"Teen Look", the pioneering student theater group of the Michalis Kakogiannis Foundation celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution. Through the research, the teenagers approached invisible aspects of the Revolution and dared to ask difficult questions, at the same time posing a serious concern for the Teaching of History.
The program of theatrical education includes a workshop on History, theater, student performance, as well as discussions - symposia. It aims to cultivate theatrical education through the active participation of adolescents in cultural life with a spirit of collectivity. So the teenagers, on the occasion of the celebration of the anniversary of the Revolution, proceeded to a bold project, a presentation-discussion on the topic: "We are born as History: The teenagers against Revolution».
This effort of the teenagers was part of the activities of the Postgraduate Program "Historical Research, Teaching and New Technologies" of the Ionian University, and was supported by Metaichmio Publications. The guidance of the student theater group and the coordination of the Advisory Committee is the philologist Natasa Mercouri, my charismatic student at the University of Athens with always restless and creative spirit.
The first discussion opened by the Teenagers at their festive event focused on the question: "what do we not know about the Revolution", and with this question they led to a variety of topics, of which the following are worth mentioning: The political dimension of philhellenism, the philhellenes, Evanthia Cairo and Nikiratos, financing of the Struggle, boatmen and thieves, civil war, dialogue between Kolokotronis and Mavrokordatos, the course of Karaiskakis from the capacity of boatman to that of a fighter, etc.
The discussion closed with the teenagers' attitude about what they had learned, which changed the way they saw the Revolution. Their position also gave the important message of the need to change the way History is taught.
It is a fact that the anniversary of the Revolution is a unique opportunity for reflection and self-criticism. The Revolution was not a strictly Greek event, but a world-wide event and its celebration should not be limited to celebrations. This glorious past of the Greeks must not end in a shady present, and based on this glorious past we must walk towards a similar future. This is the serious stake for the modern generation, which can only be tackled with reflection and self-criticism.
Ομ. Professor - Academician Paschalis Kitromilidis in his book: "Enlightenment and Revolution: the creation of modern Greece" emphasizes that "this Greek state not only modernized, but achieved something very important that young people should not forget: created an effective education system which united the society, cultivated the Greek language and produced a remarkable literature, that is, those that with great zeal we systematically destroy in the last decades ".
The teenagers, therefore, achieved what was asked with the inspired project of the performance - discussion, which raised with too much courage the issue of how to teach the history of the Revolution and more broadly the Didactics of History. The history of a people that gives birth to pride and a sense of the need to occasionally look back to its past to draw strength for its present.
So, place in the youth, let us trust them, let us support them and let us hope!
Associate Professor Stella Priovolou, President of the Body of Peers of EKPA, Dean of the Municipal People's University of Agios Paraskevi.
Tilemahos Efthimiadis from Athens, Greece, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
