The following exchanges illustrate e-mail interaction and communication
between elementary school students in one community and older adults
residing either nearby or in various locations throughout the country. To
ensure privacy of the children involved, I use first names only. Many
older adults participated in this program, however, quoting from their
letters, except where the remarks are most general, might be
inappropriate, and so are not included. The manager of the school
project is the teacher.
>From the teacher:
I am a teacher in Southern California (land of many lost families) who is
very desirous of establishing an intergenerational link (or many links)
for my class.
I think a large part of the problem our children and our society face is a
sense of 'rootlessness'. I plan to devote a considerable part of my
curriculum for this school year to developing a sense of self, family,
community, national identity and global citizenship. I want my students
to start knowing who they are, why they are that way and that they can
influence the conditions they experience.
I plan to use telecommunications as much as our school's limited
resources will allow. I would like to communicate with other classes all
over the U.S., especially from areas where ethnicity, cultural values and
religion are known to vary from the majority. I would also like to
involve as many age groups as I can. I will be interacting with college
students, high school and middle school students as well as with all
levels of my K-5 school.
>From an older adult:
I would be pleased to work with your students. I have been quite close to
(a high school) intergenerational project and believe that this sort of
thing could help a lot of kids.
...another adult wrote:
I will be honored to interact with your youngsters. Being an old
newspaper reporter I write in short sentences. Being a little not-yet-
grown-up myself I understand and speak their language. My
grandmother gave me a vivid recounting of her trip from Missouri to
Colorado in a wagon train. And her first trip back in a Model T and
many other stories. I'll be glad to share. I love young, open, inquisitive
minds.
To which the teacher replied:
You are wonderful! Thank you so much for being willing to interact
with my students. I think your perspectives and insights will really
enrich their understanding of the world and of life. I will do most
anything to help my students expand their thinking and I really
appreciate your willingness to help me!
One more adult...
I am fascinated with your project; it sounds and feels just right. I am a
seventy year old retired physician who is enjoying his retirement. I
believe we are all witnesses to our time; we are all making history which
succeeding generations will read about in their texts. Real immortality, I
believe, is in the passing of ideas from one generation to the next, in
holding out our hands to help or to be helped-the gestures are much the
same.