Last Thursday, the Drive program on 3XY Radio Hellas hosted the President of the Australian Society for Classical Studies, Mr Kostas Bouzikos.
As he pointed out, the Australian Society for Classical Studies is an organisation for students, parents, teachers, politicians, experts and like-minded people who wish to see classical education introduced into the Australian educational spectrum.
It seeks to change the so-called “progressive” model of education that has been in place since the last century and which aims to produce “servants” of employers.
According to Mr Bouziko, the Australian Classics Society believes this “progressive model” diminishes the value of education and cannot be sustained if young people are to flourish as “real people”.
Instead, the Australian Classical Studies Society argues that education ‘must communicate the spiritual, intellectual, moral and physical dimensions of all human beings’.
Therefore, he pointed out that this body wishes to encourage the implementation of a classical education that nurtures future Australian citizens to be persons of faith, wisdom and virtue, whose souls are nourished by truth, goodness and beauty.
According to Mr Bouziko, 10 Australian schools are already considering implementing this model of teaching, while in the US it is already being implemented in over 700 schools.
It is evident that the 21st century classroom, whose focus on producing “job-ready individuals” has failed to instill in young people the virtues and wisdom necessary to live a “fulfilled human life”.
It is worth noting that the implementation of the Classical Education system in the country’s schools will not affect the curriculum imposed by the respective ministries of education. It is an addition of certain subjects but at the same time a completely different educational mindset.
This project may seem to some to be a “pipe dream”. However, nothing is complete unless the foundations are laid, even in the long term.
A natural progression, one might say, of this endeavour would be a coalition of those forces that wish to see it completed as they ‘believe’ in the many values of such an education.
No Victorian school is among those institutions in Australia already working on this model of education. This is extremely disappointing as, as Australians of Greek descent, one would expect us to strongly support this effort. We have three bilingual schools and a thriving and ‘large’ community with dynamic institutions and dynamic Greek-origin businessmen, professionals and politicians. What we may urgently need, not only for this cause, is the link that will “grind” the ingredients to bring the desired results.
