#education in Sweden

[raincitygirl76]

For anyone getting excited over Hillerska being shut down by the school inspectorate, hold your glee. Lundsberg Skola is the Swedish boarding school Hillerska seems to based on. After years and years of warnings and fines re bullying and hazing, Lundsbergs was shut down by the school inspectorate on August 28, 2013.

It was supposed to stay shut down for a minimum of 6 months. Instead the school hired expensive lawyers, appealed, and were allowed to reopen on September 6, 2013. So it only took 9 days before they found a loophole. One can assume Hillerska will do likewise and everybody (except the third years) will be back in class in the second half of August when the new school year starts.

At Lundsbergs, the headmaster was fired and the entire board of governors resigned after the shut down. But they soon regrouped, hired a new headmaster, appointed new alumni and parents to the board, and debuted a shiny new anti-bullying policy. Whether it actually worked is unlikely. But the parents are mostly alumni themselves. They would’ve gone through the same brutal hazings and wouldn’t think they’d be such a big deal.

Here’s the Wikipedia page, scroll down to the Controversy section for the details on the abuse and bullying that the school was turning a blind eye to. The final investigation, the one that triggered the (temporary) shutdown, was when the younger boys were burned with hot irons by older boys at an initiation. One boy was burned so badly he needed to be hospitalized. The hospital called the local police, who called the school inspectorate. Note: that boy’s parents were not the ones to notify either the police or the school inspectorate.

Also scroll down to the Alumni section for a look at all the rich, influential and famous people (including multiple Swedish royals across many generations) who went there.

[quercus-queer]

I’m glad people are finally understanding how insufferable European countries are, YOU are the rude stupid ones with a culture of selfishness no one enjoys having visitors from and you’re just as complicit in the worlds problems!

[philosophybitmaps]

[dan-0-nino]

Dear Swedes,

Do yall have any funny, stupid, amusing podcast recommendations in swedish? My swedish matriculation exam (a big ass test) is coming up and I am trying to find low-effort ways to study

Sincerely,

Your Finnish friend

[stressedbeetle]

sometimes I watch video footage of Sweden from several years ago (70s, 50s, 1920s etc) because, I like history and I find it interesting. But then when I unfortunately check the comments there will without fail always be so many racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic comments saying that Sweden has been overrun and that the time from the video was the "good old days". Which just makes me SO FUCKING MAD PLEASE JUST SHUT UP YOU RACIST PIECE OF SHIT

[groenendaelfic]

Snippet #6 - Muggle-born Prince Wilhelm’s first accidental magic

Crown Princess Kristina is informed about the existence of magic the week after she turns eighteen.

It’s a bit of a shock, but she’s always been rather pragmatic and so she simply nods and familiarizes herself with this new aspect of her duties as best she can. She visits the Ministry of Magic, meets with the Magical Council, learns what she needs to know, and gets on with business.

Thirty years later she returns home from a long day of meetings and royal engagements to find her sons’ nanny wringing her hands and insisting that Kristina needs to come see her youngest right now, but unwilling to explain why.

Kristina is tired and has little patience for vagueness or a toddler’s antics, especially when Birgit is much better at calming little Wilhelm down than she herself is, but the other woman was chosen for her unflappable nature and no-nonsense attitude as much as she was for her qualifications and German skills, and so Kristina sighs and acquiesces. She knows Birgit wouldn’t bother her unless it’s really necessary and no one else can help.

"Is he having one of his crying episodes again?" Kristina asks, hoping for the answer to be no.

Wilhelm has always been a fussy baby, clingy and quick to upset, nothing like Erik, who smiles every time she comes to see him and never has any trouble entertaining himself or playing with others.

"It is best if Her Majesty comes and sees for herself," Birgit says, her accent stronger than usual.

Kristina sighs and makes her way to what is decidedly not the nursery.

A member of staff is waiting at the door, as if they’re guarding it, and Kristina has no idea how to take this. Birgit is not supposed to leave her charges unattended, or at least not Wilhelm, who is still young and has trouble sitting still and staying put when told to, and most certainly not when something is wrong.

