The Liceo Cavour was established in 1871 as the Physics and Mathematics branch of the Regio Istituto Tecnico di Roma (which later became the Istituto Tecnico-Commerciale
Leonardo Da Vinci). After the Gentile Reform in 1923, this school became the Regio Liceo Scientifico di Roma, under the royal legislative decree of 9 September 1923, n. 1915. It was founded in 1923-24, as the scientific branch of liceo classico Ennio Quirino Visconti, the first liceo classico in Rome. In 1926 the Regio Liceo Scientifico di Roma was established as an independent body, starting teaching in 1926-27. In 1946, with the inauguration of the Liceo Scientifico Statale Augusto Righi (a branch of the Regio Liceo), the school was renamed "Liceo Scientifico Camillo Cavour". Among the more famous people to have worked here were the poet Margherita Guidacci, English language and literature teacher from 1965 to 1975, Gioacchino Gesmundo, History and Philosophy teacher from 1934 to 1944, and the physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (who was part of the group of physicists and scientists named 'I Ragazzi di Via Panisperna', translated as Via Panisperna Boys) with his younger brother Umberto. Notable former students include Franca Falcucci, the future Minister of public education, and Marta Russo, whose murder garnered huge media attention.
Maria Montessori also graduated here with a degree in physics and mathematics in 1889 while the school was still referred to as Istituto Tecnico-Commerciale Leonardo Da Vinci.
The law Daneo-Credaro A Royal Commission established in 1906 presented a reform plan that included, among other things, three five-year high schools: • the
liceo classico ("classical lyceum"), which was based on the then existing liceo – established by the
Casati law – and was characterized by the teaching of classical languages (
Ancient Greek and
Latin, from which is based the Italian language); allowed access to any university faculty; • the
liceo moderno ("modern lyceum"), without Greek, with the strengthening of the foreign language (
French), with the teaching of a second foreign language (
German or
English), of the law and the economy; it did not allow access to the Faculty of Letters; • the
liceo scientifico ("scientific lyceum"), without classical languages, with the teaching of a second foreign language and a strengthening of scientific subjects; it did not allow access to the Faculties of Letters and Jurisprudence. The proposal was accepted by the minister
Luigi Credaro in 1911 (Daneo-Credaro law). See the entry
history of education in Italy for further details.
Gentile reform The
liceo scientifico was confirmed, but radically modified, in 1923 with the
Gentile reform, which at the same time suppressed the
liceo moderno and the physical-mathematical section of the
Regio Istituto Tecnico (Royal Technical Institute). The course was of four years and ended with the
Diploma, an extremely demanding state exam with five written tests (Italian, Latin, mathematics, foreign language and drawing) and an oral interview-test (which covered all the subjects studied in the last three years of the course), lasting one hour, in two sessions: one for the literary subjects and one for the scientific subjects. After the first four years of one of the three lower secondary schools which, at the time, allowed the continuation of the studies (
ginnasio, lower technical institute and the
istituto magistrale inferiore) and after passing an entrance examination. The original
liceo scientifico was evidently derived from the
ginnasio-liceo (gymnasium-lyceum) (the current
liceo classico), but compared to this it had the disadvantage of not allowing access to studies of
letters and philosophy and above all of
jurisprudence whose degree course, in addition to presenting some specific professions (judiciary, advocacy, notary) was attended by most of those who held positions of command. The proposal of the Gentile liceo scientifico was examined by a Commission of the
Accademia dei Lincei which deprecated the unification of disparate subjects and the fact that, despite the name, of "scientific" it had very little, especially when compared to the physical-mathematical section of the Regio Istituto Tecnico, just deleted. And indeed, calculating the total weekly hours over the four years, the main subjects were Latin (16 hours), then Italian, foreign language and mathematics (14 hours). Also, should be considered that, at the time, the three lower-secondary-schools that allowed the continuation of the studies (the
ginnasio, the
istituto tecnico inferiore and the
istituto magistrale inferiore), were preparatory to as many secondary schools (
liceo,
istituto tecnico superiore and
istituto magistrale superiore). In this outline, without an "own" lower-secondary-school counterpart, was inserted the
liceo scientifico which was accessible both from the ginnasio and, after the admission examination, from the istituto tecnico or the istituto magistrale. This meant that to attend the liceo scientifico it was necessary to "change" school, even physically because the lower-secondary-schools were housed in the same buildings of the respective higher-secondary-schools, with which they constituted a single course of study. And this change was unnatural both for those who attended the gymnasium, which folded on a de fact "inferior"-school because already at the beginning precluded some prestigious professional outlets, both for those who attended the other two institutes, and after four years of study had to give up at a title immediately expendable in the way of work to go to attend a high school, which evidently required quite another application, moreover with a demanding entrance examination. For all these reasons, the liceo scientifico had a little success so much that, in a city like Rome, the second liceo scientifico (the
Liceo scientifico "Augusto Righi") arrived only in 1946.
