When a brilliant but homeless female veteran snags a temporary job as a middle school art teacher, she must overcome her personal shortcomings to inspire six wildly indifferent students.

SYNOPSIS:

MARIA PAPPAS (30s) is as smart and tough as they come. After her art history and teaching degrees, she served two tours of duty in the Greek Army in the Middle East. Now hampered by P.T.S.D. and homelessness, she uses her gumption to snag a temporary teaching job at Daedalus Gymnasio, a middle school in the suburbs of Athens. She basically steals the job she badly needed. It’s a tough world out there, and, as it turns out, even tougher in the classroom.

Only six students remain in the class from the previous domineering teacher now out on maternity leave. The students, none of whom want to be there but need to pass the class to be promoted, include LYRA SIDARIS (13), a brilliant Greek who would rather hang out with bullies; DIMITRIS KALLIS (13), a jock looking for an “easy grade;” MATT LOWENSTEIN (13), an insecure Jewish newcomer from New York with a prosthetic leg; Hui “EMMA” CHANG (13), an underachieving student of Chinese descent; DORRI KHAN (13), a hijab-conscious Greek Muslim; and ERNESTO BAROS (13), a clinically-shy Greek student on the Autism spectrum, whose father, NIKO BAROS (40) is the school’s janitor and Maria’s only initial friend.

Maria’s real nemeses include PRINCIPAL MIKOS (60), who wanted to hire another teacher, and KYRIA GEORGIOU (late-60s), a strict office lady with a hidden heart. Maria’s troubles begin early on as the Principal and Kyria Georgiou learn that Maria may have taken her job under false pretenses. She had threatened the other applicant, and the District Office also finds issues with Maria’s resume (no home address). We learn that Maria sleeps in her car at the City Park and suffers night terrors. Her devotion to teaching changes everything. It’s an “international” story of inspiration filled with the natural comedy of six wild teens stuck in an art classroom in Greece. What could go wrong?

Young love is in the air. Lyra gravitates to the “hunk” Dimitris despite being polar opposites. Matt becomes smitten with Dorri across religious lines, and Ernesto “falls in like” with Emma across intellectual lines. Even more surprising, the students become better artists, while the janitor Niko eases his way into Maria’s impenetrable heart, and vice-versa.

This is a global story of comically imperfect people helping each other to become the best versions of themselves. We all learn important lessons from art and history along the way but it’s Maria’s love for teaching that makes the world a better place. Over the course of five seasons (with 60 episodes per season), we see every imaginable daily conflict and comical adventures that help our favorite six students learn important life-long lessons about changing hearts and minds.

CHANGING ARTS AND MINDS TV SERIES