The door is opened only as much as is necessary for them to walk through, and the sight which greets Kristina is most unexpected.

There are butterflies flying in the air, almost dancing around little Wilhelm, who is sitting on the carpet, his back towards the door.

He is not paying them any attention, does not come running up to her asking for a hug, and that, too, is most unusual. Instead he is busy cuddling a vaguely familiar looking dog—the small and yappy kind—and making gleeful happy noises.

Kristina blinks and turns to Birgit, waiting for an explanation.

Losing ones temper is never helpful, doubly so when one is the Queen and has a reputation to uphold, but she’s tired and it’s been a long day and she’d really like to know how a dog—if that’s what the long haired squirming carpet can even be called—got into the Royal Family’s private wing at Drottningholm and why it hasn’t long since been removed.

It can’t be because Birgit fears Wilhelm throwing a tantrum. Birgit is very good at handling those.

Birgit doesn’t immediately speak, as if she expects the presence of the dog to be explanation enough.

It most certainly is not.

"It … it jumped out of the painting," she says, waving at the life-sized painting, the one which prominently features a white Phalène sitting on the lap of one of her ancestors, its dark head and floppy ears adoringly staring up at its mistress.

Or rather it featured, because right now the lap is empty and said dog—because it is the same dog—is licking her youngest’s cheek and Wilhelm giggles, his small hands buried in its fur as it wriggles around, very much alive and three-dimensional.

She wants to tell Wilhelm to stop, because that’s unhygienic, but doesn’t. She can’t handle a hysterical Wilhelm on top of this, and maybe magical dogs—because that’s what it has to be, right? Accidental magic?—don’t have germs and have ideally no need to be house trained.

She really hopes it’s not. The idea of an adult member of the Royal Family having magic and strengthening the ties to the mostly independent and separate magical world might not be unwelcome, especially one with such close ties to the future King, but the thought of having a magical toddler at home, one as overly emotional as Wilhelm, precious as he otherwise is, is very much not.

She’ll have to notify the Magical Council, have someone from the Royal Swedish Academy of Magic come over both to test Wilhelm and to check if there isn’t something or someone else who might be the cause for this.

Maybe the paining was enchanted and Wilhelm somehow activated it … or something. One can always hope.

"The, ah, the butterflies were there first. I don’t know where they came from," Birgit adds, now back to helplessly wringing her hands.

Right, the butterflies. Which were definitely not in the painting before.

"Or rather … His Royal Highness was clapping his hands and then suddenly they were there, and they haven’t left him since."

Kristina swallows. This does not decrease the likelihood of her son having magic, quite the opposite.

She looks at him again, cooing and babbling at the dog in his lap, as if it were a person and not a … not a …

Well, it’s all a bit of a shock is what it is, but she’s always been rather pragmatic and so she swallows again and nods, already drafting messages to the Magical Council and the Head of the Academy in her head. So Wilhelm will take a seat on the Magical Council instead of having a career in the military. The public will have questions when the time comes, but as long as he still fulfills his duties as a working royal she can live with that. Maybe it'll even prove useful.

"Doggie," Wilhelm squeals, while the dog runs circles around her son, tail wagging and a new butterfly appearing with every clap of his hands. "Doggie, doggie, doggie."

They better be able to come immediately.

[prepnursey]

Lukas's head almost snaps off with how fast he turns it, ears perked.

"They're speaking Swedish!" he whisper-shouts, eyes probably even wider than those of Bully and Hops, who seem to have stopped talking. Huh.

"Sorry, keep going, how many pages do you have to write?" he says apologetically, trying to stay focused on Bully rather than the familiar lilt of Swedish drifting from across the quad.

"Five. For tomorrow", Bully says with a sigh. "I think I'm going to barricade myself in the library until I've managed to squeeze out everything I know about teaching kids to count."

Hops winces in commemoration, but seems to brighten up as he looks at Louis. "You should go talk to them! How long has it been since you talked to anyone Swedish except your family?"

