Talk:Lateinschule

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[edit] Does Lateinschule == High School?

"A Lateinschule, that is "latin school", was the high school of earlier times in Germany. It prepared students for university. Most required no fee. It was not uncommon for children of commoners to attend such schools, especially if they were expected to pursue a carrier within the church."

I don't really know much about this but I know that, for instance, Martin Luther attended the Mansfeld Lateinschule from 1491 (age 7) until he went to boarding school in 1497 (age 13). JS Bach went to the Lateinschule in Eisenach in 1692 (age 7) until the death of his father in 1695 (age 10). Johann Schiller went to Ludwigsburg Lateinschule until moving on to the Duke’s military academy (age 13).

On the other hand, I've found the text quoted above (word for word) on a few other web sites. Was Lateinschule more than just high school? Or am I being too American in my use of high school (the four years immediately preceding college or university)? Would "Latin-Based Grammar School" be a better definition?

-- Henryhartley 14:11, Sep 1, 2004 (UTC)

Not seeing any comments in over a month, I'm going to change the text to use "grammar school" instead of "high school". If you know better, please discuss here and change it back.

-- Henryhartley 17:53, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)

Tahnks for your interest, Henry. I didn't have much time for the wikipedia lately, so i overlooked your comment, sorry. I'm german and i think i don't know enough about the American or English school system to answer this question , so i'll leave it as you put it.

from 15th century onwards, there were two different primary schools in Germany, and there was no real secondary school until much later. At the german school the emphasis was on maths, german language and business related knowledge, it was meant to prepare for a job as merchant, and any other profession where abillity to read/write/calculate was useful. At the latin school the kids learned latin, basic math and sometimes basic scills in the other seven free arts and church-related stuff. This school prepared for university, where latin was still in use for scientific works. Some of these were in fact boarding schools, so the above citations don't say much about the problem. The lateinschule is the "ancestor" of todays Gymnasium, the only school that allows direct access to university afterwards (it separates from the other types of school after primary school, that is, after 4th grade). That's why i thought lateinschule = high school. But sure it was not a high school in the modern sense. What do you think?

i'll expand the article as soon as i have time. Lady Tenar 23:30, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)