Adventures with Beethoven

Scene Two

School in 18th Century Germany

In 1763 Frederick the Great issued a decree that expanded schooling in the region greatly. It said that all children, boys and girls, should attend school from ages 5 to 13 or 14 and that the schools would be paid for by the government. Other countries, such as Great Britain and France, would not require public education until the 1880s. 

The schools had an eight-year course of education which taught reading and writing, as well as music and religious education. School was also used to instill important values such as duty and discipline. Math was not part of the original curriculum, but was added later, although parents had to pay extra for these lessons. Eventually more schooling was added to the program including something like our high schools. 

Over the next few years, schooling became more formalized; teachers were required to have specific qualifications, students had to pass national tests that were based on a national required curriculum, and kindergarten was introduced. By the 1830s German schools were a model for the rest of the world because of their quality and accessibility. Other countries, such as the United States, Japan, and Austria tried to use the German model in their own countries. 

Schools used different methods to make sure that students were learning their lessons. In some places, a single teacher taught numerous grades in a one room schoolhouse. In this classroom setting, the youngest students sat at the front closest to the teacher with the oldest students in the back. Each grade would learn their own lessons and then take turns reciting what they had learned individually to the teacher. Since schools were growing so rapidly, there were often not enough teachers. In some schools, the teacher would instruct the older students first. The older students would then each monitor a group of younger students as they then learned the lesson. In most schools, discipline was very strict. The teacher usually had the ability to spank students or have them stand in the corner.