<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/why-schools-are-welcoming-intergenerational-tutoring/>
"At a desk wedged between a hallway vent and a classroom door, Marge
Mangelsdorf coaxed Harlan to write down what he remembered.
The two had just finished reading
Hi! Fly Guy, a popular children’s book
about a boy and his pet bug. Now it was time for Harlan, a first grader at
Bayless Elementary School in St. Louis County, to review the plot and
characters with his tutor. But while his vocabulary was improving, he appeared
hesitant about speaking and writing prompts like these.
“In the beginning, there was a fly,” said Marge. Clad in white sneakers and a
floral print shirt on a sunny November morning, she gave off the air of a
gentle but insistent grandparent. “And then he was caught, where — in a jar?
And then what happened?”
For a moment, Harlan grimaced. Then, gripping a pen topped with an electric
light, he began writing in an unsteady script.
Mangelsdorf spends several days each week in empty classrooms and corridors
like these, working with kids through Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring. The
program, which pairs volunteers with students for 30–45 minutes each week, is
overseen by the Oasis Institute, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that promotes
healthy aging through a mix of community involvement and continuing education.
According to the Institute’s leadership, intergenerational tutoring has spread
to 15 states, though its greatest concentration is in Missouri, where it began
35 years ago.
Participating students between kindergarten and the third grade are identified
by their teachers as needing academic or social-emotional support. And while
some skew younger, the average volunteer is around 72 years old, with many
resembling Mangelsdorf, a mother of three grown children who has lived in
nearby Affton for her entire life. After 22 years tutoring in Bayless
Elementary and other schools, Oasis has become her later-life mission."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
