Pedagogical Discourse, Childhood and Emotions in Childtowns during the Post-civil War Period in Greece
Pedagogical Discourse, Childhood and Emotions in Childtowns during the Post-civil War Period in Greece

Summary/Abstract: Although at the end of World War II Greece was at the winners’ side, its economic, political and social situation was tragic. The Civil War (1946-1949) impacted strongly not only the construction of a social and political setting significantly distinct from the pre-war one but also every strand of life, especially children’s lives and family ties. During the civil war years –starting in the summer of 1947– at the initiative of the government and the Royal Welfare Institution around 18,000 children were taken away from their home villages and were housed in 52 institutions called “Childtowns” (Paidopoleis). At the end of the Civil War (1949) most of them returned to their villages and the majority of these institutions closed. Although their role was supposed to be the “protection of abandoned, poor and orphan children,” a strong emphasis was laid on their indoctrination. The paper looks into the instruction of children in the values of nation-mindness (ethnikofrosyni: extreme nationalism) which at the time was the dominant ideology. Based on the premise that education aims, among others, to help the young generation internalize a common culture, which the teachers attempt to instill in children, we follow the way children were imbued with the national ideology in these institutions. We study the pedagogical discourse about the homeland and the nation as reflected in contemporary official documents, journals and newspapers as well as in the published testimonies of children who experienced life in these institutions. We focus on the analysis of various aspects of life in the Childtowns, as well as the education, training and daily routine of the children in relation with the educational moral and national values during the post-war period. We are interested in analyzing how the pedagogical theory and practice created and determined the dominant codes through which children could express their emotions and feelings for the nation and the country as well as display the expected attitudes and behaviors.

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