By Lorel Janiszewski
Special to Inside
What's the difference between 5 and 100? The senior kindergartners at The Latin School of Chicago now have a pretty good idea of the answer.
On a recent snowy morning, two separate rooms full of 5- and 6-year-olds had the chance to literally gather at the feet of a centenarian to compare and contrast their lives thus far. Lillian and Roosevelt, aged 100 and 104 respectively, held the attention of their audiences for 45 minutes, regaling them with tales of their youth and offering them some seasoned perspectives.
Lillian and Roosevelt's visit to the North Side K-12 day school was made possible through Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly (LBFE), a volunteer-based nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly. LBFE's intergenerational program coordinator Christine Bertrand has teamed up with Latin School teachers on centenarian visits for the past three years. "It is important to society for children to understand the value of their elders, how much wisdom and good conversation even the oldest of people can provide," she said.
The Latin School faculty had prepared their students for the visit, which they arranged to coincide with the children learning to count to 100, and the completion of their 100th day of school.
"In our room, we asked them to brainstorm questions they might have for our visitor," reports Regan Coin. "We also discussed how the elderly may not hear, see or walk as well, and how we can be respectful about that. We wanted to prepare them in case our visitor came in a wheelchair or used a cane."
Indeed, both of the elderly visitors have disabilities. Lillian, well coifed and manicured, dressed in a fur coat, pearls, a hat and a stylish wool dress she'd bought in 1957 on 63rd Avenue, is blind. But she recounted her memories of childhood so vividly that they made lasting visual impressions on the children.
Coin's class asked Lillian questions ranging from "When is your birthday?" to "Did you play Yu-Gi-Oh! cards?" When asked about her childhood, Lillian described the log house she grew up in. "It was sealed inside and outside, so no one knew it was made of logs." This was a detail that kindergartner Sarah remembered afterwards.
"They were particularly fascinated with how kids were punished at school in her day and how she could get 'whoopin's' for misbehaving," recalled Coin as she reviewed the visit. Lillian's description was so precise that one little girl was later able to reenact the punishment position the senior described — standing with her nose touching the wall and arms outstretched.
Lynn Pearson prepared her class by discussing grandparents and what they like to do. "We looked at pictures of 100-year-olds. We talked about the range of activities for a person that age: probably not bicycling or skate boarding, but maybe swimming or walking, golf or fishing."
Roosevelt, who entered Lynn Pearson's classroom on his own motorized wheelchair, detailed his activities past and present with great physical vigor. The children were mesmerized as he mimed how to start a car with a crank and fill an oil lamp. When asked if he had his own car, he replied, "Yes. You'd go into the woods, chop out a piece of a tree that was hollow, then nail wheels on to it, and that was your car. Someone would have to push it to get going."
Both of the centenarians are from rural Louisiana, and opened the children's eyes to the concepts of living self-sufficiently. When co-moderator and teacher Vicki Kendall asked Roosevelt about his own school experience, he revealed that he didn't have time for school, because he had to help with the family farm. He described how a pig becomes a ham complete with salting, curing, and hanging the hams in the smokehouse. Pearson asked if they'd put the ham in the refrigerator. "Refrigerator?" he laughed. "At that time we didn't know what a refrigerator was!" One pupil whispered to another, "There wasn't even cable!"
Decades and backgrounds divide the centenarians and the kindergartners, but there were still many similarities to share. Lillian, who was the ninth of 10 siblings and is a great-grandmother of four, remembered playing with dolls and balls, just like her young audience. Like many of the students, Roosevelt is a Cubs fan. And he, too, is facing the challenges of learning. He demonstrated the physical therapy exercises that he performs daily in order to start walking again.
Roosevelt had questions for the children as well and posed math riddles, including "What three coins make a dollar?" (correctly answered by at least two students). He asked them how old they were (to which Ben answered, "Five and three-quarters") and what they wanted to be when they grew up.
At the end of the session, the children lined up to shake hands with Roosevelt and thanked him for visiting. With each handshake, Roosevelt offered a prognostication as to what the child's future would be: "You're gonna be a ball player." "You're gonna be a teacher." "You're gonna be a clergyman!" The children also shared with Roosevelt a book they created for the occasion, "When I Am 100 Years Old," filled with drawings and descriptions of where they see themselves in 95 years.
Coin's curious class asked Lillian about that 95-year gap: "How does it feel to be 100 years old?" She answered, "I guess I am enjoying it. I don't feel like I'm 100."
Similarly, Pearson's class asked their visitor, "What advice would you give to live a long time?" "Treat people the way you want to be treated," replied Roosevelt. "We're all human." These words were remembered by the children well after Roosevelt had left.
One lesson that Coin came away with was, "As an adult it made me appreciate the change in generations of children, and how the discipline has changed. It makes you stop and reflect on how our culture and society has changed — social structures, technology, and how we use our leisure time."
Pearson found Roosevelt's visit valuable as well. "I asked the children, 'How many think you'll live to be 100 years old?' Almost everyone raised their hands! He's a real inspiration."
Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly is a national, nonprofit, volunteer-based organization committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly. The charity offers to people of good will the opportunity to join the elderly in friendship and celebration of life. The first US Chapter of Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly was established in Chicago in 1959.
For more information about the Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly, the LBFE Intergenerational Program, volunteering or donations, please call (312) 455-1000 or visit LBFE's Web site littlebrothers.org/chicago. |
