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PARTISAN REVIEW
ethnic groups. Schools are part of the inner security of our society. Not that
the Viennese school system is an "island of saints," as Pope John Paul II
once said about Austria. We still have too many non-Austrian children in
the lower forms of education and not enough of them studying at univer–
sity. But there also is an upward trend. During the past academic year, every
fourth child from an immigrant family attended schools that prepared them
for universi ty.
What does the inner structure of this school system look like? Here I
can give only a brief outline. Our educational system is characterized by a
relatively firm, regulated structure-it's a highly selective system.
Personally, I could imagine a less regulated type of teaching, but I have to
admit, contrary to my rather progressive thinking, that the conservative
structure of our school system provides for many children a certain sense
of securi ty, especially for children coming from other countries, qr emo–
tionally unstable ones. In Austria children (and their parents) know exactly
what the school expects of them. It's not entertainment, not "edutain–
ment," but the old-fashioned task of learning. On the whole, the form of
teaching is also relatively well-structured. We have a pupil attendance of
100 percent, regular homework assignments, written tests in all major sub–
jects, oral exams, presentations by students, extensive papers in the final two
years of grammar school and high school as preparation for university, and
very close co-operation with Austrian universities. Foreign children have
their own language training, of course in their mother tongue, but they do
not have their own school system. They have every bit of assistance, but
no exceptions are made for them. For example, if they want to go to uni–
versity, they must learn Latin just like any Austrian student.
The standard scope of knowledge in Austrian schools, our curriculum,
is relatively traditional. It caters to the entire range of the sometimes
ridiculed occidental tradition. In history, it covers the ancient civilizations,
Greek and Roman history, the Middle Ages, the discoveries, the great rev–
olutions of the eighteenth century, the social and philosophical upheavals
of the nineteenth century, the cosmopolitan, humanitarian view of the
twentieth century. Emphasis is put on mathematics and science,
in
my
mind not enough, but I think we are a European role model in early–
language teaching and foreign-language teaching. In Vienna, for instance,
almost 100 percent of primary school pupils are taught English from the
age of eight onwards, and about 60 percent of the children even start at the
age of six. And there is an increasing number of primary schools where a
second foreign language, mainly French, is introduced as a vol untary sub–
ject. Until enrollment at university, most Austrian students will have
studied English, a second modern language (mostly French) and Latin. We
believe that in intellectual terms we are preparing our students quite well
