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REJUVENATING THE SOUL AND ENHANCING KNOWLEDGE | THE FIRST TEACHER TRAINING INSTITUTION IN ICELAND 41
From early on there was a desire to establish a teacher training institution in Flensborg. Due to a lack of
funds process was slow and in the winter of 1890-1891 the project was begun with a weekly lecture on
pedagogy and theories of instruction from Mr. Jóhannes Sigfússon, which took place outside regular school
hours. The following winter further steps were taken by offering courses for teachers. During the first spring
five aspiring teachers took an exam at the end of the course and thereby became the first people to take an
examination to qualify as teachers in Iceland. The editor of Fjallkonan wrote an article expressing doubts
about the usefulness of educating people to become teachers, stating among other things that: “Also, in
some respects this cannot be taught but people rather need to possess a particular natural ability to be
good teachers, so in this regard nature once more prevails over study.”
In the autumn of 1896 the matter was taken to the next level when the authorities for the diocese
approved a proposal from representatives of Flensborg School whereby “the teachers’ school” was to
teach classes for an entire school year, added at the end of middle school studies. Subsequent years
saw much debate regarding the teachers’ school, and bills were proposed in the Althing regarding the
establishment of a special teachers’ school. Included in this debate was the location of this new
school, whether it should be in Hafnarfjörður or Reykjavík. A committee opinion on that matter
contained the following:
“… not omitting the fact that the location of Flensborg
School is such that there is much less risk of young
and irresolute men succumbing to temptations of any
kind than if they were in the capital with all its
debauchery and noisy distractions...”
In spite of this the end result was that the teacher training institution Kennaraskóli Íslands was
founded in Reykjavík in 1907 and consequently the teachers’ school in Flensborg was disbanded, at
which time a total of 121 teachers had graduated from there.