The democratic school of modernity is permeated by a contradiction: it aims to shape the free citizen, the autonomous individuality, the person who thinks with their own mind, yet it pursues this goal and achieves it through compulsory measures and coercion. Indeed, in the school, where the student goes whether they want to or not and where they have no room for substantial choice, it is in this very space of heteronomy that the free individual, the autonomous individuality, is formed – with the assistance of other extramural factors, of course!

The school is an institution for the transmission of knowledge, a tradition – as wisely stated in the Greek language, teaching – of the culture of the ancestors to its students. The school is not an institution of innovation; innovation belongs to the students after they graduate from it. The central figure of the school is the teacher, who assumes the responsibility to teach the student, in a relationship with them that is asymmetrical by definition.

The texts of this book, regardless of their subject matter, are all texts of heartfelt love for the school and its defense. They advocate for a school that operates normally, where the teacher teaches – and does not simply communicate with the children – and the students learn to read and write – and do not merely acquire skills.

Stavros Zoumboulakis was born in 1953 in Sykeia, Laconia. He studied law and philology in Athens and philosophy in Paris. He served for many years in Secondary Education. From 1998 to 2012, he was the director of the magazine Nea Estia. Since 2008, he has been the president of the Board of Directors of the Biblical Foundation "Bread of Life" and, since 2013, of the Supervisory Council of the National Library of Greece. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Department of Philosophy, Education, and Psychology at the University of Ioannina.

He has written: John the Baptist as angel. The theological prerequisites of his winged representation (Domas, 1992), God in the City. Essays on religion and politics (Estia, 2002), On the stage of the world. From Belgrade to Tehran (Estia, 2007), Christians in the public space. Faith or cultural identity? (Estia, 2010), Unholy coalition (Polis, 2011), My sister (Polis, 2012), Golden Dawn and the Church (Polis, 2013), Which God and which man? Philosophical essays (Polis, 2013), Christianity of joy. The testimony of Pope Francis (Polis, 2015), Under the light of the novel (Polis, 2015), The sigh of the poor: Essays on Papadiamantis (University Press of Crete, 2016).

He translated: Emmanuel Levinas, Four Talmudic Studies (Polis, 1995).

He edited: The novelist Papadiamantis. A collection of critical texts, in collaboration with N.D. Triantafyllopoulos (Estia, 2003), Petros Kolaklidis, Studies, 2 volumes (Vikelea Library, 2006), Zissimos Lorentzatou, Collectanea (Domas, 2009).