The current curriculum's "Classic Studies" fails to fully represent the richness and diversity of ancient Greek civilization. Instead, it often presents a narrow view that does not adequately explore the breadth of Hellenic culture, philosophy, art, and history. We propose to replace this outdated program with a more comprehensive 'Hellenic Studies' course.

The ancient Greeks made significant contributions to various fields such as democracy, philosophy, arts, science, and sports. These contributions have shaped our modern world in countless ways. Yet our current curriculum does not do justice to the culture that brought us these achievements as they take a very elitist view and ignore the multitude of people, slaves, and personalities that participated in the shaping of Greek and Roman Culture.

A 'Hellenic Studies' course would provide students with a deeper understanding of Greek civilization by exploring its rich cultural heritage from multiple perspectives. This includes studying the works of great philosophers like Socrates and Plato; examining the influence of Greek mythology on literature and art; investigating the origins of democracy; delving into scientific advancements but also taking a much broader view of society at large.

Please sign this petition if you believe in enriching our education system through a more comprehensive study of Hellenic culture.

Why now?

We are noticing a worldwide trend to cancel the 'Classics', first I heard of it, I decided to raise the flag of my Greekness and defend the Classics from what I perceived to be woke attacks against my culture. I do not believe that canceling Greek & Roman learning will bring people any benefits, nor that it is the non-racist thing to do but quite racist and explicitly so, as it removes an entire people from the map as if they never existed.

So during my outrage, I signed petitions to maintain dying Classics Departments and became quite aggressive in my defense as exemplified in my arguments against Dan-El Padilla Peralta. 

Lately, I've been thinking about this subject a lot; to the point of torture, so after researching the foundations of Classics in the west, and realizing that: 

1) They teach "Classics" as a separate subject to Greek [or Roman] studies. That is they have divorced the Classics from the study of the broader Hellenic and Roman culture. 

2) They are fundamentally racist towards the living Greek people as well as all other "non-Classic" cultures. 

3) They teach their students a monstrous Greeklish pronunciation that they have elevated to holy status against all evidence to the contrary. 

At this point, I believe it may be preferable for the entire Classics studies to go to the dustbin of history by decolonising the field.

Their place to be taken by Hellenic & Latin studies(or Greco-Roman Studies depending on the focus of the curriculum) like we have 'Chinese Studies', etcetera, that would teach all stages of Hellenic or Latin civilization without distinguishing between good elite ancients and debased poor & slaves nor between ancient/medieval/modern Hellenic people. 

More importantly, the term "Classics" is entirely out-of-order. No matter from where one looks at it, it presumes that the Attic & Republican Eras represent the highest form of civilization ever to be achieved. This goes directly against the Delphic Maxims: "ψέγε μηδένα, look down on noone" and "μηδέν άγαν, nothing in excess/everything in moderation" as the term "Classics" looks down on everybody with unmoderated & bombastic supremacy.

If someone were to argue that Classics does not refer to the study of a very particular era and the very particular elit protagonists of that era but to the people studying them then this makes it even worse. As it pretends to be available only to class-based elites like the Roman Patricians. Imagine the smugness of a person driving a classic Ferrari and compare it with the smugness of a person that claims to be their selves a classic human being.

This kind of unprecedented supremacy invites unwarranted criticism against Greco-Roman culture through anachronisms as western classicists elevate a particular era of Greece & Rome as allegedly the most superior form of civilization, they place it on a pedestal from where it can be rightfully spat on by other cultures that by default are deemed lesser. Anachronisms cannot be canceled when the field itself deems itself eternal via the term "Classics". It thus creates its own hubris and a self-fulfilling prophecy in favour of its own extinction.

To achieve that "elevated status" western classicists originating from the Cambridge tradition divorce it from all other eras of Greco-Roman civilization and openly treat them as inferior, thus rendering the Greeks and the Romans [of the other eras] themselves as children of a debased culture.

Lastly, western classicists appropriate the provenance of Greco-Roman civilization & literature .ie "Rennaissance", which is really curious because since when did the Germans, Anglos, and Franks ever have this literature to rediscover it? Moreover, they refuse to call it by its name which is Greco-Roman Culture and use an adjective instead "classics" which is similar to naming it "Precious" like a poodle or someone's repressed daughter which subliminally it is an act of claiming ownership over it as well.

They instruct their students to not "taint" their selves with modern Greek and generally treat the living Greek people as the "great unwashed". 

If one truly respects Greco-Roman literature and civilization, one can teach it without the plosive statements, without elevating it to the "highest form of culture" and without ΦΘΧ-ΒΔΓ as Anglo-Germanic plosives. 

Unless of course one is only teaching the "Classics" with the expressed intent to appropriate them, and thus elevate their own persons in the fake pedestal that they have built, in which case these departments should be allowed euthanasia by letting the [western] Classics departments die out with a whimper so they can be reborn from the ashes as more encyclopedic 'Greco-Roman studies'.

Wouldn't that be a fitting destiny, as tragic as the heroes they pretend to worship.