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Reaching across the generations
By: Christine Gordillo
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Rashad Williams, left,
and his reading mentor Gene Goodman spend time talking about news of
the day and Cavs star LeBron
James, as well as books.
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One of those “aw-shucks” grins spreads across 9-year-old
Rashad Williams's face when Gene Goodman, Rashad's reading mentor, praises his young
companion's intelligence. “He's much smarter than I,” Goodman says. Rashad just giggles.
Those are the kinds of moments that make the 72-year-old Goodman's
volunteering at The Intergenerational School (TIS) on Cleveland's
East Side worthwhile. “These kids' learning is
wonderful to see,” he says. “It's a very gratifying experience.”
While Goodman, who lives in Shaker Heights, serves as one of the many reading mentors at TIS (each
student is assigned a mentor for the year), his time with Rashad and his other reading partners is not limited
strictly to books. “We talk about the news of the day Š we talk about LeBron.” They talk about life.
Another of Goodman's reading partners, Randall
Richmond, says that's one of the reasons the students look forward to
their weekly time with Goodman. “He talks to you and you kinda go off the subject (of reading),” said
11-year-old Randall. He also gives Goodman high marks because “he tells
me I'm so smart and encourages us and stuff. He helps me with my
self-esteem.”
That's exactly the kind of connections the founders
of TIS envisioned when they opened the school's doors back in 2000 in the
Fairhill Center for Aging campus on Fairhill Road.
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Volunteers mentor students in reading and math. A garden
project and museum explorers program are other shared activities.
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“Our idea is to create a learning environment
where people enjoy coming together and learning together,” says Catherine
Whitehouse, co-founder, principal and chief educator of TIS. Whitehouse
and her husband Peter, a doctor specializing in the neurology of aging,
along with Stephanie Fallcreek, executive
director of Fairhill Center, began the school. Through their three interdisciplinary
fields - education, medicine and gerontology - the trio, according to
Catherine Whitehouse, “realized learning is the same across the life
span. It's the same for a 5-year-old and a 90-year-old,” and learning
should be integrated into every stage of life. Fallcreek
and the Whitehouses dreamed of a school that
created a real-life learning community, where all ages come together and
form relationships by participating together in shared learning.
That's where volunteers like 66-year-old Mary
Solomon come into play. “I initially (volunteered) because my grandkids
live in California, and I wanted some contact with little ones,” says
Solomon. As Solomon continued her service as a computer lab aide during
the last school year, she realized that the relationship she was
developing with the students “was sorta what
the doctor ordered” for her, filling a hole left by her faraway
grandchildren.
But what truly energizes Solomon is the symbiotic
relationship that has developed between her and the young students. “They
get excited when they see me, and I get excited when I see them.” Solomon
says. And as a senior citizen, Solomon is most impressed by the respect
shown to her by the students, something she says she hasn't experienced
in past volunteer situations with students. “They have respect for the
older person,” she says. “They acknowledge you when you come in the room
Š They are seeing respect modeled, and they are feeling it themselves as
well.”
That respect for elders and the desire to be around
them is by design at TIS. The curriculum at the school, which draws more
than two-thirds of its 115 students from Cleveland, ensures each student has a variety of interactions with
older generations throughout the school week. Classes also make monthly
visits to participating partner nursing homes, such as Montefiore in Beachwood, where the students and
residents join in curriculum-based activities like memory games that benefit
both young and old.
In addition to the reading mentor, students also
visit weekly with senior math mentors. Other volunteer opportunities
include a gardening program, where seniors and students cultivate their
own garden on campus and sell their produce at a local farmer's market,
and the six-week museum explorers' program, with after-school visits to
area museums. Last school year, nearly 40 seniors served as TIS
volunteers, committing to one two-hour period a week. Seniors and
programs related to seniors make up the bulk of the volunteer curriculum,
but TIS also participates in programs with Case Western Reserve University students as well.
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Cleveland section also offers an opportunity to volunteer at TIS.
Last year, the council brought a program called “Partners in Reading” to TIS. According to program chairwoman Ellen Schwartz,
Partners in Reading entails volunteers meeting with students' parents or
caregivers once a month to offer strategies “to help their children
foster a love of reading.” NCJW buys books for the program and loans them
to the families, who gather monthly to talk about their reading successes
and hurdles.
By most measures, the TIS philosophy of bringing
multiple generations together to establish real-world learning
connections is a stunning success. According to principal Whitehouse,
senior volunteers find they are “feeling better and healthier” since
being involved with TIS. Dr. Peter Whitehouse reports studies have shown
seniors who volunteer regularly in a school setting experienced increased
physical, social and cognitive improvements.
As for the children, TIS is the only Ohio
charter school that has earned an “excellent” rating from the state for
three straight years. The 2005-2006 school year
saw 100% of the school's third- and sixth-graders passing the state math
and reading achievement tests.
For Mary Solomon, the payoff is a lot simpler than
what studies and tests can show. “Just to see their eyes light up when
they see me,” she says, is all she needs to know that it's working.
Those interested in volunteering at TIS should
contact intergenerational coordinator Neelam Baiji at 216-721-0120.
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