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I The story of teaching Classics in Italy

Classics teaching in Italy has seen considerable change in the last 200 years, experiencing a series of reforms which have created a complex structure in the Italian educational panorama. For centuries after the humanistic period, Latin was the most important subject of the curriculum and this supremacy continued for a very long time. It was defined officially from the seventeenth century, by the "Ratio Studiorum" (Grammatica, Rhetorica, Latinitas Classicorum), in Jesuit Colleges in which Cicero (De officiis) was the only author considered as a model. Ancient Greek was not initially regarded as part of the ratio studiorum. In 1859, the Casati Law introduced ancient Greek for the first time within the Classical School, regulated then by various instructions and programmes introduced in 1860/1862, in which about 10 hours per week were dedicated to teaching of this subject. In 1867 several different manuals for ancient Greek were published (eg, Curtius, Burnouf) but ancient Greek was taught only in Padova and Pavia universities.

Institutional programs were first written in 1893 (Martini Decretum) and Greek became an optional subject in 1904 for 3rd (and final) year Lyceum classes. Direct reading of ancient Greek texts (Homer, tragedy or comedy) was introduced in 1911 by Minister Credaro, after which ancient Greek existed as a separate subject in Italian high schools. Only 4 hours per week from 1923 until today are allocated to this subject in Classical Schools. Few changes were made in the last century, with the exception of some reduction and redefinition of the programmes, the most important being in 1965, 1967 and 1991.

Latin, on the other hand, has seen considerable reform as a school subject and its teaching has seen considerable change. In 1923 Minister Gentile made Latin part of the curriculum in the second and third years of secondary school (scuola media inferiore, from age 11 to 13) but in 1962, it began an optional subject in the third year and obligatory only in the second year. It was only removed as an obligatory subject from the first part of this school level in 1977 (Law 348) and 1979 (DPR 50, concerning new programmes of study). Since then, Latin has only been taught in Italian high schools to the age group 14 to 18, and the hours allocated to this have been much reduced: in 1860, 37 hours per week were allowed, then in 1880, 32 hours and from 1923 until today generally (except for a few experimental courses, eg Brocca Courses).... 5 hours!

None of these reforms have modified the official programmes of the subjects nor their contents: teachers over the years have followed different pedagogical approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek and they can follow their preferred methodologies today, because there is freedom within teaching: all possible styles of teaching are used, from natural or global approaches to systematic ones. The important thing is to observe and attain predetermined objectives.

II The modern secondary school system in Italy

The modern Italian secondary education system is the result of numerous reforms over the last 200 years. In 1859 Minister Casati reorganised secondary school system into:

5 years Gymnasium and 3 years Lyceum

In 1940, Minister Bottai modified the first part of the system, so it became:

3 years Unified in "Scuola Media Inferiore" and 2 years Gymnasium, followed by 3 years Lyceum

Latin was taught in all 7 years of this curriculum until 1962, then in 5 years from 1977.

For a long time the Classical Lyceum was the most respected form of high school training, in which Latin and ancient Greek were foundation subjects. This curriculum was the oldest in Italian schools and it continued to be popular, with high student numbers for a long time. In 1923 new institutions were inaugurated, such as the Scientific Lyceum and Master's (Magistral) Institute: both of these had Latin as a subject in the curriculum, but not as part of the core. Both were created by Minister Gentile.

Today in Italy there is this system:

5 years primary school

3 years lower secondary school, eg unified "scuola media"

5 years upper secondary school

The 1st year in upper secondary school must be completed by students aged 15, but a new reform (under Minister Moratti) is in progress now in 2003/2004 so other innovations are expected shortly in the Italian system!

Initially, public upper secondary education was divided into humanities subjects and technical studies. Humanities subjects used to appeal to a majority of students but in recent years a lot of new schools have come into being to satisfy new requirements in the professional and technical world: these attract high numbers of students.

