The Hungarian Gymnasium Nasium in Budapest
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features of American 18 year olds. The same would What accounts for the legendary status of Hungarian have been true of gymnasium pupils in Budapest in 1914. schools? Hardworking teachers have always put the At the arrival of the industrial revolu tion József Eötvös, the minister of culture, latest research In the hands of schoolchildren introduced compulsory schooling and decided to create secular schools which did not show privilege to any pupil. He George Marx, Hungary asked Mór Kármán to do the job, who created a model school, the Minta Gym The Hungarian Gymnasium nasium in Budapest. This school saw Theodore von Kármán and Edward Teller w hen Adalbert the Saint was on his mathematics and Sandor Mikola in pass through. The pedagogical achieve way from Prague to Rome at the re physics. One cannot find a Neumann ment of Mór Kármán did not go unno quest of Géza, chief of the Hungarians, he Street or Wigner Street in Budapest, but ticed: he was enobled by the emperor- stopped in Hungary and founded the first there is a Ratz Laszlo Street. Also, the king Franz Josef in 1889. (To excel as Benedictine monastery and school in Bolyai Mathematical Society distributes school teacher is not today an everyday 996—one thousand years ago. (The the Rátz Prize for the best mathematics way of becoming a nobleman.) monastery and school are in an area to teachers, and the Eötvös Physical Society There are other secular schools which day called Pannonhalma, and have been gives the Mikola Prize for the best physics have excelled through the efforts of their declared to be of World Heritage impor teachers of the country year by year. The teachers. The Berzsenyi Gymnasium gave tance.) From this event, the thousand- biographer of Neumann, Norman Macrae the world a long sequence of winners at year long development of Hungarian (a former editor of The Economist) said: student olympiads, and also Marcel schools has been uninterrupted. “The early 20th-century Hungarian edu Grossmann (co-worker of Einstein), John Throughout the troubled centuries of cation system was the most brilliant the G. Kemeny (inventor of the BASIC lan Hungary, the autonomy of schools and world has seen until its close imitator in guage and e-mail), and George Soros (the the quality of teachers has played a deci post-1945 Japan.” philanthropist billionaire market trader). sive role in preserving the cultural wealth The use of the word “gymnasium” was Leo Szilard (inventor of the nuclear of the nation. borrowed by most of German-speaking chain reaction) and the author Arthur In earlier centuries the churches raised Europe, and by any country that looked to Koestler studied at the Kemeny Zsigmond Hungarian schools to a high level. Besides Germany for educational leadership. Gymnasium. the Benedictines, the Roman Catholic France called its version a “lycée”, and One of the characteristics of these School of the Piarist Order in Budapest Britain its version a “grammar school”. schools and their physics teachers was deserves mentioning, where Roland The modern Japanese—who have adapt that they were open to the stormy devel Eôtvôs, founder of the Hungarian Physi ed an extreme and successful version of opment of science. Some of the teachers, cal Society in 1891, and also Nobel laure the gymnasium system—call their even some of the pupils (among them ate chemists George de Hevesy and schools “high schools”, as if they were like John von Neumann), published research George A. Olah, studied. The quality of open-to-all American high schools, which papers in avant garde international jour the Piarist School was down to their leg they are not. nals. Ireneus Károly, a teacher at the Pre- endary teachers. Jôzsef Öveges, the The advantage of the gymnasium sys monstratensian Gymnasium in teacher of George A. Olah, introduced nu tem is that in the best gymnasia students Nagyvárad-Oradea, demonstrated the clear experimentation with a scintillator can be pressed toward the limits of their wireless telegraph over a distance of detector and Geiger tube for his pupils in capacities: they are exposed to an intel 10 km in the same year that Marconi in the early 1940s. Another school teacher, lectual rigor that is not usually reached in vented the radio (1895), and he estab Mihâly Kovacs—currently honourary high schools in more democratic coun lished an x-ray laboratory within a year of president of the Eötö s Physical Soci tries. In particular, the gymnasium sys Röntgen’s discovery. On 15 February 1896 ety- built computers with his students tem gives dignity to teachers who provide pupils of the Catholic Gymnasium of in the 1960s, making him one of the first instruction in top secondary schools. A Kolozsvár-Cluj-Napoca demonstrated x- propagators of the computer era in Hun scholar or scientist who knows that his or rays with their own equipment just three gary. (Personal