The Student-Life of Germany

by William Howitt

THE GYMNASIA

May now claim our attention, which, particularly through the conflict which has arisen between them and the Real-schools, must possess an especial interest.

We must, in the first place, remark, that the word itself expresses no actual conception of the thing, as a gymnasium properly means an open place, where the youth were instructed in philosophy,--in fact, an associate-school. In Athens there were three of them: the Academia, the Lyceum, and Cynosarges. The origin of the gymnasium and the nature of its internal business as a higher educational institution, are simply indicated by the term. To trace what modifications these schools have undergone from that period to the present would be a too widely excursive notice for our present purpose. We shall, under this head, understand only such as strongly mark themselves out by their tendency from the schools already described, and which properly divide themselves into the Latin-school, Progymnasium, Gymnasium, and the Lyceum.

The first three are properly schools for future learned men, artists, &c; and in the state in which they exist, as in Bavaria, the studies are commenced in the Latin school, and are ended in the Gymnasium, as the school preparatory for the university.

By the Lyceum, in a restricted sense of the word, we understand such a school as seems to conduct to a certain point, the education of the students of the scientific faculty; although in the first, that is, in the Gymnasia, etc., all subjects of study are facultative. For the rest it is very difficult to give a description of these schools which shall express their real character, since in every one of the German states they have different names with different meanings, and in many places bear various appellations where they possess the same tendency. The Gymnasium and Lyceum equally signify schools which give a course of education expressly preparatory to an academical career, and we shall therefore include both under the general name of Gymnasium.

The elementary instruction, let it have been acquired as it will, must have made a certain advance before the scholar can enter the Gymnasium, since in the lowest classes--the Gymnasium is divided into classes in the same manner as the Folk's-schools--are taught the elements of the Latin tongue, history, mathematics, etc. Here are especial teachers for every faculty of science; that is, one teacher, particularly in the higher classes, teaches one determinate subject.

The study of the ancient classics continues still the chief business, since the German philologists conceive that they constitute the only and indispensable gymnastics of the mind. This is another ground by which these schools have come into open feud with the Realist tendency of the age--why the Gymnasia have dreaded an encroachment on their rights through the rapid growth and influence of Real-schools; because they feared that the public would come to see in their effects, that there was another mode of awaking the spirit to an internal activity than by the study of the dead languages.

It is not to be denied that through the study of the ancients the spirit is awakened; the sense of the noble and the great is inspired; that the poetical feeling is excited,--the taste purified, and the reason strengthened; that the mind is accustomed to a logical activity, and especially to self-reflection. But the schoolmen go too far with this. They are orthodox, and are contented that the future learned should here find their necessary nourishment. They will, in general, acknowledge no other learning or education than that of the Gymnasium, and torment every one with it who, as a future tradesman, can manage his affairs perfectly without this knowledge, and can bring by it little or nothing out of the school into his own trade. Yet at present the Gymnasia strive so far to meet the acknowledged necessities of the time, that they have adopted some of the educational subjects of the Real-schools, as mathematics, and the natural sciences in the fullest sense of the word. The subjects of tuition, with the exception of the predominant teaching of the ancient languages, are in general those of the other schools; that is, of the Folk's-schools, in a higher degree. The relation to the state is the same as that which we have already made ourselves acquainted with in the Folk's-schools; and we will now only explain a few more of the peculiarities of the Gymnasia.

A totally different discipline prevails in the Gymnasia to that of the Folk's-schools. Corporal punishments here, for the most part, cease in the higher classes entirely. Tasks, shutting up, open reproof, but especially moral restraint, are the means employed for correction. The teachers also stand in a totally different position in regard to their scholars; at least in the higher classes there is less school compulsion, though probably on that account not the less pedantry to be observed. In general, the gymnasiast is already more free, and placed in greater external advantage than the scholars of the other schools; the near prospect of student life calls forth, not seldom, extravagances, which, however, are contended with more vigorously by the teachers, but through the advanced age of the youths are not readily repressed. Though it is strictly forbidden, yet the gymnasiast frequently resorts secretly to public places of diversion, inns, etc.; he also begins to smoke, and to become regardless of conventional relations. In many cities the gymnasiasts have actually endeavoured, of course only the older ones, to form corporations, and to imitate the university Chores. But spite of all this, the constant and great diligence of the gymnasiasts is not to be denied. They exert themselves, because they know that it is only by that means that they can arrive at promotion; that is, that they can obtain the right to enter the university. We must here break off a moment to notice a particular which is of essential importance.

The Exemption-and-Maturity-Right[^[29]] belongs exclusively to the Gymnasia--another cause which has called forth in many German states contentions, the other schools already making claims on this privilege. Nothing can indeed be more vexatious, and even in many cases, unsettling, than for an able scholar of the Real-school, after he has passed his examination, and has given ample proof that he is quite qualified to enter the university, to have again to make the course of the Gymnasium, again to weary himself with the reading and study of the ancient classics, entirely for the sake of the formality of promotion, which might just as well be conferred on the Real-schools, and by which money and more especially time might be spared. From the higher position which these schools have already assumed, it is, however, to be expected that this injustice will be done away with, at least, that the Exemption-and-Maturity-Right will be extended to those Real scholars who devote themselves to state science, and to those professions which are included in it.