Louis almost manages to choke on his surprise. "I can't go talk to them!" He gestures emphatically. "Like what, just go up to people in public because I can hear them gossiping about someone's roommate?"

"I'm sure they'd like it!"

Bully nods. "Yeah, and what's the worst that can happen? They say they don't want to talk?"

There are times when Lukas forgets the vast cultural difference between himself and most of his teammates. This is not one of those times.

"No, the worst scenario is when I fly home they're also flying back to Sweden and then I have to spend all the time from Boston to Arlanda pretending like all of us can't remember the way I just randomly came over to talk to them!"

Bully blinks.

Hops looks like he just witnessed a goalie take off his skate and throw it at an opposing player. "What's an Arlanda?" he says weakly.

"Oh. The Stockholm airport."

That does not seem to be the biggest source of confusion.

Lukas tries to downplay it. "And besides, they sound like they're from Stockholm so they'd probably call me a hillbilly and ask me if we have electricity back home or if trying to not get eaten by bears is all the entertainment we need."

Hops looks like he's going into shock. Bully says, "Oh, that's what people ask me when I say I grew up on the rez! I get you." He claps a hand on Lukas' shoulder. "But seriously, it's okay if you want to speak Swedish more often."

Hops sounds very shaky. "I'm, uh, I'm going to go see if Bitty made pie."

Hops gets almost halfway across the quad before Lukas realises he's heading away from the Haus. "Shit!" He turns to Bully. "You get to the library, I'll make sure he gets some pie safely."

Bully nods at him, cool as always. He saunters off and Lukas bolts off before he loses sight of Hops

[themeeplord]

What animation school did you go to 👀 I wanna go see that forest you mentioned some time. Can I’m looking for good art schools

I’m obsessed with your art btw, the style and aesthetic is just 👏✨

AAA! Thank you!! :'3

I studied animation for two years at Sörängens folkhögskola (/folk high school) in Nässjö, Sweden. It doesn't reaaaally put you in a place of being able to get work afterwards, but it's still the best school I've ever got the pleasure of going to. I learned a LOT about animation. And the actual place is to die for, it's such a beautiful school!

Idk if I'd recommend it if you're looking for a high-grade art education, but I do very much recommend it for it's overflowing charms.

If you're looking for forests to visit, come to Sweden and do some hiking in the summer! We got forests all over, but I recommend the ones up north and inland the most, they're HUGE! But the coast offers some beautiful scenery as well. It doesn't have as much forests, but still worth a visit :>

[kattangeln]

watching barbie was fun cause, as a swede watching it in sweden, when the character of our beloved will ferrell mentioned sweden the whole theatre laughed, surprised at being mentioned and thinking meh of the joke, while also simultaneously knowing exactly what the meant and thinking of that kind of swedish town

[raincitygirl76]

I just realized something. Hillerska must provide a fair bit of employment in Bjarstad. That bus stop can’t only be there for non-boarding students. There would be administrative staff, cooks, cleaners, groundskeepers, maintenance people. Plus occasional extra labour (from local catering companies, presumably) whenever Hillerska is having a special event like Parents Day or the jubilee.

And big regular orders to Bjarstad supermarkets, not to mention local tradespeople being called in whenever there’s a specialist problem the regular maintenance staff can’t fix. They’re old buildings. There would inevitably be plumbers, electricians, carpenters needed from time to time.

Adults Simon and Sara run into on campus would also be adults they’d run into in town. Which must have gotten seriously awkward for Simon after August leaked that fucking sex tape.

Also, while the housemasters and housemistresses would obviously have to live on campus, I doubt Hillerska would have room to house every teacher. Particularly the ones who have families of their own. And even if there was room, many teachers might prefer to have separation between work and the rest of their life. So they would live in Bjarstad.

Presumably teachers with families could send their own kids to Hillerska as non-boarders for free. That might even be a perk of teaching there. I wonder if the non-boarding kids of Hillerska teachers are treated with as much contempt as Simon and Sara.

