Multi-generation learning
My grandmother visited recently. 83 in her body, 21 in her mind, she inspires me. An active, holistic educator she continues to transform education in India. Her motto: do all the little things you can, touch as many or as few people as you can, anything you do with good intention however small will touch something that matters.
Having her around grounds my work as an educator/education consultant. While I could write volumes on the ways in which someone like her transforms education, I want to focus for a moment on her as my grandmother, as great-grandmother to my son, Vehd. Watching 'mamma' interact with Vehd and soaking in her presence made me realize how much we have to learn in multi-generational settings. It is such a pity that these days, older people tend to spend less time with people my age or Vehd's age (3 years). It is such a lost opportunity.
As Vehd and mamma engaged in active, multi-generational play and learning, I got thinking about all the rich ways in which we can learn from people older than ourselves:
— Create a storybook: Have the older person tell stories, record them, write them out, engage children in illustrating them. Create your own family storybook.
— Handicrafts: My grandmother knits and knits fabulously. Watching her knit, I started to knit and so did 3 year-old Vehd. We didn't care to create great products, we just knitted. As we race through the world of technology, it is precious engaging in handicrafts, many of which will be lost with older generations if we don't learn from them.
— His/her-stories: I love stories from my grandmother's growing years. I often turn to her and ask her how they did something that I take for granted or do very differently now. Through these, we digress to talk about the historical events that led them to live the way they did. Her tales of skipping school and creating underground news reporting movements gave me a unique glimpse into India's struggle for independence.
— Cook! Oh my goodness, does my grandmother know how to bring together ingredients in unique ways. With Vehd being on dietary restrictions, we took everyday ingredients and bound them together using old cooking techniques — yogurt, milk and butter with semolina makes as good a sponge cake as do flour, butter and eggs.
— Real-world appliances: Hearing how refrigeration happened in the 1930s in India inspired me to create a clay pot refrigerator. I couldn't even begin to explain the depth of 'science' Vehd and I learned in the process and that wasn't even our goal.
— Games galore: A century ago, you didn't walk into Games and Gizmos to pick up your next gaming fix. You made games. With stones, sticks, beads and marbles, you can create games, sometimes combining new world games with those from years of lore. But that's not it. You can even create your toys. My grandmother knitted dolls for Vehd which is what got him into knitting.
These are just a few possibilities. The options are unique and endless if only we would pause and consider them. Comment on this post on other ideas you may have explored or are inspired to consider.