“Socrates-Démosthène” High School Inauguration

It has been a great honour and privilege to announce the inauguration of the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal’s “Socrates-Démosthène” High School. The grand opening will take place on Friday, August 26, 2016, at Campus II, on the third floor, at 1.00 pm.
It was the distant 1909, when Greek immigrants opened the first Greek elementary School in Montreal. It was the first Greek school in North America which over the years has been transformed to the modern trilingual École “Socrates-Démosthène”. Our School operates six campuses in different locations in the greater Montreal area in proximity to the majority of Greek families’ residences.
107 years later, a dream of all members of our community is becoming a reality: The new trilingual HCGM École Socrates-Démosthène High School is opening its doors to its elementary graduates!

It has been said:
“In Greek language there is vertigo of words. It is the only that explored, recorded and analyzed the innermost processes of speech and language, as no other language,” Jacques Lacarrière.
“Learn Greek, it is the language of wisdom,” George Bernard Shaw.
It was Voltaire that dubbed Greek “the most beautiful language in the universe”.
“If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek (language) is the violin of human thought,” Helen Keller.

According to these distinguished people, we are so lucky that we were born in an environment wealthy in words, ideas and thoughts. We need to keep this in mind and give our children the opportunity to be initiated into this too.
Among the most famous universities in the world, there are 344 chairs of Hellenic studies. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other distinguished universities maintain departments for studying the Greek culture, language and philosophy.
People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to study what we, the Greeks, have already available in our schools and our homes.
According to our President Nicholas Pagonis, “New students of the HCGM Socrates-Démosthène High School will be pioneers. They will all write history and will obtain the highest education that our school can offer”.
We are proud for these parents, who did not hesitate to send their children to a new school and add their own stone in the foundation of this magnificent venture.
We are certain that many families will follow and we already know the future of HCGM École Socrates-Démosthène High School and that of its students is bright.