17-11-16 Ministry General Secretary Pantis’ speech on Polytechnic uprising
Education Ministry General Secretary Yannis Pantis delivered the following speech at a ministry even commemorating the 17 November, 1973, Athens Polytechnic uprising against the junta.
Colleagues,
FOR Great events that change, even as a triggering event, the flow of history, it is unjust to underestimate them by delivering the ‘panegyric of the day’.
The three-day assembly of the most active and politicised segment of the youth, once events had reached their limit, is a great event, as many years may have passed. It is great because it was not planned and had no patrons. It was great because it was spontaneous. It was great because it moved and brought out into the streets not only members of radical movements, but also petit bourgeois and middle class family people. It was great because defeat, albeit in many quotation marks, was certain. To preserve the authority of the regime, the movement would definitely be suppressed, even with bloodshed.
With the passing of years, this great event is in jeopardy of becoming smaller with panegyrics and a formalism that tends to alter it, but mainly with ideas that were born in conservative circles and grew enormously in the years of crisis: that the post-junta political system is responsible for the crisis, and consequently the Generation of the Polytechnic is to blame for the post-junta system and for the crisis.
Is someone who came out of their home and security to protest unarmed and without causing the slightest material damage to blame? The motivation remains unselfish and heroic, even if some of the heroes, or those who were merely present, built political careers and notable social climbing due to the event.
This idea was adopted by a segment of society disappointed due to the crisis, even youth whose parents belonged to the generation of the Polytechnic. We must win back the segment of youth that becomes radicalised in a conservative manner, which turns its back to pluralism and disputation, which seeks security in forums of authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
It is absolutely logical for adolescents and very young people to feel absolutely in limbo. The certainties of their parents are collapsing one after the other: peace, prosperity and consumerism are succeeded by instability, insecurity, fear, the severing of the educational system from their future, and a perilous nationalism armed with the most vulgar populism.
It is very easy for nationalism and racism to poison the souls of young people, when things reach a quagmire, when disappointment becomes permanent, when prospects disappear. In such an era in flux, let us do at least what is in our power. Let us make education productive, but above all charming and attractive. I do not say let us “restore”, because I do not know if education in Greece was ever alluring.
The irrational inverted pyramid with nationwide Panelladikes university entry exams determining the course and student life, in both high school and junior high school, has already collapsed. True education, true literacy, critical literacy, not only are not an aim of education, but are unknown concepts for a large segment of the educational community.
When the compartments between areas of knowledge are no longer a given at all, when the multi-disciplinary approach has been incorporated in secondary education in advanced societies, we realise that we can delay no longer.
The longstanding idea that all children must become academics or scientists today seems outdated and conservative. It creates a surplus in the production of university degree holders, but it used to be revolutionary. It was the hope for the children of the poor often to surpass their parents, to become university graduates, and hence dissenters.
That was the basic idea of the generation of the Polytechnic – to study and struggle and not say that “I was studying back then”, when the world was in conflagration right next to them.
To a large extent, this idea became a reality, but it became worn, as university degrees became titles confirming parental self-satisfaction, and were linked to memorisation and zero critical thought.
We have a new educational revolution before us, but it cannot bear results with just a handful of youth, without consensus.
An excessive love for theory and formalism, brought by the Bavarians to education in the 19th century, must be replaced with an emphasis on acts. The student question “Why do we need this?” must be adequately answered, and the answer cannot be “so you can do well in Panelladikes university entry exams”.
We want happy primary school students, questioning and not problematic students in junior high school, settled and optimistic students in high school. We want students who can discern the basic laws of physics and biology around them, independent of their formalistic expression, who can compare analogous historical eras, who understand the link between an ancient Greek phrase and its modern translation, who use academic websites to write a creative paper, who cite academic bibliographies in their papers.
We want students and mainly parents who do not view it as a shame not to aim for a university faculty, and indeed without prospects, since we have given them an opportunity to make their interests a reality.
This is the new wager. An educational revolution, contrary to conservative reversals, which awaits implementation for some time now, and perhaps should begin with the consensus of the youth, their parents, and educators at all levels. The Education Ministry must guarantee the procedure of change, with the support of its personnel.
Thank you very much.
