NEW EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
The program “MELINA – Education and Culture” is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and the General Secretariat for Adult Education. The program aims at upgrading the role of the Arts and Culture in the educational process, which is accomplished through the production of educational material and the continued education of all educators in the implementation methodology.
The program was a brainchild of the late Melina Merkouri. It started in 1994 and was initially implemented as a pilot program in one hundred schools in Greece and Cyprus. From 2001 onwards, its spreading phase started through a series of seminars for the educators in every prefecture of Greece. The spreading phase includes 8 cycles of seminars that take 2 years to complete and has been implemented in 4 prefectures (Chania, Zakynthos, Kavala and Drama). The program was fully subsidized by the Greek State. In March 2004 the activities of the MELINA program were suspended and to date a new decision of today’s political government is pending.
The Institute has been cooperating with the MELINA program already from its start, having contributed in the production of the adult education seminars of the teachers and music educators, and by producing the music educational material, such as:
- The sound of music (site only in Greek): Musical games, activities and music educational directions for teaching music in primary education (responsible: Kostas Moschos).
- Music in the Mediterranean: Introduction to the musical identities of Italy, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Croatia, through listening and activities (resp.: K.. Moschos).
- Music and the Tales of the Rom and the Kurds (resp. Nancy Toubakaris).
- A Musical Geography of Greece: Presentation of the musical identities of various areas of Greece (resp.: Pantelis Kavakopoulos).Introduction to Traditional Music: Introduction to the sorts, the forms and the ways of traditional music (resp.: Yiorgos Chatzimichelakis).
- Rhythmology: Rhythms of Greece and of the world (resp. Lefteris Grigoriou)
- Introduction to the Music of the 20th Century (resp.: Vassilis Kokkas)
- Popular sorts of music of the world: Introduction to the sorts, the history and the particularities of popular music around the world.
- Visit to a virtual museum of musical instruments: Interactive application on the internet (unpublished).