Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school with a strong emphasis on academic learning, and providing advanced secondary education in some parts of Europe and the CIS, comparable to British grammar schools, sixth form colleges and U.S. preparatory high schools. In its current meaning, it usually refers to secondary schools focused on preparing students to enter a university for advanced academic study.

Historically, the German Gymnasium also included in its overall accelerated curriculum post secondary education at college level and the degree awarded substituted for the bachelor's degree (Baccalaureat) previously awarded by a college or university so that universities in Germany became exclusively graduate schools. In the US, the German Gymnasium curriculum was used at a number of prestigious universities such as the University of Michigan as a model for their undergraduate college programs. The word γυμνάσιον (gymnasion) was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men (see Gymnasium (ancient Greece)). The latter meaning of a place of intellectual education persisted in German and other languages, whereas in English the meaning of a place for physical education was retained, more familiarly in the shortened form gym.

In the Polish educational system the gimnazjum is a middle school (junior high school) for pupils aged 13 to 16. The same applies in the Greek educational system, with the additional option of Εσπερινό Γυμνάσιο (evening gymnasium) for adults and working students aged 14 upwards.

The gymnasium is a secondary school which prepares the student for higher education at a university. They are thus meant for the more academically minded students, who are sifted out at about the age of 10–13. In addition to the usual curriculum, students of a gymnasium often study Latin and Ancient Greek.

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