“A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.”
That quote, attributed to Francois Rabelais, a French Renaissance writer, could well serve as the mission statement for Culver City’s Turning Point School, which recently concluded the second annual Intergenerational Writing Project between its sixth-graders and volunteers from the Culver City Senior Center.
Having participated in this project last year, I was delighted to become a 12-year-old once more, tackling assignments and doing homework for five recent Thursday mornings.
We were informed in advance of the assignment for the first meeting, at the Veterans Memorial Building: Write an “I am” poem describing ourselves, each line to begin with those two words.
I was intrigued by the students’ poems, which included such lines as “I am the fascinating physics and chemistry of the universe” and “I am a hyper jellyfish.” That’s quite a change from the way I was taught to write poetry, which had to rhyme and have a specific cadence, and quite liberating and imaginative.
We then discussed Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, which led to our next assignment: Write about a change we wanted to see in the world.
Our following meeting saw us back at the Veterans Memorial Building. As we discussed our assignment, it became apparent that the students were very socially conscious, with many concerned about racism, religious extremism, pollution and ecology. Because several of us practiced various forms of volunteerism, we were then encouraged to talk about people who had been of service to us in our lives and ways we had been of service to others. Our assignment: Write about someone we admired and the characteristics which made that person exceptional.
A field trip for the seniors distinguished our next meeting, held at the school. I was fascinated by the “smart screen,” a huge, wall-mounted flat screen that worked in tandem with a nearby desk computer to show images from the Internet. This was a revelation, as I’m from the BC (before computers) era, where the most high-tech experience of my early education was seeing nature slides projected on a roll-up screen. The students enthralled me by demonstrating how they could also draw and write on the smart screen with a special pointer, tapping various icons to access and operate an art program.
As we read our assignments, I learned that for many of the students the person most admired was a parent. One girl wrote about her grandfather, who had died before her birth but whom she knew and respected from the powerful and loving memories passed down in her family. Another wrote about a favorite author because “a person’s character shows through their written work” and this author “leaves it all on the page.”
In keeping with the imminent Chinese New Year, we read Chinese poems. Each was like a meditation depicting a moment in time, leading to the next assignment: Create either an artistic interpretation of one of those poems, write a response to it or write our own poem inspired by an occurrence during the week before our next meeting.
We next met at the senior center, sharing our poems and discussing the Chinese New Year, which led to a comparison of the various holidays and the assignment for our fifth and final meeting: Invent a new holiday, tell why and describe how it would be celebrated.
On Feb. 17, we returned to the school, where I was struck by the imagination, whimsy, insight and compassion infusing the holidays the students had created. As an example of the many which concentrated on caring for others, there was Give Back Day, which included volunteering at a shelter and cleaning up a beach. “The point of this holiday is to give back for once and not just get, get and get,” one student wrote.
And then came a special treat. Several students from different grades had written about themselves, and their comments had been incorporated into heartfelt and exuberantly received performances in Spilling Open, a musical, which we attended in their new theatre.
That title could have been a subheading for our project because there are valuable and lasting lessons to be learned just by being open to engagement that spills across generational lines.
The senior center’s RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) specialist, Jill Thomsen, who was the liaison with the school, shared that “the intergenerational project is one of my favorite activities of the year. Both the adults and the students really benefit from learning a little about how the other half lives. Seeing the relationships that form is so wonderful for everyone.”
Janet Rohrbacher, one of the senior volunteers, commented that she appreciated the “opportunity for both age groups to exchange what we all value about life, and also that we can really get to know each other.”
And what about the students? “I thought that seniors just played bingo all day and slept, but they are actually very active,” one student said, typifying many of their comments.
One student’s experience, including the visit to the senior center, where he was exposed to fitness training and a host of other activities, led him to say that “this experience was completely life-changing.”
“My senior’s wisdom has taught me to value and be more thankful for what I have today,” another student reflected.
“I am sure the seniors have also broken stereotypes about us. For example, pre-teenagers don’t just run around causing havoc,” said someone with whom I am in total agreement. These 12-year-olds give me hope.
As I left the school, my mind circled back to our first meeting and I recalled a line from one of the “I am” poems: “I am young – a life that has yet to be lived lies within me.” For five Thursdays I, too, was young again and it felt great. Sign me up for next year.