What is a Lyceum?

   The Lyceum (Latin, from the Greek lykeion), is a sacred enclosure at Athens, with covered walks, where Aristotle lectured. Because of these philosophical associations, the word has been used in modern languages to denote various types of educational institutions, such as the French lycĂ©e. In England and the United States the term was generally applied to literary and scientific institutions engaged in what today would be called adult education, rather than to schools and colleges of a more formal type. In New York City, for example, a Lyceum of Natural History was founded in 1818, and it continues to exist as the New York Academy of Sciences (so called since 1876).


Lyceum of ancient Greece