timetable outline Bottai reform The structure of the
liceo scientifico changed in 1940, when the
Bottai reform established the single three-years
scuola media and the access to the high schools was rationalized; those who wanted to attend the
liceo scientifico did not have to change schools, or rather, at the end of lower-secondary-school, everyone had to change schools to attend the chosen secondary school. The
liceo scientifico began to establish itself and the number of students grew steadily until reaching the number of students of the
liceo classico. Persisted the prohibition on signing in
letters and
jurisprudence faculties. Because of the
war events, the timetable has been altered several times and the final one will only be in 1952. Apart from a few tweaks to the timetable, a consequence of the extension of the
liceo to a five-year type, the new course reproduced the previous course. The most important subject for number of hours remained Latin (20), then Italian (19), mathematics (18) and foreign language (17). In 1962 it was established that the scientific examination was valid for the signing into any faculty excluded letters; was, in fact, allowed the signation also into the jurisprudence faculty. From 1969 onwards, when access to university was liberalized, there was a real
boom at the
liceo scientifico, so much that at the approval of the
Gelmini reform (2010), among the students signed in the last year of the course, the
liceo scientifico had 103,000 students compared to 51,000 of the
liceo classico Nowadays the
liceo scientifico, among the Italian high schools, is the one that welcomes the relative majority of students (22 percent, of which more than a half are females). The substantial prevalence of Latin with respect to the same scientific-mathematical subjects and the greater number of students enrolled in the
liceo scientifico have meant that Italy is still, among Western countries, the one in which Latin is more studied (40 percent of signed in high schools, of which more than half at the
liceo scientifico) thing that has caused quite a few controversies.
Timetable outline Sperimentazioni (1970–2010) Sperimentazioni were alternative experimental curriculum bands offered in
Liceo scientifico.These specialisms were based on the official curriculum, but enriched by increasing the number of hours dedicated to one or more subjects, or including new subjects. They started in the 1970s, when more local autonomy was granted. Schools could offer one or more specialism. When the
Gelmini reform (2010) came into force, practically all the high schools were offering these experimental streams. The most widespread alternative streams were: •
P.N.I. ("National Plan of Computer studies" specialism) •
bilinguismo (Bilinguism specialism) •
scienze naturali (Natural sciences specialism). •
con studi musicali riconosciuti (Alternative with recognised musical studies) •
sportiva (Sports specialism) •
umanistica (Humanistic specialism) •
scientifico-tecnologica (Brocca) (Scientific-technological specialism) •
scientifico-biologica (Brocca) (Scientific-biological specialism) •
P.N.I. con bilinguismo (P.N.I. specialism with bilingualism)
P.N.I. Bilinguismo Natural sciences Brocca scientifica The
Liceo scientifico a indirizzo Brocca included, before the Gelmini reform, in addition of how included in the traditional
Liceo scientifico, the
law and
economy subjects at the biennium, the
laboratories of
chemistry and
physics, the
computer technology included in the
mathematics subjects for all the five years, and more hours of sciences (
chemistry,
biology,
earth sciences). The various subjects in the five years of course are distributed as follows:
Brocca scientifico-tecnologica This option was one of the seventeen lyceum courses developed by the
Project Brocca. This course was characterized by the absence of Latin, by the addition of information technology, technology and drawing, and by the considerable number of hours for laboratorial work. ==Gelmini reform (2010) and the current curriculum==