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The liceo classico or ginnasio (lit. 'classical lyceum') is the oldest public secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age.

Until 1969, this was the only secondary school from which one could attend any kind of Italian university courses (including humanities and jurisprudence), thus being the school where the Italian elite were educated. It is known as a social scientific and humanistic school, one of the very few European secondary school types where the study of ancient languages (Latin and Ancient Greek) and their literature are compulsory. Most of the individuals who achieved the highest levels of leadership in the Italian government, science, diplomacy and business attended the Liceo Classico.^[1]

Liceo classico schools started in 1859, with the implementation of Gabrio Casati's reform.

The Gentile Reform implemented the so-called ginnasio, a five-years school comprising middle school (for students from 11 to 16), with a final test at the end of the second year of the secondary school. The test was written and oral, and it was compulsory in order to be admitted to the last three years of liceo. Currently liceo classico is similar to every other liceo in Italy, high school starts at 14 after middle school, without any additional exams.

Since the 1960s, all presbyters and bishops of the Catholic Church studied in seminaries and, since the 1990s, the topics taught inside those seminaries were the same as liceo classico (theoretical philosophy, Latin and Greek grammar and literature, English), with many others: ethics, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, Hebrew language, biblical criticism, Koine Greek (the Hellenistic period and Septuagint Bible), pastoral theology, Christian ethics and systematic theology, anthropology and eschatology, sacramentarian theology, Christology and Trinitarian theology, Mariology, patristics, ecclesiology, history of Christianity, history of religions, canon law, liturgy.

History

The liceo ginnasio

The liceo classico school type finds its roots in the so-called liceo ginnasio, established in 1859 with the Casati law,^[2] as a school following elementary school (compulsory), initially in force in the Kingdom of Sardinia and then extended to whole Italy after Italian Unification. High schools, however, already existed, having been established during the Napoleonic era, to ensure a high level of education to secular institutions as well.

On the model of the pre-unification humanist scholastic tradition, the Casati law provided for a single lyceum address in which the literary and humanistic subjects were prevalent. The original study plan foresaw an eight-year course (there was no middle school at the time), divided into five years of ginnasio and a three-year liceo ("lyceum"): the study of Latin began in the first gymnasium class, that of the (Ancient) Greek in the third.

The liceo ginnasio was an eight-year secondary school, since it also included middle school. It was accessed after primary school (initially a four-year school) and gave access to university degree courses of any kind; liceo ginnasio was the only secondary course of lyceum type, which was not aimed at technical-professional training, but at the continuation of studies in the university.

The study plan was directly related to the school tradition of the trivium and were therefore prevalent humanities so much that, in the early years of gymnasium, the only Italian and Latin covered three-quarters of the total hours of lessons. It should however be considered that at the time, the elementary school (four-year and municipal) was very different from the modern one and that, in fact, the first true schooling took place at the gymnasium.

The liceo ginnasio was meant to form the future elite of Italy; those who attended were supposed to continue with their studies, since it didn't provide a professional education.

Since its implementation, the school was criticized for its being focused on philosophical and humanistic topics and since it relegated scientific and technical education to a secondary role.^[3]

Timetable outline

Later changes

The gymnasium-lyceum outlined by the Casati law remained essentially unchanged until 1923, even if the schedules and timetable outlines were renewed several times (in 1867, 1884, 1888, 1892).^[4] The timetable outline of 1892 introduced the study of French from the third year of gymnasium to the fifth, filling the lack of a foreign language.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, having emerged the problem of poor mathematical/scientific instruction, individual lyceums were allowed to activate experimental sections in which, instead of the Ancient Greek, mathematics or a modern language could be taught. In 1911 the liceo moderno and the first liceo scientifico were established, which joined the traditional course; to distinguish it from the latter, the traditional gymnasium-lyceum began to be called informally "liceo classico" ("classical lyceum"), even if, officially, the name remained "ginnasio liceo" ("gymnasium-lyceum").

The liceo moderno was abolished in 1923 with the Gentile Reform, which at the same time established a new liceo scientifico (in place of the previous one).

The Gentile reform

The Gentile Reform of 1923 kept the overall structure of the gymnasium/lyceum, emphasizing the humanistic-classicist aspect.^[5] This was in line with the principles of neo-idealist philosophy, of which Gentile was with Benedetto Croce, one of the greatest followers. In fact the neoidealist philosophers considered the literary, historical and digressive subjects the only ones able to provide real knowledge, especially philosophy, being in itself a literal, simple and primitive form of the abstract and natural sciences, and precisely for this reason indispensable for make them understandable.

In the Gentile's view, elite schools had to coincide with the liceo classico, intended for the education of future Italy's elites: only graduates from liceo classico were in fact granted enrollment in any university degree course, while for example those who came from liceo scientifico could not enroll neither in humanities, nor in law degree courses. This last obstacle was particularly serious, as law was a degree course of primary importance for Italy's elites.

Timetable outline

The Bottai reform and the birth of the current liceo classico

Before 1940, post-elementary education was divided into several school types, each of which was preparatory for either lyceum or technical school). In that year the Bottai reform established the three-year middle school,^[6] which absorbed the first three years of gymnasium: since then, the liceo classico became structured as a five-year school, but it maintained the numbering of the previous classes (so the first two years became the fourth and fifth classes of ginnasio, the last three became the first, second and third classes of liceo: the numbering is typical of liceo classico schools, since other Italian secondary schools have a normal numbering).

Apart from a few timetable adjustments, such as the separation of history and geography into two separate subjects being taught in the fourth and fifth years of gymnasium, the new curriculum remained substantially identical to the previous one.

On this occasion the official name was changed to "liceo classico"; the denomination of the years of study, however, remained as in the traditional one, still in force: after the third year of middle school there are the fourth and fifth years of gymnasium and then the first, the second and the third years of liceo classico. The Gentile reform allowed liceo classico students to access university degree courses of any kind.

Because of the war, the timetable was repeatedly remodeled until it became quite standard in 1952.^[7]

Outline of the timetable