ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the views concerning school and children's work in Iceland during the period from 1900 to the 1960s. It deals with the debate concerning the relationship between school and work, a recurrent theme throughout the twentieth century. The chapter argues that the issue had been a recurrent theme in the discussion of Icelandic schools since the 1920s. The main source of livelihood for the majority of the population was raising animals, sheep farming being of vital importance in most rural areas. The settlement pattern outside the coastal towns and villages was characterized by isolated farms, and most often there were several kilometers between individual households. The decline in the proportion of children attending ambulatory schools was thus mainly because the rural population declined both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total population of Iceland. According to educational authorities, all children should be entitled to full-time schooling, regardless of their social or geographical background.
