Education
Goals
Introduction /
Goal
One / Goal
Two / Goal Three / Goal
Four / Goal Five / Goal
Six
Goal
One: Readiness
By the year 2000, all children will start school
ready to learn
Putting young children and older adults together is an idea
as old as families. Yet modern Americans don't do it often enough.
The institutions are in place. Every day, millions of children
participate in Head Start programs, preschools, drop-in centers,
and story hours. Millions of older adults spend their days nearby
in apartments, activity centers, and nursing homes. There are
many ways to bring these two groups together to better prepare
children for school. One program even begins the day after a
child is born.
"There's no better way to prepare our children than to
begin at an early age. Readiness from this perspective means
preventions." Sue Suter, Director, Illinois Department
of Children and Family Services
1. Intergenerational Involvement:
The Gift of Self-Esteem
By Helene Block, Oakton Community College
For five years, Grandma Ruth has volunteered at the Oakton
Community College East Child Development Center. Two mornings
a week, parents drive her to the school, where Ruth plays with
their children and lovingly listens and responds. On one particular
day, the preschool teachers and children are unusually excited:
they are having a birthday party for Grandma Ruth. The preschoolers
count to 88 as each places candles on a huge cake. A few days
later, a teacher asks a child what she wants to be when she
grows up. The child's response: "Grandma Ruth!"
Grandpa George is a new volunteer in a day-care center.
The boys like to involve him in their block play. When one boy
becomes frustrated trying to build a bridge, he turns to Grandpa
George and says, "You fix it." Instead, the retired
professional engages the boy in a discussion of the problem.
"Let's look and see which block might fit. Which one do
you think we should try?" Together they consider options,
then accomplish their goal. "We did it! We did it!,"
the delighted boys shout. "Come see what we did!"
This is learning at its best: cognitive, language, and social
skills developing out of real experiences with real people.
Grandma Ruth, despite a tremor and wrinkled skin, is a role
model whose students worry about her when she gets sick. Grandpa
George is a teacher who helps students find their own way. Each
is a resource that modern society badly needs.
Older adults can play a critical role in the development of
children and the improvement of their self-esteem, say Kurry
and Johnson in their new book, Beyond Self-Esteem: Developing
a Genuine Sense of Human Values. "Children's feelings about
love and power, virtue and eagerness to please, competence and
confidence, do not emerge in a vacuum," the authors write.
"Rather, children develop "gradually"--through
experience, through language, through "thoughtful"
adults and through each other."
Older volunteers often improve children's classroom behavior,
and the majority of teachers indicate a significant reduction
in discipline problems and a positive influence on the quality
of learning on days a volunteer is present. Today, we know that
this senior "magic" is not a luxury. In today's age-segregated
and fragmented society, it is becoming a necessity. We have
at last learned that, especially in early childhood education,
"generational teams" mirror successful home-based
literacy environments.
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Tips for new volunteers
Pretend I am a day-care teacher of three- and four-year-olds,
welcoming you, a new volunteer, into my classroom. What messages,
verbal and nonverbal, can I and should I communicate to you
as we learn to adjust to one another?
I will ask you specifically to do the following:
1) Help me to create a safe and accepting learning environment
by your constant caring and presence.
2) Encourage the children's curiosity and experimentation.
It is okay to make mistakes; we learn this way. Help the children
to take risks. Give the children feedback so they know that
you, too, make mistakes occasionally.
3) Facilitate their participation, making sure the children
do as much as possible with as little interference as possible.
Theorists including Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg agree that
active involvement enhances self-esteem and learning. Too often,
older adults want to help too much.
4) Value children's ideas, and respect their uniqueness. Tune
to their interests, discover what they like, even if it differs
from the way you were raised. Let them teach you about computers
and about living in the 1990s.
5) Share your life skills and personal history with the children,
when it is appropriate. They need this perspective on the passage
of time and the life span.
6) Share what you see and think, when appropriate. You are
an extra pair of eyes, and, after all, you have vast experience.
You have survived, and you are still learning.
Most of all, I will try to let you know that you are a role
model for healthy self-esteem throughout the lifecycle. Playing
that role and giving your love are the best gifts you can give
to everyone.
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What not to do
Now let us look at what intergenerational relationships are not.
They are not rigid, controlling, competitive, or too serious.
They are not punitive, judgmental, critical, or condemnatory.
They are neither overly structured nor mandatory. And certainly,
they are not always peaceful and quiet. They are safe, accepting,
and motivating. They are often risk taking, sometimes difficult,
and usually creative. They ultimately stimulate the children to
learn and enhance their self-esteem.
