Class News

Tony Lavely ’64 teaches his granddaughters mythology

May 24, 2020

Note from Tony Lavely:

Tony Lee encouraged me to post my Zoom lessons with my grandchildren: “Your mythology lessons with your granddaughters sound wonderful. After you send your current blast email, you might do another on what creative things we grandparents are doing with our grandkids.”

I encourage all classmates to share their experiences with their grandchildren during the coronavirus shutdown.

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When the pandemic shut down most schools in March, I asked my daughter (who lives in Connecticut) if she would like me to teach an online course to her three daughters (ages 10, 8, and 6) via Zoom. She jumped at the offer, if only because it would give her some free time at home. Then, one of her friends asked if her kids could join, too. And my brother Jay, Yale ’65, asked if I could include his nine-year-old granddaughter who lives in Vancouver BC. The Internet links us across 2,700 miles.

Most days, the Zoom gallery has 4-5 screens.

Mythology has a very personal connection in my life, since my father was a professor of Philosophy and Classics at Boston University. He read most of these myths to me beginning when I was six years old.  His mother (my grandmother) taught Greek and Latin in 1916, the year my father was born.  Odysseus/Ulysses is my epic hero. Later, Harold Bloom taught me even more about Shakespeare.

My first text was a read-aloud book, Classic Myths to Read Aloud: The Great Stories of Greek & Roman Mythology, by William F. Russell.

We covered 22 chapters with lessons five days a week, including quizzes at the end of each session via screen-share.

When school was canceled for the year and we ran out of myths, we moved on to Shakespeare. My text was A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, by Angela McAllister.

So far we’ve done five of the twelve plays in the book. Generally I screen-share four-to-five visuals off the web to dramatize the main characters, or in some instances a map. The girls have decided they like tragedies better than comedies.

I even showed them part of Stephen Greenblatt’s interview when we read The Tempest.

The girls act like they’re in school, paying close attention, asking questions, and raising their hands when they have an answer.  I’m going to miss this experience when they return to school next year.