The impact of the government's lockdown policy is approaching me. First came the extension of spring break of my university, then the movement of classes online, and then the shutdown of business. About that time, in the middle of March, I shut down too.
I cast about for something to do. The most obvious path was to help with the care of my grandson, Charlie, since his parents were thrown into managing their own work-from-home situations. Almost as a joke, I asked whether Charlie might enjoy learning a little Greek. It was strange that he should have jumped at the chance. I came to teach Greek from 2: 45 to 3: 30 pm, five days a week, to an eight-year-old.
I have been teaching for over 40 years. I have taught adult education and continuing education courses by the score. But teaching Greek to an eight-year-old may be my crowning achievement, which clearly would last long as his interest lasted.
Each letter was an achievement for both of us. To be sure, the zeta eta theta was easy enough to remember. But the end of the alphabet is not so easy, to say nothing of the letter epsilon. After a couple of dozen corrections, I had to decide that elspion was close enough. Along the way there were laughs, and jingles, I would never try in a "normal" classroom.
My husband and Charlie's parents said that our sessions were the highlight of those hard days as well. Charlie was learning a bit of Greek, I was stretching my old skills in a new and beloved direction, and our family got into delight. One of Charlie's first Greek words was the word for joy, char a. I pronounced it loudly, chara! Charlie responded with his own enthusiastic chara, adding, 'Chara, that's what we will have when our society returns to normal!" Yes, darling child, we will have joy then, but we also have it now.
