Greek schools are considering replacing classical Greek texts with books about gender and sexuality.
Greece’s government plans to end high school classes that study Ancient Greek tragedies, reports Heat Street. The government instead wants to implement classes that focus on gender, gay marriage and sexuality. Parts of Thucydides’ classic “History of the Peloponnesian War” have already been pulled from classrooms.
Government officials say they are only trying to make the school curriculum more modern; they want to focus on modern Greek and other subjects instead.
Teachers have spoken out against the plans, saying they are detrimental to learning.
“This is preposterous. Not even during Greece’s gruelling years of dictatorship were the works of ancient masters like Sophocles and Thucydides excluded from high school curriculums,”Antonis Mastrapas, of the National Federation of Classical Studies Professors, said.
The dean of the School of Philosophy in Athens also spoke out against the move, saying it could “eradicate a historic link to the country’s illustrious past.”
The government tried to get rid of religious studies in classrooms last year, but had to back down after protest from the church and other groups.
A Minnesota college also got rid of its classical studies and classics majors due to low enrollment last year. Concordia College cut its classical studies, classics, Latin, Latin education, French, French education, German, health and humanities majors. (RELATED: HASTA LA VISTA, BABY: Minnesota College Infuriates Students By Cutting Foreign Language Majors)
Students quickly spoke out against the move, starting a petition to bring the majors back.
“Concordia is known for it’s language programs,” the petition stated. “Please, sign this petition to show that these departments matter and lets see if we can get the administration to realize their mistake.
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