Karl May School
Coordinates: 59°56′24″N 30°16′10″E / 59.939871°N 30.269317°EKarl May School is a secondary school in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
In 1856, on the day of the Autumn Equinox (22 September), on the initiative of a few German families seeking to provide their children with a more applied secondary education than that available in the contemporary State educational institutions, a private German boys' school was opened in a wing of building no. 56, 1st line, on Vasilievsky Island. It was led by Karl Ivanovich May (1820-1895), a talented professional educator and follower of the progressive educational views of A. Diesterweg, J. H. Pestalozzi, N. I. Pirogov, K. D. Ushinsky and F. Fröbel. In 1838, he had graduated with distinction from St. Peter's Principal German College and in 1845 from the historical-philological faculty of the Imperial St-Petersburg University.
During its first years the school was elementary, consisting of three classes, but beginning in 1861 it received the official title of "Modern School [Natural Science College] of Gymnasium Rank", which reflected its intensively applied direction in advanced secondary education (in comparison to State educational institutions).
At the end of the 1850s one of the school performances opened with herald walking with flags emblazoned with May bugs; the director and all present were very pleased with this symbol. From that point on, attendees of this school have referred to themselves as May bugs for the rest of their lives.
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