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ethics and Church history. On the part of students of other sects, both Christian and Jewish, similar instruction is required, which should be given, as far as possible, within the gymnasium. All are required to attend divine service and the religious exercises of their sect, for which purpose Jewish students are excused from school duties upon their feast days.

Optional Branches.-These include penmanship, music, drawing, the modern languages, stenography, and gymnastics. Ornamental penmanship receives the most general attention, all the members of the two lowest classes, in which there are two hours less of weekly obligatory study, taking part in it. So also, scarcely any gymnasium is without instruction in singing, all the students, except those that have no faculty whatever for music, being divided into two sections for boys' and mens' voices, and receiving two hours instruction each week. Instrumental music is taught only at five institutions. Stenography is often taken up in the higher classes. Of the modern languages, French is the most common, English being taught in but nine schools, but Italian in most of the gymnasiums of Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Gymnastics are being gradually introduced, but are still wholly wanting in Galicia, Dalmatia, and Lombardy and Venice.

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Text-books, Apparatus and Libraries.-Each board of teachers is mitted to select its text-books from the catalogue of those that have been approved by the State Ministry, and a teacher is seldom restricted from using in his own classes text-books of his own composition, of which books there is a very considerable number. In the modern languages and other optional branches, the selection of books is left to the individual teachers, under the supervision of the director. Special attention has of late years been given to providing apparatus, natural history collections, &c., as aids in instruction, and all gymnasiums are required to be supplied with wall maps, globes, atlases, and similar forms of apparatus. Libraries for both teachers and students have also been established in all the gymnasiums.

Terms and Vacations.-The school year continues from the 1st of Oc-. tober to the 31st of July-commencing and ending in Galicia and Bukowina a month earlier, in the Littorale and in Lombardy and Venice a month later. Five days vacation are given between the semesters, and the directors can excuse from attendance upon four other days. Thursdays, or two afternoons in cach week, are also free. In some of the city gymnasiums it has become customary to give all the instruction in the obligatory branches in the forenoon.

Requirements for admission.-Candidates for admission must be at least nine years of age and have a legal certificate of having passed through the studies of the fourth high school class and the preceding gymnasial studies. An examination is required before admission to the first class, but otherwise only when the candidate has not previously belonged to a public gymnasium. When there are many candidates found unprepared for admission to the first class, a preparatory class may be formed, either

temporarily or permanently, in which the instruction is limited to lan guage and arithmetic, the scholars receiving instruction in religion, geography, and natural history as transient students (Hospitanten) of the first. class. The number of students in a class should not exceed fifty, this limit being maintained by dismissal to other gymnasiums or by the formation of parallel classes. But the establishment of the latter is not imperative, and is not permitted at the State gymnasiums if great difficulty attends the procurement of rooms and teachers. Still where the attendance at the lower gymnasium makes a division of its classes a permanent necessity, an increase of teacherships is allowed even at the latter institutions. If this excess extends to the higher classes, the establishment of a new gymnasium is preferable.

Tuition Fees.-An admission fee of 2 fl. 10 kr. is required at the State gymnasiums and may be imposed at the others. The tuition fees at most of the State gymnasiums amount to 12 fl. 60 kr., paid semi-annually in advance, varying to some extent at other schools. All members of the two higher classes who belong to a religious order are exempt from these fees, and other needy students are exempted upon gaining a first-grade certificate and the highest credits for morals, attention and diligence. The number thus gratuitiously instructed amounted in 1853 to thirtythree per cent. and had increased in 1863 to forty-two per cent. of the whole number of students. This exemption in most cases continues through the course, unless forfeited by an unfavorable report in morals, a third-grade certificate, or a second-grade certificate for two semesters in succession.

