Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/349

 Prague in 1890. Nevertheless secondary education of girls did not grow rapidly, partly because the people looked upon it a luxury, partly because the reactionary government did not favor it. In 1890 there was created the official type of girls’ lyceum with six grades, without Latin. These schools had a hard row to hoe, because the state would not establish such schools out of state funds nor would it offer to graduates places in public service. Many lycea are being transformed into real-gymnasia of eight grades, or they add a two year course, so as to enable their graduates to be admitted to the university. We have now six Czech real-gymnasia for girls and 10 lycea, while the Germans have 13 lycea.

There has been a rapid growth of girl students in boys’ gymnasia and “real schools”, although the Austrian government did not favor co-education. Girls now make up one-sixth of the attendance of Czech secondary schools, and due to conscription during the war they have become an important factor even in schools of university grade. Nevertheless girls do not attend higher schools in quite the same proportion as in the eastern Slav countries, in Poland and particularly in Russia. Strangers will ask in what way Czech schools differ from German, in addition of course to the difference in the language of instruction. First of all in the choice of modern tongues; Czech gymnasia and “real schools” gave German as much time as Czech (from 3 to 5 hours per week), where as German schools paid little attention to the Czech language, generally giving only optional courses. In Czech secondary schools the German language is a required subject, unless the pupil's parents explicitly ask his exemption. Only in the Moravian “real schools” are both languages required in Czech and German schools equally. Thus on the whole Czech “real school” students had a heavier schedule with both Czech and German, than German students with only German; that meant that they had seldom time for English, although French was taken by all. Gymnasium students took French only as an optional subject, while a few of the Czech “real schools” offered optional English.

In other respects there was surprising uniformity in the schools of the two races. Thus the study of Czech literature was outlined in close imitation of German, although history of Czech literature is very different from German and the periods do not correspond. Instruction in history likewise left little time for Bohemian history after an extensive course in Austrian and German histories. But the culmination of Austrian control of Czech education consisted in “patriotic” written essays which had to be prepared at least twice a year in each language and were submitted to the inspection of the imperial governor.

Only very recently school anthologies have included examples of Slav literary works with some mention of the leading figures in the principal Slav literatures. This savage inculation of loyalty to the Hapsburgs applied only to the Czech schools, and during the war it was sharpened by the command to sing Austrian hymn at every church service. Only a few of the youngest pupils gave expression to this falsified Austrian enthusiasm; all the rest were contemptuously silent.

Thus the Republic inherited from Austria classical gymnasia with a course of eight years, “real schools” with seven year course and girls’ lycea with a six year course. Gymnasia give instruction in Latin throughout the eight years, in Greek from the third grade on, drawing the first four years, preparatory philosophy the last two years; Czech and German are the modern languages. Religion, geography and history, mathematics and physical training are required during the entire course; natural science and physics alternate in the various grades as required subjects.

In the real-gymnasia in addition to Latin there is French, in place of Greek, from the third grade on. Chemistry instead of being taught in connection with physics is an in dependent subject, and descriptive geometry and preparatory philosophy receive more attention.

Austrian ministry started to experiment, after the French example, with the so-called reform real-gymnasia; the first four grades are the same as in the “real schools”, in the upper grades Latin is intensively studied with knowledge of French as a foundation. In Bohemia there is only one school of this type, the German gymnasium of Děčín. The intention here is to unite gymnasium with “real school” and real-gymnasium. In some of the subjects all scholars receive common instruction, while