real school

• Real School

A calque of German Realschule, from real (“real”) + Schule (“school”), from the view that classical education at Gymnasia was not fit for the real world.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈrɪəl ˌskuːl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈril ˌskul/, /ˈriəl ˌskul/

real school (plural real schools)

1. (chiefly historical) A secondary school (especially in German-speaking countries) teaching a curriculum of "real-world" subjects (math, science, modern languages) rather than one heavily laden with literature, Latin, and Ancient Greek.
   • 1765, translating Johann Gottlob Krueger as An Essay on the Education of Children, p. 65:

     The duke of Brunswick... has caused real schools, in contra-distinction to verbal, to be erected at Brunswick.

   • 1833 July, W. Hamilton, Edinburgh Review, p. 521:

     Realschulen, real schools... because they are less occupied with the study of languages (Verbalia) than with the knowledge of things (Realia).

   • 2002, Educational Researcher, No. 31, p. 27:

     Like a Real School, real research is recognized as the genuine article, and persons engaged with it garner status and power.

• realshule

• “real school, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.