Discipline. To aid in maintaining order there is in each room a "classbook" for the record by each teacher of the absences, tardiness, and moral. behavior of the students during his hours of instruction. The usual punishments are retention in school under the charge of a teacher for the study of neglected lessons, private or public reprimand by the teacher or director, imprisonment for eight hours or less, (but not at night,) and expulsion from the gymnasium, from all intermediate schools of the Empire, or from all educational institutions of every kind. The first grade of expulsion must be with the approval of the provincial authorities, the latter with that of the State Ministry. The visiting of inns and coffee houses can only be occasional, and play there is wholly forbidden. Other restrictions may be imposed by the board of teachers. School mass and school prayers are regularly held, with exhortations upon Sundays and feast days, and a due observance of Passion week. The Holy Sacrament is usually administered five times a year.

Examinations and Gradations.-A gradation of the students is made at the end of each semester. The notes of the individual teachers in each study are compared by the teachers of the class, unitedly, and a judgment is passed upon the morals, attention, and diligence of each student, upon which the board of teachers bases the "general certificate" classification, showing the eminent or simple fitness of the student for the

next higher course of study, or his relative or absolute unfitness. A stricter gradation into three classes is also made, with a more careful weighing of all the influencing circumstances. At the close of the year, for the purpose of promotion, a written examination is held in the languages, history, and mathematics, under the charge of the director and teachers of the respective branches in the next higher class, supplemented by an oral examination if necessary to a satisfactory decision. Failure in a single branch prevents promotion, unless for special reasons a second examination be granted at the close of vacation. The classification is published in the "Hauptkatalog," and with the report of the board of teachers is forwarded to the provincial authorities. This examination may be followed by exhibition exercises and a distribution of prizes, and at the same time the annual report, or "programme," is published, containing a scientific or pedagogical essay, the plan of study and statistics of the gymnasium, &c. A regular exchange of programmes is made between all the gymnasiums of Austria, one hundred and seventy in Prussia, and thirty in Bavaria.

The "maturity examination" forms the keystone of the whole course of gymnasial study, without which no stadent can be matriculated in any department of an Austrian university, nor claim the legal advantages resulting from attendance at a foreign institution. Two months before the close of the school year, those who desire it report themselves in writing, through their parents, to the class-teacher of the highest class, and the board of teachers can dissuade but cannot exclude from the examination any thus presenting themselves. The gymnasial inspector fixes the time and appoints the subjects for the written examination, which consists of a composition in the native language, (for which five hours are given,) a translation from Latin, (two hours,) and from Greek, (three hours,) a translation into Latin, (three hours,) a mathematical exercise, (four hours,) and also an exercise in a second provincial language, if its study has been obligatory upon any student. The decision upon this examination is made by the teachers of the class. The oral examination is conducted by the inspector, or his deputy, and embraces all the branches of the higher class, excepting philosophy and in some cases the language of instruction. The object of both examinations is a determination of the degree of mental maturity acquired by the student, and the final decision is given by the inspector, the director, and the examining teachers conjointly upon the degree of fitness or unfitness for admission to the University. The consequent certificate details the studies and moral conduct of the student during the gymnasial course and his standing in each study. Candidates found unfitted are rejected for a half or whole year.

Private Instruction.-Private students may be enrolled at any gymnasium as "privatisten," under the same conditions as govern the admission of regular students, receiving no instruction but required to be present at all examinations and treated at the maturity examination in every way like the public students. Students not thus enrolled, are called

"private students" in a stricter sense. They can enter the gymnasial classes at any time by undergoing an examination, but cannot be admitted to the maturity examination before the age of eighteen years. No one can open a private gymnasium but a citizen of Austria, of unspotted moral and political character, and possessing the qualifications for gymnasial teachership. The institution must be organized essentially in accordance with the State system and its teachers be approved by an examining board. The privilege may be granted to any well tested institution to rank its students as "privatisten" at a public gymnasium, and such as have long proven their efficiency may be themselves raised to the position of public gymnasiums.

