P.S. 24 / 7
by Jeffrey Selingo
Public-school buildings are not exactly models of efficiency. Most sit empty several months a year, they're rarely used on weekends, and their doors are often locked up for the day in the middle of the afternoon.
But with some school districts spending $30 million (high schools can cost as much as $50 million) and more to build a new school, taxpayers and other community members are now seeking to turn the facilities into round-the-clock educational institutions for people of all ages, including seniors.
"The school as the center of the community is one of the biggest trends in lifelong learning," says Kevin Sullivan, president of Sullivan and Associates, an education consulting firm based in Bethesda, Maryland. "It's about redefining the school as a place for kids into a facility that is open later and longer to more people across generations."
The shift in thinking is largely being driven by demographic forces. When the baby boomers begin to retire in the coming years, the number of Americans over 65 will swell just as the percentage of families with young children reaches historic lows. As a result, Sullivan says, older Americans will want access to the facilities built with their tax dollars in order to maintain their active lifestyles.
Intergenerational schools already exist in few communities. In Newberg, Oregon, the senior citizen center is attached to the elementary school by a common cafeteria and is adjacent to the middle school. The proximity allows the generations to mingle easily. Adults read to the students and then they put on performances for the seniors.
There are more casual interactions as well. A group of fourth-graders cleans up after the seniors finish lunch on weekdays and the grownups teach the children how to play board games. "It's amazing how many young children can't play checkers," says Anne Wylie, principal of the Antonia Crater Elementary School. "It's a great game for the seniors to teach the students."
In Cleveland, the Intergenerational School opened in 2000 as a public charter school. It has 96 students in kindergarten through fourth grade, and is located in the Fairhill Center, which houses several senior citizen organizations, including an Alzheimer's association, Meals on Wheels, and an art therapy program. In the next two years, the school plans to add fifth and sixth graders.
Catherine C. Whitehouse, the school's principal, executive director, and one of its founders, said the idea behind the school was to "change the focus on aging from just about being old to a lifelong developmental process."
In some cases, the contact between generations at the school goes beyond one group simply providing assistance to the other. For instance, adults who have come to the Fairhill Center for computer classes have been paired with youth to develop a joint multimedia project on Cleveland history. One of the seniors who came for the computer class, Gene Goodman, 75, now reads with the students every week as well as assists the gym teacher. "Where the teachers have to be the disciplinarians, I fill the role as a father figure."
When the concept for the school was first proposed, many people wondered how it would work, Whitehouse says. "They had this notion of school in their mind and asked why seniors needed to learn basic addition." Now that the school has been operating for a few years, says Whitehouse, the reaction "is more like, 'why don't we have more schools like this?'"
Indeed, the biggest hurdle to building more intergenerational facilities is changing the mindset about schools as more than just places for children, says George H. Copa, a professor of education at Oregon State University. Copa is also director of the New Designs for Learning project, which works with schools to enhance student learning.
Sometimes that means simply making visitors feel more welcome in schools by making room for them to hang their coat, get a cup of coffee, or leave their supplies from day to day. "Right now, the thinking is, if you're not a young person and you don't teach at a school, you don't belong there," Copa says. "We need to work on changing that image."
Jeffrey Selingo is a senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C. and a frequent contributor to Live & Learn.
