Outline for a Study of Education at the End of Ottoman Rule: The School of Methone, “Peloponnisiaka” vol. 33 (2025)

Thanos Papathanassopoulos, Georgios Petris, Study plan for the education in Peloponnesus at the last period of the Turkish rule.
Reviewing the School of Methoni

In the last days of the Turkish occupation, foreign travelers describe the unexpectedly popular teaching process practiced throughout Greece, especially in the Peloponnese, and the particularly strong desire of children to participate in it. The lessons taught by priests and older children, i.e. the Mutual Teachingor Lancasterianmethod of teaching, take place in the open air where the ground, soil or sand, is “transformed” into a “blackboard” around which everyone gathers to see and hear. Αrandom branch is used as pen-holder with which letters, geometric shapes and anything else that needs to be depicted are engraved. The fact is impressive when one considers that this is a rural people without education who struggle daily for their survival and yet families prefer, instead of sending all their members in the fields, to encourage them to go out and learn their letters and history. The Mutual Teaching that developed in the pre-revolutionary years was so widespread that what Kapodistrias did was to officialize it by taking care for the construction of new schools, as well as for the sufficiency of the teaching staff. The school of Methoni, in which Kapodistrias was particularly interested, is the only surviving monument of this period.