 A teacher, Knut Grimstad, refused to accept this on the grounds that neither the school district nor the Norwegian national authorities had the right to impose a version of a spoken language as instruction.He found support in the 1878 resolution that required that all students – "as much as possible" – should receive instruction in a language close to their native tongue.This was subsequently clarified to mean that they were supposed to be taught in "the Norwegian language", a phrase also open to interpretation.