III Classical subjects within the secondary system of Italy

In Italy today, Latin is taught in different types of school, whereas ancient Greek is only taught in the Classical Lyceum. All curricula and programmes are under centralised control. Latin and Greek are taught as separate subjects and not integrated, as in other European schools, into ancient Civilisation.

Greek is taught in the Ordinary Classical Lyceum, in the Experimental Classical Lyceum (Brocca, Proteo, International Option Lyceum), European Lyceum and European School.

There are 4 main types of school where Latin is taught. Classical schools include Ordinary Classical Lyceum, Experimental Brocca Lyceum, Proteo, International Option Lyceum.

Programmes

In Italy, Latin and Greek (as all subjects) are connected to ministerial programmes formulated a long time ago and modified at different times. The most important are the new programmes of Latin and Greek, adapted to lower secondary school (Scuola Media Inferiore, 3 years from age 11 to 13), new programmes in 1991 (Comm. Brocca) and the total abolition of Latin as a core curriculum subject and its final examination at this school level. Programmes are compulsory and establish morphology, syntax, authors and works to study for each class of Latin and Greek. They are fixed by MIUR because the education system in Italy is centralised. The most innovative programs are "Brocca programs" (from 1991) because for the first time they allow aims, specific knowledge and competence objectives to become foundation elements in learning and teaching activities, rather than focusing just on course content. In the following paragraph you can read, as an example, a short overview of the programmes of the Ordinary Classical Lyceum.

Ordinary Classical Lyceum

Latin

Until 1967, the first year of the Classical Lyceum focused on morphology, syntax, and as authors, Caesar, Sallust, Ovid and Tibullus; in the second year, Cicero and Virgil (Aeneid I) were set. After 1967, the reading of texts had to be more closely adapted to the age of the students, so teachers have been free to select appropriate works. For the last 3 classes (triennium) of the Classical Lyceum, the programmes are fixed as follows:

3rd year - Literature from origins to Caesar, with authors Virgil, Caesar or Sallust, Cicero.

4th year - Literature from Caesar to the Augustan Period, with authors Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, Cicero or Livy.

5th year - Literature from the period of Tiberius to the fifth century, with authors Tacitus, Seneca or St Augustine, Plautus or Terence, and including rules of scansion.

Greek

The first year of the Classical Lyceum focuses on elementary morphology, syntax, and the second year completes morphology and syntax. For the last 3 classes (triennium) of the Classical Lyceum, the programmes are fixed as follows:

3rd year - Literature from origins to Pindar, with authors Homer (Iliad I) and historic works.

4th year - Literature from the Attic period, with authors the Lyric poets and Plato.

5th year - Literature from the Hellenistic period, 1 tragedy and 1 oration.

Checks and Evaluation

Teachers must evaluate their students' learning of Latin and Greek in almost all levels through periodic tests that are generally both oral and written (a few levels assess only orally in a few experimental courses). Ministerial documents recommend a high number of tests in every term of the school year to evaluate the learning progress of students and to assess specific objectives. Final examinations testing all subjects were introduced for the first time in 1923: these were revised in 1969 and then revised again with some variations between 1997 and 2003, with the recent result of 3 written tests and 1 oral multi-disciplinary test.

However, Latin and Greek are only core subjects in the Classical Lyceum, so final examination students must demonstrate their learning in these subjects with a written test that always consists of a text to be translated into Italian (a centralised test is sent directly from MIUR), a written multi-disciplinary test (this test is set by teacher councils in every school) and an oral multi-disciplinary examination.

The Moratti Reform

In 2003, Law 28 March, n.53 was proposed but not immediately ratified (published in U.G. 2 April 2003, n.77, known as Delega al Governo per la definizione delle norme generali sull’istruzione e dei livelli essenziali delle prestazioni in materia di istruzione e di formazione professionale): the most recent document at the time of writing, the “Schema di Decreto”, was approved on 27 May 2005. Concerning secondary school education, this reform proposes that the secondary education cycle of 5 study years, from 14 years age to 18 years, can be followed in 2 different ways:

• istruzione secondaria di 2° grado, controlled by central government
• istruzione e formazione professionale, controlled by regional authorities

This reform establishes the 2+2+1 system (1^st biennium, 2^nd biennium, 1 last year, monoennium) in secondary upper school. The first biennium applies to 14-15 year old students, the second biennium to 16-17 year olds and the last year comprises orientation training for university or vocational training for students of 18 years. This process will start up from 2006-2007.

