Athena College

After my post about Muna's Restaurant attracted 15 responses in just a few hours, I thought I might as well put in a plug for another local establishment. Where I come from, the word college conjures up images of nice old brick buildings with ivied walls, fraternity houses, alumni reunions, sports teams, and diplomas as respectable as anything from a university. So, when Athena College opened up in a storefront on the corner of Green Lanes and Falkland Road, in the same building where I rent an attic studio space, it seemed to me like some kind of joke — especially when I noticed it was affiliated with Athena Palace next door.

However, I now find myself teaching there, and the more I get to know the place and the smart, funny, likable folks who run it, the more I feel this very unpretentious little college really deserves a central (and permanent) place in the life of the community.

Eventually, I'd love to see Athena start to provide more imaginative offerings — creative writing groups, portfolio reviews for teenagers hoping to apply to art schools, maybe some free-wheeling, chatty courses in history or philosophy. For now, the main subject is English as Second Language. The course I'm teaching is for people whose English is more or less adequate for most everyday purposes, but needs improvement, especially in learning to navigate our language's chaotic and confusing vocabulary and grammar. Sometimes we do the boring, predictable exercises to prepare for I.E.L.T.S. exams, but more often we jump around in a wild variety of published writings (sometimes Shakespeare, Milton, or the King James Bible; sometimes a Micky Spillaine pulp thriller, a Tracey Emin moan in the Friday Independent, or a Guardian analysis of Iraq military strategy) — all are sources for quick vocabulary lessons. We also write a lot of little stories and essays on unpredictable subjects, which provide a rich lode of mistakes — each of which results in a twenty-second lesson (why it's a mistake and how to do it differently).

So — if you (or your friends and neighbours) might benefit from a few evenings of this kind of thing, drop in a say hi. (Don't judge the place by its web site, which is supposed to be getting a complete overhaul any day now.) Incidentally, our affiliation with the palace next door brings the fringe benefit of fresh-made free coffee.