The 6th Symposium was held on Saturday, the 12th of May, 2001 at the Center for the Acropolis Studies. 17 reports were given by 18 speakers, who represented 19 schools, of which 16 were public schools of the Attica region, one private school of Athens, the 1st and the 2nd Elementary schools of Poros and the public Mobile Library of Karditsa. Three schools had elementary level of education and 14 were of secondary level. 155 teachers took part in the Symposium.

The first speakers were Mr. K. Papakyriakou and Mrs. K. Lekka from the 8th Middle School of Piraeus, who proposed a lesson plan for the topography of ancient Athens based on the new book for the 2nd grade under the title: “Place and People”. The lesson concentrated on the topography of ancient Athens with the city walls as perimeters, since they mark the boundaries of the city. After this lesson, the students made their round from the hill of the Muses and the Pnyx to the Kerameikos and the Dipylon, always following the course of the wall, which at that point is in its best state of preservation; the result was an educational walk of 40 minutes within the framework of the Unification of the Archaeological Sites.

After the topography lesson of ancient Athens, we went with Mrs. O. Kosma on a tour of the Acropolis through the photographs taken by the students of the 4th grade of the 29th Elementary school of Athens. The students came into contact with the art of photography, learned how to create a framed picture, and used the foreground and the background of the picture with and without people in it. Their creative pursuit at an archaeological site like the Acropolis gave them the opportunity not only to get to know the site better, but also to “conquer” it by unveiling its beauty entirely.

After this we travelled to Poros to walk there with all the students from the 1st and 2nd grades of the local Elementary schools as well as with Mrs. S. Lourida to search for the neoclassical style of architecture among the old houses of Poros. There are many neoclassical houses there, many of which are listed buildings. The acquaintance with the concept of classical architecture via the museum kits helped the children to understand the architecture of the houses around them and gave them a new consciousness of their cultural heritage, and a reason to respect and protect their living environment.

Our trip continued with Mrs. M. Theologi and the Mobile Library of the Local Union of Municipalities and Communities of Karditsa County to 30 schools of that prefecture. The students of these schools worked with the museum kits “Let’s Go to the Acropolis”, “Ancient Greek Musical Instruments”, and “The Parthenon Frieze”. They learned about life in ancient Greece in a very pleasant way. One school with 18 students total (Public School of Kappa) and others with about 35 students (Public Schools of Pedino, Fillo, and Palaiokkliseia) took part in the celebrations, which with the help of the Mobile Library and the museum kits was an ancient festival indeed.

The following paper by the President of the Union of Art Teachers in Secondary Education, Mrs. Z. Hatzi was a report on the cooperation we had this year with the Union and the Art teachers, who together performed a total of 10 announcements at the meeting. Their work was shown for two weeks as part of an exhibition that took place in a hall of the Municipality of Athens. 300 teachers - all members of the Union - received the educational resources of the Department after an analytical introduction to them via three reports (C. Hadziaslani, E. Kaimara, A. Leonti); those who took part in the exhibition also participated in 6 seminars during the school year.
Especially Mrs. Hatzi and the students of all grades of the 53rd Middle School of Athens at Sepolia kept busy throughout the year to build triglyphs and metopes for their own doric Frieze. They also made a calendar in which each god represented a month, created masks of the gods using the faces of their fellow students as moulds, and figures from wire and clay – that formed the Panathenaic procession.

“But the Ancients, Miss, were Last Year’s Material!” was the title of the ensuing report and the answer Mrs. N. Paliokosta had heard from the 2nd grade students of the 14th Middle School of Peristeri, after she had asked them to draw up a picture colored in tempera by applying the theory of colors, with the Acropolis as theme. The goal was to familiarize the children with the monument from the angle of a representational visual product and not from a reconstruction of or a study about the monument. The goddess Athena, her statues and the myths around her finally caught their attention, stirring the children’s interest and making them realize that in the end the ancients are not only a matter of last year’s curriculum.

The successful creation of art work by some not particularly interested, TV addicted students was the subject of the following presentation by Mrs. M. Tzevelekou and the two Middle schools of Skala Oropos and Avlonas. Pediments, the suspension of fluted marble column drums and proposals for the exhibition of the three-bodied demon at the New Acropolis Museum are some of their projects.

The next paper was given by Mrs. J. Efetzi, who had conducted detailed studies about the architecture of the ancient temples of the Acropolis together with the 3rd graders of the 5th Middle School of Acharnai. The children were very impressed, especially by the coffers of the ceiling of the Propylaia, and after having studied not only their designs, their colours and their positioning in the roof of the building, but also the symbolism of the decorative imagery on them, they then fabricated coffers that were very colourful, with which they could have decorated a temple of their own!

Mrs. K. Potoglou introduced us during the following paper to the work done by various classes of two schools of Piraeus, the 9th Middle-High School and the 12th High School. At the 12th High School of Piraeus the children made up a composition of 16 large cardboards, with total dimensions of 2 meters in width and 1.50 meters in height. It depicted a view of the west facade and the west pediment of the Parthenon with the “contest” between Athena and Poseidon as its theme. All students of the school took part in the completion of this construction, which lasted 3 days and was carried out in the school yard. The result was an impressive movable wall painting, which could be used either as scenery for theatrical performances or as material for teaching activities.
The students of the 9th High school of Piraeus were quite impressed with the east pediment and puzzled about the composition of the figures on it. They used a different approach to the subject by way of photographing themselves mimicking the posture of the divine sculptures. The creation of the pediment in the schoolyard, including the preparations for the photographs which were reminiscent of a rehearsal for a theatrical play, comprised a very special experience for the children.
Other students produced more surrealistic work with a photographic collage by taking statues out of their context of exhibition, whether they were easily accessible or not, and placing them with the help of technology in an unusual, fantastic environment. So we see the handing over of the peplos taking place in a field of anemones, the mourning Athena in front of the “Thession”, and the messenger goddess Iris flying in the sky amongst doves.

This year’s central theme, though, was that of the twelve Olympian gods because of the exhibition at the “Hellenic National Gallery” about “Greek Gods and Heroes in the oeuvres of Rembrandt and Rubens”. Many schools worked with our museum kit, which they combined with gods depicted in the pediments, on the eastern metopes and on the Parthenon Frieze, thus creating a series of works with the gods as protagonists.

According to Mrs. T. Zisiadou’s report students of the 2nd and 3rd grade of Moraitis Elementary School wrote stories and fabricated games about the Olympian gods. Basically the children of the 2nd grade became illustrators and writers at the same time. All books had the same subject: the contest between Athena and Poseidon about the protection of Attic soil. The children commented on various books, discussed their covers, and finally each child produced its own book in its own special way. In the 3rd grade Elementary, a grade where mythology and history are taught from the beginning of the year, the students had fun playing board games that they had created themselves. They set their own rules and each of them gave a name of their choice to their game. The common source of inspiration for all of them, was the Olympian gods whose guidelines determined the moves of the players.

The gods and their adventures were the subject of the next speech. Mrs. A. Bourha introduced us to the work of the 1st grade of the 24th Middle School of Athens, who traveled with the time machine to watch the contest between Athena and Poseidon before Kekrops. In another story Hera asked Hephaestus to make a gadget for her to be able to keep track of Zeus’ extramarital distractions. But, as the story goes, a mistake during fabrication caused all the gods to be transferred to Athens of 2001. Zeus found himself in a church, while Hera and Aphrodite shopped at a Hondos Center, Poseidon swam in the port of Piraeus, Dionysos ended up in a bar, Hermes was in a post office, Demeter went to the market and Athena sat in a class where the twelve Olympian gods were taught at the moment.