Secondary schools have been denominated Licei and have been divided in 8 categories:

• artistico
• classico
• economico
• linguistico
• musicale e coreutico
• scientifico
• tecnologico
• scienze umane

With regard to Classico, Latin and Ancient Greek will continue together in Liceo Classico, Latin will continue also in Liceo Linguistico, Scientifico and Scienze Umane with a little reduction in the curriculum hour plan as you can see in the table below.

If you compare this to the table found earlier in this document, you will see that in Liceo Classico, Latin has been reduced to 4 hours (as in Brocca courses) from 5 hours but that in the Liceo Scientifico there has been a reduction to 3 or 2 hours, with no study available in the final year. Under the new Liceo delle Scienze Umane configuration, the same allocations are given as in the Liceo Scientifico.

From 2004, MIUR commissions have laid out in different stages the national O.S.A. (Obiettivi Specifici d’Apprendimento, i.e. Specific Learning Objectives) for schools, and as you read above classical studies have been indicated as Latin Language & Culture, Greek Language & Culture. As part of this process, curriculum documents (most recently at May 2005) have been drawn up for each of the disciplines, detailing the knowledge and progress which should be secured by all students, main areas of focus and both compulsory and optional areas of study.

As a brief example of this, we include details below about student competence levels in Latin at the first biennium in Liceo Classico (14-15 years age).Students must be able to:

• read texts correctly
• know a a basic set of commonly used vocabulary
• use vocabulary correctly
• recognise syntactic, morphological and lexical structures
• make comparisons with Latin, Greek, Italian, etc
• recognise elements of Latin culture in the texts studied
• understand and translate texts by graded complexity (poetry or prose) in an autonomous way
• conceive and make searches about Latin language and culture using ICT tools.

Further details can be found on the MIUR website at http://www.istruzione.it

IV How to become a teacher of Classics in Italy

To become teachers of Classics we need to complete a university degree and obtain a Classical Letters degree. This was the case in the earlier system, just as it is now - up to the twentieth century there was only a long-standing ordinary course in universities (4 years minimum for all) but in this new millennium, the university system has been reformed with a 3 year, short triennal degree and a 2 year, specialised course.

To be able to teach these subjects, some examinations are compulsory (2 in Latin literature, 2 in Greek literature, inter alia) and there are also written tests (translation or other) before the Latin and Greek oral examinations. Generally students can choose to focus their attention on topics such as philology, history, archaeology, epigraphy, focusing on Roman and Greek culture, as they are implemented by the different Italian universities. After taking a university degree, until some years ago, we could become teachers only with competitive examination (written and oral tests on all study programmes!) but after the creation of the SSIS (Scuola di Specializzazione per l'Insegnamento Superiore) in the 1990s, future teachers must follow a two year specialised course in initial teacher training. The latest reforms in the 21st century introduce a new university management for teacher training that is still in progress, but in any case, this does not affect SSIS.

Once a teacher has gained a degree and an SSIS title (or been admitted to the profession by the new examination system from next 2006-2007, on Law 28 March, n.53), he or she can apply for a job after being added to a list of graduates. Recruitment to a job is done by central offices, based on the teacher's position on the listing. The recruitment can be time-limited, as I.T.D. (Limited Time Teacher) or sometimes also as I.T.I (Unlimited Time Teacher) depending on any decision taken by the central agency (MIUR).

V Further Information

The following urls will provide further information:

http://www.edscuola.it

http://www.tecnicadellascuola.it

http://www.istruzione.it