The 3rd Symposium comprised 33 speakers who delivered 19 papers. One presentation combined the work of some 57 teachers from various schools in the Athens area. The teachers had divided up their task into five units. Two speakers from the arts sector presented proposals they developed with various schools. The remaining 30 speakers were representatives from one Children’s Library and 15 schools: 7 public and 8 private. Two of the latter were International. Four of these schools were elementary and 11 were of secondary level. Two schools were from the provinces: from the island of Syros and from Thessaloniki. In total, the meeting was attended by 230 people from 19 cities, in addition to the Attica region.

The presentations commenced with student art projects. The first report (Bliatsou G., 3rd Middle School of Halandri) demonstrated the inspiration of classical architecture and style in planning “The City of the Future with Ancient Greek Influences”, while in the second (Zaferopoulou L., Campion School, 1st and 2nd grade Middle School) the columns and the tiled roofs of the Acropolis prompted a variety of freely expressed designs in the decorative details and forms used in that city.

The next talk was from other teachers from the same International school (C. Bolton, J. Chalikiopoulou, G. Doukas, A. Fanariotou, G. Karamani, M. Nikitakis, V. Panayotopoulou, S. Pergamalis, G. Rallis, H. Scott, S. Stathatos, W. E. Stouraϊtis, V. Tsakalis, J. Whitehead, Campion School) relating the tremendous work undertaken over a two month period creating gods and classical temples. The teachers of all classes - from Nursery school to year 6 - incorporated all sorts of material on classical temples, but especially those on the Acropolis, into the teaching materials for each class.

The two following presentations focused on the results of a class on Art, Industrial Design and Technology: one was from the High School of New Philadelphia (Malafouris I., 1st grade High School), and the other was from an International school (Black L., Campion School, Middle and High School) where this class is optional for all grades of Middle and High School. Both schools provide workshops for the students to work on wood and metal objects with brilliant results. The concept behind the creation and practice of this lesson was presented in the talks. Designing a playground, furniture and Swatch watches as well as organizing a firm called “Iktinos: Marble statuary of Athens” producing scale models of the quarries were among the students’ creative efforts.

The possibilities offered by Environmental Education (an interdisciplinary approach of the subject, a broader definition of “environment,” with both a knowledge-based and emotional-based approach, as well as compensation for extra teaching hours) promote teaching through our own cultural context. These issues were thoroughly discussed in the following talk (Schiza K., Ministry of Education, Directorate of Secondary Education) which described the composition and structure of a seminar for 57 teachers organized by the Committee for the Preservation of the Monuments of the Acropolis, the 1st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, and the Directorate of Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education. Thoughts on the interdisciplinary approach to the Acropolis were of particular interest. In conclusion the paper provided an evaluation of the seminar.

There followed a presentation (Kavvadia-Hatzopoulou E., Center of Books for Children and Adolescents) of an educational program (using museum kits) on everyday life in antiquity organised in the Museum of Thessaloniki.

The following two papers came from teachers of schools in Attica who – in collaboration with our service - studied various classical monuments of the period, including the archaeological sites of Brauron (Vouda A., 4th Middle School of Piraeus, 3rd grade) and Rhamnous (Giannikopoulou Aim., Bali El., High School of New Halkidona, 1st and 2nd grade). The creation and publication of a guide to both the archaeological site and the Museum of Brauron illustrates the excellent study conducted by the students from the Piraeus school. The latter school, in New Halkidona, produced a poetical booklet titled, “Love and Death in Ancient Rhamnous”.

A talk from the island of Syros followed, an island where some of the better examples of classicism are located (Christodoulopoulou A., 1st Middle School of Syros, 3rd grade). Students stimulated by the museum kits “Let’s Go to the Acropolis” and “A Greek Temple” recorded and studied elements and shapes originating from antiquity in buildings. They photographed them and, after searching in archives, finally put together a special volume on the neoclassical buildings of Hermoupolis.

The next paper (Kotouza E., Interdisciplinary High School of Athens) gave an account of an itinerary starting at the Acropolis and continuing on to the monuments of Athens, with particular attention on the environmental changes affecting them throughout the centuries. The students involved who planned, organized and followed the itinerary did so as a means of learning about giving guided tours to selected monuments of Greece, in order to properly present their country and its rich history to their peers from the Portuguese city of Porto.

The next three programs were computer designed. Information Technology was only integrated into the standard school program during the last few years, and each of these three papers had an entirely different approach to the subject. An artist (Nestoras Papanikolopoulos) created an interactive educational program that produces, as a result, a new artistic creation and at the same time constitutes a tool in the hands of the educator. An IT specialist (Desipris N.) introduced M. Korres’ electronic learning program, “From Mt Pentelikon to the Parthenon” which complemented the similarly named exhibition. Finally an elementary school teacher (Iliopoulos B., I.M. Panagiotopoulos School, 6th grade Elementary) introduced the students to the principles of computer programming using the styles of classical architecture as education tool.

An exhibition of childrens’ art work followed with the title “Historical cultural environment: Acropolis-Parthenon-Frieze” (Hatzi Z., 53rd Middle School of Athens, 3rd grade).

Next were the results of a study about the development of the historical understanding of Middle School students at the Center for the Acropolis Studies as well as on the Acropolis itself; this was a project integrated into the general frame of a specific study in museums. (Nakou E., School of Moraitis, 1st and 3rd grade Middle School).

The following paper was given by 1st grade High School teacher, Argyratou K. (Greek-German Education School), whose students printed a “Guide to the Center for the Acropolis Studies” as the culmination of several months of work on their Acropolis project.

Subsequently an elementary school teacher (Gialouraki S., 3rd and 4th grade Elementary School) talked about an itinerary which involved a number of games as a way to show her students around the Acropolis.

The Symposium ended with the presentation of a project (about the concept and the process of the famous greek painter) that started with the Athena Parthenos and finished with the Medusa-Gorgo from the œuvre of N. Hatzikyriakos-Gikas (Vasilaki P., School of I. M. Panagiotopoulos, 3rd grade Elementary School).

The full text of these presentations was published in Archaeology under the title “Teachers talk about the Acropolis”, issue 52, Athens, 1994.