Author: Gunhild Vidén

I. The story of teaching Classics in Sweden

Until the 1960s, classical languages held a strong position in Swedish secondary education, where students chose between a science, a classical and a modern languages programme. In the 1960s, classical languages became the subject of fierce discussion, as the usefulness of such studies in comparison with modern languages came under scrutiny. As a result, Latin ceased to be compulsory for any programme but became an optional subject for students on the Humanities programme. Things looked quite bleak but because of a change of emphasis, with increased amounts of ancient culture, language history and study of international terminology based on classical word stems within modern European languages, the classical languages were saved. Since the 1970s the Swedish school system has been through numerous reforms and each reform has meant a new threat to the teaching of classical languages. The number of students who choose Latin every year has remained remarkably constant and even increased somewhat (though we are talking about very small numbers), but the amount of Latin they study has decreased considerably due to a division of the original 2-year course into three sub-courses. Greek has, alas, decreased, and is studied by less than 100 pupils every year (the figure for Latin is 2000-2500).

II. The modern secondary school system in Sweden

About 80% of Swedish students aged 16 continue from compulsory school to secondary school, which consists of numerous programmes, from vocational training to traditional academic study programmes. These latter are basically a natural science programme and a citizenship programme. This programme replaces three former programmes: humanities, economics and civic studies. Some courses are common for all programmes, such as Swedish, English (basic course), and Mathematics (basic course). Some courses are common for all students on a specific programme. For the citizenship programme they include advanced courses of English, geography, history, science, as well as foreign languages other than English. The students choose different directions within the programme; one of these is labelled Languages. There are also optional courses for the students, some of them part of the curriculum as such (the students have a list to choose from), and some of them completely free – they could be chosen from the courses within a different study programme, for example. This is good on paper but it creates a rather complex situation in the schools, not least when the working schedule is to be put together so as to suit everybody’s choice. In practice, this reduces the number of choices, especially in smaller schools.

III. Classical subjects within the secondary system of Sweden

Basically, the classical subjects consist of the languages Latin and Greek. Some schools have experimented with ancient civilisation, etc, but these are always choice courses and could be seen as appetisers, meant to raise interest in Classics generally. The students could choose Latin as part of the direction labelled Languages and some schools have even chosen to make Latin compulsory for the students who follow this direction. Unfortunately, the interest in languages generally is decreasing (hard work, and no guarantee of good grades), which means that the number of students who choose this direction is coming down. Latin can also be chosen by students on other study programmes, as described in section II, and that is where a large number of students come from. However, these students can usually only choose the basic course, since the number of choice courses is limited. Greek can be chosen independently of Latin and some students will study Greek but not Latin. In those schools where Greek is taught, is it usually part of the students’ free choice as described above.

IV. How to become a teacher of Classics in Sweden

There are two ways to become a teacher of Latin and/or Greek (it is not necessary to be qualified in both languages in order to become a teacher – most Greek teachers are also qualified in Latin, whereas many Latin teachers are unqualified in Greek). Either you finish your academic studies of a classical language and at least one other teaching subject (usually a modern language, Swedish or history), and go on for an extra year at a teacher training college, or you apply for a study programme where the academic studies and the pedagogical training are integrated. The number of students who study to become teachers is falling, and Sweden is facing a problem when more and more of our older teachers go into retirement without replacement, either because there are no qualified Classics teachers, or schools choose to engage teachers with other, more ‘useful’ qualifications.

V. Further information

As above, every new Swedish school reform (and they have been frequent) brings with it a new threat to the teaching of Latin and Greek. So far, the languages have survived. The Swedish Classical Association makes its best to keep it that way. How well we will succeed in the long run may be another matter. You are welcome to visit our homepage, www.klassikerforbundet.org : the information there is in Swedish, but you will find email addresses for the members of the board and we will be happy to provide you with further information.