Georgios Kleovoulos ( el, Γεώργιος Κλεόβουλος, Philippopolis, c. 1785 - Syros, July 28, 1828) was a Greek scholar and educator of the early 19th century. He was born in Philippopolis (present-day

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

), in the Ottoman Empire. He was a supporter of the mutual-teaching schools and one of the people who brought this teaching method to Greece.Perselis, p. 50. He taught in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

, Syros and Poros and died on the 28 July 1828 in Syros of pneumonia.

Biography

Kleovoulos was born around 1785, the son of a poor craftsman. At an early age he was adopted by the deacon of the Metropolitan of Philippopolis, Makarios of Patmos, who helped Kleovoulos to study at Patmiada School and then at the Academy of Kydonies (

Ayvalık Ayvalık () is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is a district of Balıkesir province. The town centre is connected to Cunda Island by a causeway and is surrounded by the archipelago of Ayvalık Islands, which face ...

). There he studied alongside renowned scholars of the time such as

Benjamin of Lesbos Benjamin of Lesbos ( el, Βενιαμίν Λέσβιος; alternatively transliterated as Veniamin of Lesvos or Lesvios; 1759–1824) was a Greek monk, scholar, and politician who was a significant figure in the Modern Greek Enlightenment. Biogr ...

and Grigorios of Kydonies.Γενική Εφημερίς της Ελλάδος. 25-08-1826. He completed his studies with a distinguished performance and then lived for three years in Vienna where, alongside his studies, he was teaching the Greek language. He also studied in Bavaria and later he visited

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

where he became familiar with the mutual-teaching method practiced by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and

Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg (27 June 1771 – 21 November 1844) was a Swiss educationalist and agronomist. Biography He was born at Bern. His father was of patrician family, and a man of importance in his canton, and his mother was a granddau ...

. Thrilled by this method of teaching, he went to France in order to learn how to use it and after his studies he became principal of a Greek school in Iasi in the

Danubian Principalities The Danubian Principalities ( ro, Principatele Dunărene, sr, Дунавске кнежевине, translit=Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th ce ...

(1819-1821). From that school almost 100 students graduated and then moved to Greece where they practiced the same method. Until 1824, Kleovoulos used the mutual-teaching method at a school of the Greek community in Odessa as well.Perselis, p.51 In 1825 Kleovoulos went to the Cyclades in Greece, where the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

had broken out in 1821. There, after fruitless efforts to create mutual-teaching schools in Paros, Naxos and Tinos, he settled in Syros where he taught the mutual-teaching method to the children of Greek refugees who had found shelter on the island4. In April 1828, after an invitation of the Governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, he was appointed principal at the exemplary School of Poros. However, shortly after that, he caught pneumonia. He went to Syros to take his family and return to Poros, but in the meantime his health deteriorated and he died on 28 July.

Work

In 1820, Kleovoulos wrote an article which was published in ''

Hermes o Logios ''Hermes o Logios'', also known as ''Logios Ermis'' ( el, , "Hermes the Scholar") was a Greek periodical printed in Vienna, Austria, from 1811 to 1821. It is regarded as the most significant and longest running periodical of the period prior to ...

'' that was one of the first systematic studies about the mutual-teaching method written in Greek language. Furthermore, he left handwritten notes on the interpretation and application of the method, which was used by a large number of Greek teachers even after 1830, when the Greek translation of Louis Charles Sarazin's handbook was approved by the Preparatory School Commission".Perselis, p.50-53.

References

Bibliography

*Περσελή, Εμμανουήλ Π. (2004). Εξουσία και Θρησκευτική Αγωγή στην Ελλάδα του 19ου αιώνα. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις «Γρηγόρη».

External links

Konstantinos Chatzopoulos, «Ο Γεώργιος Κλεόβουλος και η Societe pour l’ ensegneiment elementaire»
(Greek)
Πανδέκτης:Kleovoulos Georgios
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleovoulos, Georgios 1785 births 1828 deaths People from Plovdiv Greek educators Year of birth uncertain Greek people from the Ottoman Empire Expatriates from the Ottoman Empire in the Austrian Empire