All Hail the Corinthians!
by Mr. Dalrymple
October 07, 2009
The World Cultures class, primarily consisting of freshman, recently participated in the Ancient Olympic Games. The games were very competitive and came down to the final event. At the conclusion, the Corinthians were crowned champions in both Period 2 and Period 5. Gerrit VanEngen, a member of the Corinthians, agreed, “It was really close. It came down to the number of medals, not overall points won. We had mad, ancient skills!”
Each class was divided into five different polises, or city-states. “While these city-states are no longer in existence, the Ancient Greeks made a significant impact on our world. I think it is important that students are aware of this,” stated Mr. Dalrymple. The polises represented were Athens, Argos, Corinth, Megara, and Sparta. While researching the polises, the students learned some of the innovations that were made by the different city-states. For example, students learned about the military achievements of the Spartans, democratic ideas created by the Athenians, and the scholastic advancements of the Megarians. The students took ownership and pride in representing their city-states. Connor Mason summed it up best by saying, “Although it was a close race, we are still the great and everlasting Corinthians, the ones that cannot be beat.”
The Olympic athletes participated in a series of events. The events were inspired by actual events that took place in Athens during the Olympics. Participants in each event competed for gold, silver and bronze medals. The events were, Flag Design, Pledge Creation, Boxing, Art Recognition, Poetry Reading, Shot Put, and Javelin. The events definitely required the participants to be creative and offered several exciting surprises. Case in point, participants quickly realized that physical strength was not a requirement to win the boxing event.
Jeff Wallman said, “I think all teams, did very well in working together. The ultimate goal was to have fun and that’s exactly what we did.”
Mr. Dalrymple felt the same, “I agree with Jeff, the students did a great job of working together and showed good overall sportsmanship. I feel this unit does a very good job of showing the students the importance and sense of pride that was placed on being an Athenian, Spartan, Megerian, Corinthian, or Argive. I’m a huge proponent of mixing fun and learning. I think we accomplished both with this unit.” Austin Ruskamp provided reassurance that this was achieved. “We had fun and learned something.”
