously mentioned.[20] During the last few months of the year, a colourful choir could be heard singing "Between hills and mountains" from the school building.[21] Children's songs would continue to be heard for a few more decades.

In this sense, we can see that the world was moving forward even though the Blaafarveværket's mining operations were discontinued. The wood processing plant continued into the 20th century, still under the name Blaafarveværket. Nymoen School was also run until the 1920s. Schoolteacher Brekke died in 1906.

Read more about «The school programme at Blaafarveværket in the second half of the 19th century» here.