The first known mass emigration of Greeks to the USA, took place in 1767, when approximately 400 Greeks from Mani and Crete came to the area currently known as New Smyrna in Florida and settled 70 miles to the North, in St. Augustine. Ioannis Giannopoulos was one of these first settlers.

A carpenter by profession, Giannopoulos became the community’s teacher and taught classes in his home.

This wooden building is now a St. Augustine historical landmark, since it is the oldest surviving school building in the United States.

When a committee of Greek-Americans founded the Archimedean Schools in 2002, few could imagine that, 10 year onwards, a charter school with Greek as a mandatory subject would be one of the most successful and popular schools in the State of Florida.

The Archimedean Schools mission statement is "to initiate the young mind into the art of thinking through the teaching of Mathematics and the Greek language." Thus, students are required to take classes 2 ½ hours a day in Greek -not just Greek language courses, but other subjects as well.

Although it started with 72 students, in a 7,500 sq. ft. location, the school soon opened middle and high school levels (in 2005 and 2008 respectively), moved to a large campus and now has a waiting list of more than 1,000 students of different ethnic backgrounds. It was recently rated 2nd among 799 Florida middle schools and praised for using Greek and mathematics, and especially for teaching Math in Greek, as one of the reasons for its achievements.

Greek News Agenda: Special Issue - Learn Greeek in Greece