Re: "Gymnasium"

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
On Mar 25, 12:10 pm, "Richard Wordingham" <jrw0...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<benli...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:bbec22ca-00e9-4b6a-810a-3ab4605a27eb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Mar 25, 12:56 am, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 24, 2:02 am, "Heidi Graw" <hg...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
IIrc, Gymnasium is actually Grammar School.
This where where the smarter-than-average students are funneled
into so they can learn to do all the mental gymnastics which
professionals are expected to perform throughout their careers.
Except that's not what "grammar school" means in English.
My copy of the Unknown Oxford Dictionary (2003) says
"(in the UK) a state secondary school to which pupils are admitted on
the basis of ability. Since 1965 most have been absorbed into the
comprehensive school system".
As a ex-grammar school boy, let me also confirm that Heidi got it right and
Peter displayed his ignorance of the Queen's English.

Not all so-called 'grammar schools' were in the state sector. There were
also the direct grant schools, which were independent but funnelled off the
very brightest in their catchment areas in return for a 'direct grant' from
the government.

It's amusing how you pretend that an archaic usage from a minority
community among the world's native speakers of English ("the Queen's")
should be determinative of the meaning of the word.

"Grammar school" is an old-fashioned term for "elementary school,"
i.e. the first six years, before junior high or "middle" school.

According to the OED, in England, "Since the Education Act of 1944, any secondary school with a ‘liberal’ curriculum including languages, history, literature, and the sciences, as distinct from technical or modern schools." Before that, "a class of schools, of which many of the English towns have one, founded in the 16th c. or earlier for the teaching of Latin. They subsequently became secondary schools of various degrees of importance, a few of them ranking little below the level of the ‘public schools’."

The MW Unabridged has the same, followed by evidently US definitions that include both a school between primary and high schools, and an elementary school (which *is* a primary school). I think when Beaver Cleaver went to grammar school (which I think is the only reference I've encountered to a real OR fictional grammar school as such) it was an elementary school, but I also vaguely recall it was one of those arrangements where primary school included grades 1 through 8, and high school started with grade 9.
.

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