Today we had a lecture at the Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri on the generalities of the Italian Educational System. Professors Alberto Materassi and Gabriella Materassi shared with us an overview of how the schools are structured and what each type of school covers. Most interesting to me was the fact that at the high school levels, the school systems break into many different categories (and I apologize in advance for my misspellings of these Italian words):
- Licei Classici
- Licei Scientifici
- Licei Linguistici
- Licei Artistici
- Istituto Technico
- Istituto Comerciale
- Istituto Magistrale
It just seems so complicated that students at such a young age much almost decide what path in life they want to take. All of these can, of course lead to university level studies, but not in the way we have in the U.S. Students are expected to have covered all of the general studies curriculum in middle and high school and then use university to focus in on their career path.
