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Though we were very careful as far as documenting the project is concerned, we failed to ask the children – our ‘young teachers’ – to write their impressions and to give us feedback in writing in the last session. They did give us feedback in our oral discussion, but one can’t rely on one’s fickle memory.
Some more observations
a. On being patient
The adult learners, all 55+, were extremely grateful to their teachers for their patience.
There wasn’t a single learner who didn’t mention this point. This brings to mind the following questions:
- Are we that impatient towards retired citizens that being patient comes as such an outstanding gesture to the ‘older learner?’
- Is it the myth that older people are so slow to learn that underlies the learners’ attitude?
In his book The Nine Myths of Aging, Douglas Powell5 debunks the most prevalent myths about aging and amongst them that ‘old dogs can’t learn new tricks.’ We could gather from the information presented and from my close supervision of the project that all the seniors learnt ‘new tricks’ i.e.; using the Internet, being part of a communication network, and even making power point presentations, which the children taught the seniors as a ‘bonus.’
The children weren’t only patient they were also tolerant of the other. They accepted the seniors
With all their limitations, there was no ridicule, no cynicism. I believe there was much gratitude on both sides.
The children’s tolerance helped alleviate the seniors’fear of technology: the computer and the Internet.
b. On being a teacher
It was most interesting to note how regardless of age and experience the children became almost typical teachers – caring about how much their learners absorbed, worried about being understood, desiring that what they taught would be useful, and wanting very much to live up to their students’ expectations. The seniors became learners. They worried about practicing what they had learnt, hurt when their own private tutor left, and feared that they might not remember everything they learnt.
Conclusions
There is much talk about the changing role of the schools in the Information Age. Many educationists point out the need for value and character education, and to greater involvement in the community.
The mini-experiment in the Alon School combined both: the ‘young teachers’ combined their knowledge of the information technologies with the values of volunteering, tolerance, patience, responsibility, caring, commitment, understanding of others, and giving of oneself.
It wasn’t academic learning, it was real life doing.
Much of the success of the project lies in its being meaningful. There is much talk about the shallowness, the zapping way in which our youngsters behave and act.
Give them a meaningful real life task to do and we’ll see how responsible and deep they are.
Programs such as the one I have just described should start at the elementary schools, so that they may become a way of life.
I strongly believe that the new technologies are handing us new opportunities for bridging gaps in society such as the intergeneration gap and for planning for a better future in which social involvement and caring is a commandment to live by.
