The article was the result of the discovery of an archival
document that mentions the caustic gibe saying Vrhnika’s
Eleventh School as early as 1744. Subsequent research showed
the phrase to be very old, and that it entered Slovene lexicography
in the 19th century and soon underwent a complete
modification in its meaning. Slovenia’s greatest writer, Ivan
Cankar (1876-1918), himself from Vrhnika, in a literary work
in 1914 deprived the scathing remark of its mocking tone,
which was directed at the pride and ignorance of the people
of Vrhnika. In his usage, the phrase referred to the “acquisition
of life experience by children outside school and family«,
which became its standard meaning in Slovene phraseology,
while its original mocking tone slipped into oblivion.
The original meaning of the phrase Eleventh School is
connected with the past names of grades in regular school,
the eleventh grade being the “highest”, even though nonexistent.
The reason for the oral tradition’s associating it specifically
with Vrhnika could be twofold: either because of a
stereotype about the conceited people of Vrhnika, or because
of some actual but forgotten comical event. The only known
analogy of Vrhnika’s Eleventh School is the so-called “High
School” in the country town of Gablitz near Vienna.