!!!Gymnasium, Schultyp

Gymnasium (selective secondary school), term introduced by the 
Humanists, used originally for institutions of higher education, but 
by the 16%%sup th/%  century already used to describe the preparatory 
philosophy courses ("faculty of liberal arts") and Latin schools 
(Krems, 1579). Since the mid-17%%sup th/%  century, common term to 
describe schools which specifically cater for the needs of 
universities (mainly teaching of Latin and Greek, since the 
18%%sup th/%  century history, geography and mathematics) and were 
affiliated to the universities in the university towns ( Akademisches 
Gymnasium). Up to the mid-19%%sup th/%  century the Gymnasium schools 
were all established and run by religious orders, mainly by Jesuits 
(until 1773), Piarists and Benedictines, and comprised 5 to 6 forms; 
all secularisation efforts by the state were futile until the  
Studienhofkommission was set up in 1760. In 1848/49 the two philosophy 
classes of the (  Philosophische Lehranstalt) were integrated into the 
Gymnasium as the 7%%sup th/%  and 8%%sup th/%  forms, which laid the 
foundation for the present-day Gymnasium (8 forms, 4 in the lower and 
4 in the upper grades; imparting general knowledge in the fields of 
language and history as well as mathematics and natural sciences. 
Teachers at Gymnasium schools must be university graduates;  
Reifepruefung). While the organisational structure remained unaltered 
after 1849, the curriculum since been adapted to the progress in 
knowledge and changes in society. When, by 1963, the number of 
secondary school students who chose a Gymnasium had dropped to 17 %, a 
reform was undertaken, dividing the school type into a traditional 
branch (with Greek), a modern-language and a science-oriented branch, 
which were similar in curriculum content to the Realgymnasium. These 
subdivisions were abolished under the 1988 re-organisation of the 
Gymnasium, when students were required to choose from a number of 
compulsory subjects in the upper forms of the Gymnasium.

!Literature
Die Schulreform Maria Theresias 1747-75, 1987.


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