computers were distrib her talents lie in pedagogy rather than in months after the discovery. József Oveges uted to each Hungarian secondary school research does not feel he or she is falling wrote a book for teenagers on ionizing ra free of charge in 1983. Geiger counters for back if he or she spends a whole life diation, Miklós Vermes wrote one on rel scanning radioactivity in the environ teaching in such a school. A fine teacher ativity, and Mihály Kovâcs wrote one on ment became everyday school equipment retiring at the age of sixty from the Minta computers around 1960. The schoolbooks in the 1980s.) Gymnasium in Budapest, for example, of Esther Tóth about modern physics Most legendary of all schools is the would find many of the most famous peo were published in China and Japan. “Fasori” Lutheran Gymnasium in Bu ple in Hungary in his or her debt because This effort has continued in more re dapest, its fame having been propagated they had passed through his or her hands. cent times. Hungarian gymnasiums mea by its Nobel laureate alumni, Eugene P. Enthusiasts say that the two most suc sured the Chernobyl fallout in 1986. And Wigner and John C. Harsanyi, and John cessful of these gymnasium systems in incredibly, Hungarian physics teachers von Neumann. (Theodore Herzl, founder history hava been the one in post-1945 visited Three Mile Island and Chernobyl of Zionism, also graduated from this Japan, and arguably that of Hungary from power plants to obtain first hand infor school.) Eugene P. Wigner has identified about 1890 almost to the 1930s. The aver mation following both nuclear accidents. two of the legendary teachers of the age Japanese 18 year old is today more ad The Eötvös Physical Society has always Lutheran Gymnasium: Laszlo Ratz in vanced in math than all except the top 1% supported teachers. One of the current 130 europhysics news november/december 1999 features vice-presidents is a school teacher. satellite television) has always prompted entrance exam. Roland Eötvös himself organized the first an update of the schooling. And Hungary Recently, a good fraction of Hungari in-service teacher training seminar in was among the pioneers in elaborating an secondary school leavers was asked, 1895, and physics teachers’ meetings have the school pedagogy of the high-tech how would they respond to the increas operated for the last one hundred years. chapters of modern life. Hungary hosted ing electricity demand of households? The programme of the meetings is decid international conferences on the teaching The options were coal power, oil and gas, ed by teachers themselves by selecting of physics in secondary schools. Sec nuclear power, hydropower, biomass, im speakers from among the most promi ondary school teachers wrote PhD theses ported energy, or restrictions. The vast nent professors and best school teachers. on bringing modern physics to schools— majority of the students chose the nu Rudolf Ortvay organized teacher training one had to pay attention not to make clear option, which is very much differ on quantum mechanics already in 1930, quantum physics or nuclear energy dry, ent from the public views presented in distributing to them his booklet on the remote blackboard topics. Teachers newspapers and in the parliament in subject. recognised that students pay more atten Hungary. My exam question at my gymnasium tion to physics lessons if instead of dis During the communist era a career in graduation in 1945 was the probability in cussing springs, pulleys and direct cur the humanities was not attractive for terpretation of electron waves, which had rents, the teachers choose chips, lasers smart youngsters because strict Marxist been included in the schoolbook. During and radioactivity as “hands on” experi axioms were presented. The most creative afternoon meetings in the early 1940s Mi- ments. Schoolbooks written in this spirit students chose mathematical, scientific, haly Kelemen, our school teacher, intro were the best selling ones. engineering and medical careers. duced us to special relativity and spoke Memories of nuclear accidents are In 1989 the Iron Curtain was cut down enthusiastically about Dirac’s introduc heavy burdens on society and the nuclear at the western border of Hungary. Educa tion of quantum theory. industry. A journalist from another coun tors looked westward for examples to be Compulsory schooling originally try reporting nuclear incidents might find followed. Many schools decided to follow meant four years of primary school (ages the following difficult to understand: that an Anglo-Saxon pattern. These avant 6 to 10). A fraction of students went on to a graphite moderated, water cooled reac garde schools created independent cur study eight more years in the gymnasium tor undergoes positive feedback at ther ricula, in which an early specialisation in (ages 10 to 18) finishing with a baccalau mal fluctuation, but a water moderated, the upper secondary school was welcome.