About Koraes Elementary
Our History
Founded in 1910 by Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Koraes has been a cornerstone of faith-based education. We serve students from preschool through 8th grade, preparing them academically, spiritually, and socially to thrive in life.
Our Philosophy
Entrusted by families for generations to educate their children, we believe in providing students with the academic, spiritual, and moral foundations for success. We foster a safe, family environment that builds lifelong friendships and instills confidence, respect, and well-being in every child. Through faith-based education, we guide students to become disciplined, respectful, engaged, and better prepared for our ever-changing society.
Who was Adamantios Koraes?
The namesake of Koraes Elementary School was a Greek humanist scholar whose advocacy of a revived classicism laid the intellectual foundations for the Greek struggle for independence. His influence on modern Greek language and culture was enormous.
The son of a merchant, Koraes studied medicine, but later moved to Paris to pursue a literary career.
His main contributions were a 17-volume Library of Greek Literature and the 9-volume Parerga. The Library included historical, political, philosophical, and scientific works by classical writers, for which he wrote prefaces in Modern Greek. He also edited the first four books of Homer's Iliad.
Convinced that contemporary Greeks could find strength and unity only through a revival of their classical heritage, Koraes made his writings an instrument for awakening his countrymen to the significance of that heritage for their national aspirations. His most enduring contribution was the creation of a new Greek literary language. His Atakta, composed between 1828 and 1835, was the first Modern Greek dictionary.
A witness of the French Revolution, Koraes took his primary intellectual inspiration from the Enlightenment. He borrowed ideas copiously from the philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as from historian Edward Gibbon.
Koraes remained in France for most of his life, and during the War of Greek Independence he wrote pamphlets, raised funds, and was one of the founders of the Parish Philhellenic Society.
