Vetle Velleson Gjesdal

SCHOOL HISTORY in Håbbestad In 1869 the new school building in , Fjære was opened. The first Teacher was Vetle Vellesen Gjesdal from Gjesdal in Rogaland. He had a flat in the school building, where he lived with his family. He bought a piece of cropland from his father in law; her he had one cow, and potatoes and wedge tables for his family. He worked as schoolteacher in Håbbestad for 50 years.

VETLE THE TEACHER: When Vetle first come to teach in Håbbestad, the people in Håbbestad, thought that he was a bit too strict. Some of the children came too early, and had to wait outside the school building for the doors to be opened. Especially in the winter and this was not appreciated among the parents. The parents then asked Knud Lia, one of the leading men in Håbbestad to more or less tell the teacher to put an end to this practice

THIS WAS VETLE'S RESPONSE TO THE COMPLAINT: '"The truth about this is as follows: This winter children, not always from the best families in the parish, arrived at the school about 1 to 1 and a half hour before school starts, and made a lot of noise. I asked them not to be here so early, but that was not respected, so I decided that the doors should be kept locked until 30 minutes before teaching started. When I open the doors, I let the children start with writing and counting for about 15 minutes, then we have the morning prayer. For the children who arrive before the morning prayer there will be no punishment. That means that the children have all together 45 minutes before the school starts, and shouldn’t that be time enough? There has to be some order on everything, or should it be mandatory for me to have all this noise from a bunch of children from early morning hours? Maybe someone will tell me to be available 7 to 8 hours every day, when the law says I have to be 6 hours, I don’t think so. I can see that my decision can have made bitterness and discontent among the children, that prefer to be at school and make noises rather the be at home, but that parents should also share this bitterness and discontent, I cannot understand. Maybe one of the neighbor’s will open their houses early in the morning to take care of the children, I will not deny them. I will not change my decision unless ordered by my superior. Strictly speaking I am not committed to open the school house earlier than 15 minutes before starting teaching. The other point regarding temperature in the school house, I will inform you that in wintertime, when temperatures are low, the school house will not be warm enough 1 hour or more before school day starts, and this is probably this that makes the most complains. Otherwise the classroom will have the same temperature as an ordinary living room. I try to keep the temperature as even as possibly throughout the school day. If anybody else thinks they can do it better than myself, they can start from the coming new-year.

Signed Haabestad, 7 of march 1884 Regards V. Gjesdahl

COMMENT BY ONE OF HIS EX-PUPILS: Skjelluf Håbestad born 1891 died 1982 told this about his teacher Vetle Vellesen. Velleson was one of the leading Christians in the parish, and was greatly respected among the people in Fjære and if somebody needed help with their religious life, he was the person they talked to for help. He was also founder of the Håbbestad Misjosforening/Håbbestad Hedningmisjon, an association for spreading the holy message, probably in Africa or maybe China as that was the areas in which Norwegian missionaries worked at that time