Gymnasium, in German education, a classical school for boys. The name is derived from that of the Greek school for physical exercises. The gymnasium corresponds in a way to the English grammar school and to the American academy and high school. Boys only are admitted. The course covers nine years. Like our normal schools, the gymnasium is maintained largely, at least, at the expense of the state and is under state management. The courses of study in the gymnasia of a German state are all alike. Instructors, once appointed, hold their positions for life. These schools are not an extension of the grades. Boys intending to take a gymnasium course leave the graded schools at the age of eight or nine. In the gymnasium there are five or six hours of actual instruction daily. Quite frequently two, or even three, periods of an hour each are given to the same subject. During the course of a day's instruction a boy of nine may very possibly have three distinct exercises in Latin grammar. The official program of the Prussian gymnasium adopted in 1892 called for 252 units of work distributed as follows: Religion, 19; German, 26; Latin, 62; Greek, 36; French, 19; history and geography, 26; mathematics, 34; science, 18; penmanship and drawing, 12. Nearly three-fifths of the entire course is devoted to languages. Great proficiency is acquired in Latin. The students of the graduating class are expected to turn William Tell, for instance, into Latin prose without difficulty. The course differs from that in American schools in several respects. Instruction in each subject is prolonged throughout the entire course. Science is given two hours a week for nine years; history and geography, from two to four hours for the same time. Few textbooks are used, a large part of the instruction being oral. The students are required, however, to write up notebooks to an extent that would be considered burdensome by an American youth. Even in mathematics, discussions and demonstrations are furnished largely by the instructor. The course, when complete, reaches the Junior year of an American college. Upon receiving his certificate of graduation the student is free to enter any one of the famous universities of Germany. In addition to the gymnasium there are other schools of like standing that replace Greek by modern languages. Others again, Raelschulen, give neither Greek nor Latin. The time thus gained is given partly to science and partly to French, German, and English. A German school has but one course of study. Gymnastics. See ATHLETICS.