Please note, I have discovered from helpful Swedish watchers of the show that none of the Hillerska students pay tuition to attend. It is illegal in Sweden to charge for schooling. Private boarding schools gets around this law by charging exorbitant amounts of money to the parents of boarders, theoretically for their room and board only. In practice, for the experience of upper class solidarity and an exclusive education. So non-boarders like Simon and Sara are seen as freeloaders by many of the boarders.

Please note, though, that Hillerska would receive revenue from the state for educating each and every student. I highly doubt those payments would cover all the fancy extras Hillerska offers. But Linda Eriksson is a taxpayer, and her taxes are helping to cover the expense of educating her non-boarding kids.

Also, private Swedish boarding schools can pick and choose which non-boarding applicants they will accept, unlike public schools which have to educate everyone. So I guess they’d pick the cream of the crop of Bjarstad locals, kids who stand out in some way, and will enhance the school’s standing.

Simon presumably for his musical talent, Sara probably for her grades. Or maybe on compassionate grounds, since she got bullied so unmercifully for years at the local public school. Hillerska could pat itself on the back for rescuing the poor girl from the scourge that is public education.

The above is my understanding from what I have picked up on Tumblr from Swedes. It’s entirely possible I didn’t get it all right. I’m just a Canadian, after all! If I misunderstood anything, please let me know and I’ll edit.

[dorianwolfforest]

sso au where the soul riders are still teens in school and the dark riders need to spy on them but chiyo is too young to join their class and katja literally kills anything she touches so she cant go, so Sabine and Jay sign up to be substitute teachers, sabine for PE and jay for like history or smth and it’s not like theyre doing a bad job, sabine is actually the kids’ favorite gym teacher in a while, but like the soul riders know they’re bad guys. they’re in on the plot. they get what’s going on. so it’s just a bunch of the soul riders trying to get the dark riders fired and the dark riders pretending to be normal adults

[scrambledslut]

seeing everyone i grew up with graduate high school is making me fucking spiral so bad

[vintage-sweden]

PE class, 1950s, Sweden.

[sereniv]

like i dont get why these mueseums fight so much for their stolen shit, especially indigenous items

you could take this opportunity to not only heal communities and culture, but also reimagine museums as an actual place of education other than the equivalent to a zoo

Like Sweden could instead of stealing shit from Mexico, work with the local indigenous tribes like the Sami as a place to learn about other cultures or their own Swedish history

And anything that is within that history (like some dutch ppl took a maaso kova once and thrn it ended up in sweden i guess) then talk with the communities from that history to see if there are any items you CAN use (there usually are)

like?? but ofc its just about money. 🙄

[indizombie]

An enduring attribute of the unhelpful uncle, often witnessed on Twitter-Pradesh, is his ability to drone on about ceding privileges or spaces he has never really lost. He fundamentally believes the world is a zero-sum game where another’s gain must be his loss. Uncledom is a quagmire of self-pitying-self-serious victimhood. Conservative uncles complain about the collapse of their prestige or place, while data continues to show how wealth and assets remain concentrated amongst men and certain caste-communities. Male economic dominance and educational attainment have certainly reduced in several Western countries. But elite Indian men are hardly confronted with a radically equal world. Yes, more women are entering universities and niche sectors but we remain in the world’s bottom five when it comes to women’s economic participation. A recent EY report, Diversity In The Boardroom: Progress And The Way Forward, found women’s representation on Indian boards was 18% in 2022. France topped the chart with 44.5% women representation on company boards, followed by Sweden (40%). The report also found that women account for only 6% of executive positions on banking and capital markets boards in India. According to a report by the financial services firm Morningstar in 2022, only 8% of mutual fund managers are women. So, even amongst the upper echelons of the economy, boss ladies are few and far between. And yet, the unhelpful uncle feels he is being emasculated.

Sharanya Bhattacharya, ‘The tyranny of the Indian uncle’, Mint

[24hrs-ago]