I am reminded of a 14-year-old boy in my seventh-grade class
more than 23 years ago in Chicago. He desperately needed extra
help and attention. Since there were 38 seventh-graders in the
room, he never received it, although others did try to assist
him. I believe that an older caring volunteer adult might have
reached this youngster in ways no "professional" could
understand. The poem that follows is dedicated to that child and
to all children who are waiting for us to involve elders in their
lives.
"You Know"
Reach out to me Grandma
I sure need some hope.
Reach out to me Grandpa
I'm not just a dope.
My teachers and parents
They think I'm a fool.
I try and I try
But I can't make it in school.
Reach out to me elders
Give me your time.
Give your patience
Help me to climb.
Your faith and your talents
Will help me to grow.
You know I can do it
Now, I need to know.
With your love and guidance
I'm ready to start.
I'll take your suggestions
They come from the heart.
© 1991, Helene Block
For more information, contact Helene Block, Center for Family
Education, Oakton Community College, 7701 North Lincoln Avenue,
Skokie, Illinois 60077, 708-635-1461.
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The Illinois Intergenerational
Initiative
The Illinois Intergenerational Initiative was established in
1986 to strengthen education through the involvement of older
persons. Operating with funds from the Illinois Board of Higher
Education and the Retirement Research Foundation, the Initiative
serves as an information clearinghouse, a catalyst for coalition
development, and an advocate of the power of each person to
improve education.
The Initiative employs a networking and coalition approach
directed to two levels: the state leadership and the grass roots.
The state focus promotes partnerships and cooperation between
educational organizations, state agencies, and the private sector.
The grass roots effort assists educators, service providers,
retirees, and students in the creation of new programs and expansion
of existing ones.
This coalition effort has helped make Illinois a national center
of intergenerational ventures. More than 450 Illinois residents
took part in meetings over the past two years to share their
experiences and promote expansion of this new field; this report
is based on those meetings and a culminating Circle of Helping
conference in April 1991 in Chicago.
As Illinois faces up to economic pressures and challenges within
its educational systems, the Illinois Intergenerational Initiative
urges the state's political leaders, educators, and human service
professionals to look to older adults as key allies in this
exciting and important work.
For additional copies contact Jane Angelis, Illinois Intergenerational
Initiative, Anthony Hall 104, Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901. 618-453-1186 FAX 618-453-4295
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2. Ready Set Go: Elders Help Preschoolers Learn the Ropes
By Pat Shephard, Schaumburg Park District
Mrs. Brown and Ben, a three-year-old, meet in a twice-a-week
morning class. Ben is afraid of engaging with his peers and
of letting go of his mother. But 67-year-old Mrs. Brown offers
smiling, warm assurance. At his side, she perceives his needs
and addresses them with positive reassurance. Before long, Ben
is alongside the other children, playing and enjoying himself.
In the fall of 1990, Friendship Village Retirement Home in
Schaumburg and the Schaumburg Park District Preschool started
an intergenerational program. Five residents from Friendship
Village volunteered to work with 120 children. The volunteers
spent two hours each day sharing their knowledge and experience.
They were considered an extension of the preschool staff and
provided three and four year olds with strong conceptual aspects
of socialization and readiness skills for kindergarten.
Also offered by Friendship Village and the park district is
a socialization program available to all three and four year
olds in the district. Children participate with Friendship Village
residents in crafts, songs, and other forms of socialization.
The program enhances the children's readiness skills as it provides
opportunities for communication, sports, arts, special events,
and nature programs.
For more information, contact Pat Shephard, Division Manager/Programming,
Schaumburg Park District, 505 N. Springinsgutz, Schaumburg,
Illinois, (708) 490-7015.
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3. Day Care: A Range of Ages
Under One Roof
By Gwynne Chovanek, Parkside Senior Services
and Kris Infanti, Lutheran General Hospital
Children work and play next to older adults at two of Parkside
Senior Services Adult Day Cares. One site is in Merrillac High
School and the other has a children's day-care program in the
same building, providing a natural opportunity for children
and adults to be together.
The clients are impaired elderly, who are provided a therapeutic,
supervised setting, which encourages independence for the older
adult. For those participants who wish to attend, intergenerational
programs can be part of their day's activities.
Both groups have benefited from the joint activities. The adults
tap into their residual abilities and fill the void created
by grandchildren who have grown and moved away. The children
learn from the adults. The elders often become the grandparents
the children do not have.