Training and Examination of Teachers.-The two institutions at Vienna for the training of gymnasial teachers, the "Philological and Historical Seminary" and the "Physical Institute," are both attached to the philosophical department of the Vienna University and are conducted by its professors. The exercises at the Seminary consist of written exercises in classical philology, oral translations and explanations of Greek and Latin authors, essays and disputations upon historical and other themes, and colloquies with the instructor. Instruction is gratuitous and open to all members of the philosophical department of the university. After a half-year's attendance upon the exercises, students may become regular members of the philological or historical department of the Seminary, or of both, obligating themselves to a two years' attendance upon the exercises of their division. Students are admitted to the Physical Institute who have heard mathematical and physical lectures for at least a year at a university or technical institute. The number is limited to twelve, six of whom receive stipends, and the course continues through three semesters. After a course of practice in the experiments required in physical instruction in the gymnasium, they are engaged in independent scientific investigations, for which they have the aid of the university library and observatory. The material and apparatus required for their use is furnished gratuitously. The organization of the Philological and Historical Seminaries at Gratz, Innsbruck, Prague, and Lemberg is similar.

Candidates for a teachership must present themselves to an examining board with satisfactory evidence of having completed the three years' university course. For the purpose of examination the studies of the gymnasium are divided into five groups; viz.-(1.) The entire course of classical study-(2.) of geography and history-(3.) of mathematics and physics, or natural history for the whole course with mathematics and physics for the lower gymnasium—(4.) elements of philosophy, with one of the first three groups for the lower gymnasium—and (5.) the German language, with one classical language for the entire course and the other for the lower gymnasium, with or without a provincial language. Catechists should pass an examination in the first three groups for the lower gymnasium only, or in the elements of philosophy, in German, or in a provincial language. The requirements in the several groups are-(1.) a thor

ough reading of the classics used in the gymnasiums and knowledge of Greek and Roman history, and requisite familiarity with classical philology-(2.) a familiarity with the pragmatical connection of events, a scientific knowledge of geography, and thorough acquaintance with the geography and history of the ancients and of Austria-(3.) a ready familiarity with elementary mathematics, practice in analytical geometry, and acquaintance with the calculus, a knowledge of the principles of physics, of chemistry, astronomy and mathematical geography, of the principal systems of natural history, of geology, and of the anatomy and physiology of animals and plants-(4.) the study of philosophical works and of the history of philosophy-and (5.) a knowledge of the history and literature of the language in question, in connection with political history, an acquaintance with the older authors and familiarity with the classical works in the language.

The examination requires two exercises. upon the special subject of examination, with a third having a didactic purport, for the preparation of which, twelve weeks are given; an additional exercise in each branch, to be completed in twelve hours; an oral examination as a test of correctness in the use of the language of instruction and of German; and, finally, a trial year spent in actual instruction. The certificate of the board contains, in detail, the result of the examination and their opinion of the candidate. The trial year is spent at a public gymnasium selected by the provincial authorities, where he has charge of two classes, usually for six hours in the week, under the supervision of the director and class ordinarius. If his incapacity is evident he may be immediately removed; otherwise he receives a certificate from the board of teachers. If the candidate

be not appointed to a position within three years thereafter, he is required to obtain a renewal of his certificate from a board of examiners, with or without a second examination.

Educational Funds and Expense of the Gymnasiums.—The “Educational Fund" is in reality composed of the several provincial funds concentered at Vienna, and is designed not only for the benefit of the gymnasiums, but for the real schools and especially the universities. These funds suffered much during the first fifteen years of the century from the financial necessities of the government, which compelled in after years appropriations from the State treasury and the setting apart of certain revenues for the supply of the deficiencies of the fund. The income of the fund in 1864 amounted to 1,071,021 fl., of which 256,026 fl. belonged to Bohemia, 233,202 fl. to Lower Austria, 126,240 fl. to Moravia, and 104, 979 fl. to Galicia. Of the whole amount, 624,165 fl. were derived from invested capital, 227,310 fl. from tuition fees at the gymnasiums, real schools, and universities, and the remainder from various other sources. The expenses of a complete gymnasium may be estimated to average 17-18,000 fl., and of a lower gymnasium, 9-10,000 fl., and the appropriations of the State to both classes must be about 900,000 fl. Adding to this the grants made to other than State gymnasiums, and not taking into

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