The idea of a bachelor's degree is associated with secondary education.
A high school graduate is a person who is studying or has completed secondary education . The medieval Latin word bacalarius derived from the French bachelier , which later reached Spanish with the aforementioned form.
Continuing with its etymology, this word was used to name gentlemen who had a middle rank , being between squires and knights. The gentlemen were the people who sent the monarch with a relevant document to communicate some news related to a positive event, such as the arrival of a squadron or the taking of a square.
As the gentlemen did not have the possibility of raising a company on their own, they worked under the dependence of a knight, whose orders they followed with the help of their vassals. In England , the term bachelor referred to the young officer who had been awarded the golden spur as a result of a distinguished first action.
etymological investigations
According to the research work of the Catalan writer Vicenç Joaquín Bastús i Carrera , the French term bachelier may have derived from the expression bas chevalier , which translates as "low knight." Another possibility refers to the laurel berries, which are related to the word bachalaureatus , and this is because it was customary to place a laurel wreath on anyone who reached this degree.
There are several other possible etymologies, which are collected from Provencal, Italian, medieval Latin and the Latin used in northern Spain and southern France , and among the concepts they refer to are "vassal" , "ranch". "cattle" and "staff" (the latter because the knights used staffs during their military training). We must keep in mind that some of these words date back several centuries, and for this reason it is very difficult to draw clear lines about the evolution that each one has gone through and the relationship they may have had between them.
A bachelor can be a student or a graduate, depending on the context.
The bachelor throughout history
In ancient times, a bachelor was someone who had achieved the first academic degree granted by universities . This use dates back to medieval times; There is evidence of the use of this title in the 13th century to recognize students of a faculty who had reached the aforementioned level. Pope Gregory IX drew the differences between the bachelor, the licentiate and the doctor.
Nowadays, in countries such as Bolivia , Argentina, Cuba , Colombia and Mexico , the notion is also used with reference to the baccalaureate : the academic degree and studies of secondary education that precede other higher ones ( tertiary or university).
Differences by country
Although there are differences according to the country, it can be said in a general sense that a high school graduate is the student who is studying a high school degree and the graduate who obtained said academic title . In any case, the idea of high school can refer to various degrees or levels.
In Argentina , for example , oriented secondary education includes various specializations. A student who completes five years of secondary education can become a Bachelor of Social Sciences with a Specialization in Communication and Education , to cite one case.
In the Mexican educational system , upper secondary education is known as baccalaureate. This is a stage that lasts two or three years and prepares the high school graduate to access higher education.
Spain , for its part, has baccalaureates that are taken by students who have completed compulsory secondary education ( ESO ). These baccalaureates last two years and are pre-university: once the baccalaureate has completed this training , he or she is eligible to enter a university (passing the corresponding entrance test) or a higher-level training cycle.