Three to four times a week, three, four and five year olds
come to the adult Day Care Program. Cookies are baked (and eaten),
games are played, hands are held. Recently, the children and
adults made their own special Thanksgiving. During the summer
months, barbeques are held. Scrumptious food such as hot dogs,
watermelon, brownies, and lemonade are served. One five year
old told his mother after one of the events, "I had lots
of fun, mom, we barbequed with the older adults today."
For more information, contact Gwynne Chovanek, Parkside Senior
Services, P.O. Box 9375, Des Plaines, Illinois 60016. Telephone:
(708)-824-5142.
"The Illinois
Association of Area Agencies on Aging firmly believes we're
all in this together' and must enhance intergenerational and
interagency awareness and cooperation." Janet B. Ellis,
President, Illinois Association of Area Agencies on Aging.
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4. Baby TALK: Books and Guiding
Words After Every Birth
By Claudia Quigg, Rolling
Prairie Library System
Baby TALK (Teaching Activities for Learning and Knowledge)
provides information and encouragement to parents during the
first days of their child's life. Since the program's inception
in 1986, Baby TALK staff and volunteers have met with every
parent who delivers an infant in Decatur's two hospitals. Their
message: that a loving, involved parent has the capacity to
give a child a wonderful beginning.
Reaching the parents of infants is crucial because the first
years of life are the most important in terms of human development.
By some estimates, a child learns half of all he or she will
ever know before turning one. The child must experience love,
respect, and a sense of attachment to another person in his
or her first year, or it will be more difficult to learn later.
Attitudes about the world are firmly in place by the time a
toddler turns three.
"You get more information with your new car than you get
with a baby!" quips Dr. Burton White, author of The First
Three Years of Life. Indeed, at a time when matters that will
affect a baby's entire adult life are being written indelibly
on to his or her psyche, a baby is considered by some to be
just a soft lump of flesh whose major requirements are to be
kept dry, full, and quiet. Recent research indicates that children
under three are more perceptive, more capable, and undergoing
more important development than previous generations had ever
guessed.
Much information is contained in resource books written in
lay language about infant development and good parenting practices.
Unfortunately, much of this information is unknown to parents.
There is a demonstrable need for parents to be educated about
"what's out there" that can be a real help as they
raise their children.
The Baby TALK program gives parents this information. Older
persons involved in this program are especially effective. They
encourage parents to start reading to the baby in the hospital
and provide a book to get them started. They tell the new parents
that there are wonderful resources to use with children, in
particular the public libraries whose shelves bulge with beautiful
books written for children under three, as well as recordings
of lullabies and baby songs.
For more information, contact Claudia Quigg, Rolling Prairie
Library System, 345 W. Eldorado, Decatur, Illinois, 62522, (217)
429-2586
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5. College Courses:
Intergenerational Approach Must Be Taught
by Helene Block, Oakton Community College
Professional intergenerational training at the college level
is a necessity. Early childhood development courses with an
intergenerational focus help students prepare for a teaching
career that utilizes the skills of older persons. Some examples
of courses that could easily integrate intergenerational topics
are "Play and Creative Expression For the Young Child,"
"Group Dynamics," "Language Arts for the Young
Child," and "Introduction to Intergenerational Programming."
A course should help students learn how to initiate, maintain,
and evaluate programs in preschools, elementary schools, adult
day-care centers, and nursing homes. Observations of intergenerational
programs and in-class curriculum presentations and activities
should be an integral part of such courses.
For more information, contact Helene Block, Center for Family
Education, Oakton Community College, 7701 North Lincoln Avenue,
Skokie, Illinois 60077, 708-635- 1461.
"Intergenerational programs assist state and local agencies
to provide services that promote healthy lives for Illinoisans
from infants through the senior population." John R. Lunpkin,
M.D. Director of Public Health
"The human race will have run its course, not when nuclear
energy goes out of control, but when old and young forget their
interdependence and cease to work in tandem for their mutual
survival. Plants and animals respond to this interdependence
genetically. Human beings, possessed of reason, have the unfortunate
ability to ignore it." Wayne L. Sampson, Executive Director
Illinois Association of School Boards
Education Affects Us All.
"Many older folks have dismissed education as being irrelevant
to their lives. They don't recognize that an 18-year-old with
limited reading and math skills affects us all. They don't recognize
that a 63-year-old who can't read the direction on a prescription
bottle affects us all. The don't recognize that a sales executive
in her fifties who thinks training is unnecessary affects us
all. When education falters, society feels the effects."
"Older Americans are a reservoir of talent and experience,
but recognizing their potential is not enough. America needs
to find ways to plug older folks back into education. Older
Americans can play a pivotal role in meeting the challenge of
the six national education goals." Robert Maxwell, President
American Association of Retired Persons
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