80-year-old Greek man returns to school and becomes an article in the Guardian

The British journalist met the student at a second-chance night school in central Athens, where at least half of his classmates are the age of his grandchildren. It has been almost 70 years since, at 12, he “left school to help my father in the fields”, in the Peloponnese village where he grew up.

He later became an internal migrant, in Athens, where he worked in taverns. It was “hard work, hard life” as he describes it today. But when he retired and turned 80, he announced to his wife, a retired seamstress, that he would finally make his dream of returning to school a reality. “I always had this dream, to be filled with knowledge, but I never thought the day would come when I would live it,” he says today.

In fact, his return to school went viral when he was chosen, in the school parade on October 28, to be a flag bearer. It was not his bold decision, however, to start studying again but his excellent performance that led to his selection since, according to the school’s principal, Evangelia Pateraki, “he is the best student in the class.”

“My favorite subjects are ancient Greek and mathematics,” says Mr. Panagiotaropoulos. “There were some facts that were not clear in my mind. "For example, I wasn't sure, before, when the Byzantine Empire began and ended. It's so nice that now I have answers."