How do these two programs close
the generation gap, and in the process, open the door to a revolutionary
learning opportunity?
The purpose of this blog, “A Better Education” is to illuminate the
possibilities in store for public education, and how acutely they compare to
the reality of it, and find new resources and methods of progressing education
in the right direction. Most of these new methods and resources have been confined
to “experimental” private schools and institutions, and so far have not been
made available to the vast majority of students. We are in the midst of an
educational paradigm shift, and it certainly can’t happen overnight.
The good news is, these private schools have done the heavy lifting of
progressing education for the rest of us. They’ve taken the initiative and
risk, and now they have the evidence to show their methods are effective. Phase
one of educational reform is underway. The next step, naturally, will be to
implement new proven methods of improving education into public legislation,
thus restructuring the public school system.
This section of “A Better Education” is dedicated to discussing these
new and improved learning models and imagining how aspects of these methods
could eventually be adapted and integrated into public education. Experimental
education has been in the works for quite a while, and the results are finally
in, and they are undeniable. It’s time to analyze the facts and face the
future.
Book Buddies & Shared Studies
Grace Living Center & Jenks School District
Oklahoma
It all began in 1998, in Jenks, a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Almost as
if they were fated to unite, it just so happens that the Jenks school district
is located directly across the street from Grace Living Center, a home for the
elderly. Due to their close proximity, the two institutions arranged an
integrated program intended to benefit both parties—the students and the
elderly alike--called Book Buddies, “which pairs rotating groups of elders and
kindergarten students who read to one another for about 30 minutes several
times a week” (Morehouse - “Senior Citizens Help Young Children”).
The partnership has been so immensely beneficial I don’t even know
where to begin. The programs benefit the kids, of course, but do wonders for
the elderly as well. The vibrant company of youth eliminates their loneliness
and boredom. Not only this, but students are also more accepting of the elderly
and their physical differences and medical needs than they might otherwise have
learned to be. This setting brings the old and young together, in the process
eradicating age discrimination at the source.
But each program has its own specific purpose, on top of all of the
above.
“Book Buddies”
Book Buddies employs the elders
as the perfect audience for young new readers. They possess the necessary
patience and appreciation for the students as they tackle tricky sentences and
words that they’re still learning. The program has so far produced “remarkable
results,” according to Ken Robinson, the author of The Element, who says
that “the majority of the children at the Grace Living Center are outperforming
other children in the district on the state’s standardized reading tests. More
than 70 percent are leaving the program at age five reading at third grade
level or higher” (204-205).
“Shared Study”
This program joins small groups
of students and elderly to work together on hands-on activities, including
crafts and dramatic reenactments of events in correspondence with their
studies. These activities are educational, of course, but also highly creative,
and from the students’ point of view, constitute play.
“To promote connections between
the generations,” according to Morehouse, “teachers look at class themes
through the lens of ‘then and now.’” For instance, during the Healthy Habits
unit, the students and the elderly compare the lunch options available today to
those available to kids “back then.”
This partnership employs the elderly as mentors for the youth, helping
them read, engaging them in fun activities, and discussing the differences
between the world today and the one that they grew up in—a scarce and
invaluable perspective the next generation desperately needs to be exposed to,
considering how rapidly the times are changing. But more so than anything, this
partnership makes productive use of a highly wasted human resource: old people.
“Instead of whiling away their days waiting for the inevitable,” as Robinson
describes it, “they have a reason to get up in the morning and a renewed
excitement about what the day might bring” (205). Not only that, but
“medication levels have been plummeting” (Robinson 205).
The reason I find this so inspiring is the elderly who have so much to
offer have gone so woefully neglected. They have the better part of a century
of life experience behind them, and so much wisdom and knowledge to share, and
yet the younger generation is kept mostly separate from the old. We siphon the
elderly off into homes in the same fashion we pack up unused Christmas
decorations into cardboard boxes. We stowe them well out of the way and take
them out only on special occasions.
Why are the elderly so widely regarded as such burdens? Sure they need
some extra care physically and medically, but like I said, their minds have so
much more to offer than we give them credit for. Also, they do possess one
asset that the rest of us are desperately lacking: That is time, and as we all
know, time is money. And the elderly have oodles. They have the perfect
disposition to work with kindergartners because they’re patient, and because
they’re not scrambling to manage thirty to forty kids at once, the children
have someone to actually take the time to stumble over words with them, one on one.
“Here, we have elders,” says GLC president Don Greiner, “who our society has
parked somewhere, having that impact. This is an opportunity for them to mean
something and be something” (“Senior Citizens Help Young Children”).
The partnership between the school
and living center and the subsequent advances in the students’ academic and
social development are impressive evidence that integrating generations can be
hugely beneficial to everyone involved. Luckily, we needn’t base all
kindergarten classrooms in the middle of assisted living centers. Weekly visits
by bus would do just fine. Another possibility would be to offer programs at
boys and girls’ clubs and recreation centers and libraries that bring the
elderly together with young students in a similar fashion.
SOURCES
Morehouse, Lisa. “Senior Citizens Help Young Children with Reading and
Relationships.” Edutopia. Web. 19 January 2014. http://www.edutopia.org/grace-learning-center-prekindergarten-community
Morehouse, Lisa. “How to Build Intergenerational Opportunities for
Learning.” Edutopia. Web. 19 January 2014. http://www.edutopia.org/grace-learning-center-prekindergarten-community-how-to
Robinson,
Ken. The Element. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.
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