Magdolna Rébay: Schools of the High Nobility – the Case of the main Secondary Grammar School of Kalocsa (1867–1918)

In this comprehensive research, I am examining whether the accelerating social and economic transformation following the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise that undoubtedly produced an adverse effect on the aristocracy in the long term, and the professionalization that evolved as a result of this transformation, wrought a change in this social class’s members’ education? In the present study, I am examining this question in the case of an individual institution, the Main Secondary Grammar School of Kalocsa, relying on a broad – and at the same time all-encompassing – basis of sources: school reports, as well as the students’ registry, Matura records. I was inquisitive about how significantly the institution participated in the upbringing and education of the young members of high mobility: Who were these students and where did they come from? Where did they attend school before and after studying at Kalocsa? How many years did they spend there, and in what status? In this study, I concluded that Jesuit schools were markedly popular with high aristocracy in the Age of Dualism: besides the boarding school at Kalksburg, their Secondary Grammar School of Kalocsa also attracted a large number of the members of this social stratum. The overwhelming majority of the youngsters coming from the high nobility were educated as public students (as well); this public status was made possible by the boarding school connected to the secondary school. The Stephaneum functioned as a quasi ’convictus’ of the nobility. Thus, in Kalocsa, aristocratic students could retain their social segregation, garnering the opportunity to complete their own traditional schooling with the civil knowledge gained in the school. As boarders, for example, they had the chance to study modern foreign languages, or attend fencing lessons. Thus, Kalocsa was a good choice in terms of a strategy to stay on top of the social hierarchy (Conze, 2005). Many of these noble youngsters were public students in the course of their earlier studies. The data obviously corroborate that secondary level home schooling was being crowded out. Another typical character trait was the frequent change of schools, which could be explained by their greater leeway. In their career choice, legal studies strongly dominated; however, a few atypical vocations also emerged, so a kind of transitory phase could be witnessed.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 121. Number 2. 169-187. (2021)

Levelezési cím / Address for correspondence: Rébay Magdolna, Debreceni Egyetem BTK NMI Neveléstudományi Tanszék. H–4032 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1.

 
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