Middle Schoolers Benefit from Living History
by Kathy Shepard
Agawam Advertiser News Feature Writer
A special community project is a first of its kind, integrating a new philosophy called the "Eden Alternative" into the curriculum at Agawam Middle School.
Kim George, director of Volunteer Services and Eden Alternative Educator at Genesis ElderCare in Agawam, has worked with the Agawam Middle School on many projects, and it seemed logical to involve the school in the Eden Alternative, bring-mg educational reform's goal for community in-volvement together with the Eden Alternative.
Hence, the concept of "living history"; Middle School students meeting with the elderly, as resources of living history, bringing the classroom into the nursing center.
There are only 6O nursing homes in the United States officially registered with the Eden Alter-nativeŽ an honor society for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. These homes have met certain standards and are officially registered sites. Heritage Woods at the Heritage Hall cam-pus is an official site. The philosophy of the Eden Alternative is to work toward eliminating loneliness, helplessness, and boredom in nursing centers.
The goal of the Eden Alternative is to alleviate these by creating habitats with a home-like at-mosphere by introducing plants, children, and animals. Music should be introduced into the en-vironment, and there should be variety and spon-taneity. A nurturing environment in which people have the opportunity to grow is the overall ideai. Kim George has worked on many intergenera-tional projects and finds that every one adds its own special quality to the Eden Alternative.
Agawam Middle School teachers Lou Spiro and Jeanne Forgette have been working with students of the fifth grade at the Agawam Middle School to create intergener4tional community involvement
with the residents of Heritage Hall centers.
Learning Potential Holds Great Promise...
The learning potential from putting any two generations together for community involvement holds great promise. The interaction between these two particular generations is a sociological phenomenon. The students will learn history and individual viewpoints from these older resources on World War II, the Vietnam War, the Depression, and many other subtle changes and ci)ltural trends.
Spiro credits Middle School Principal Ralph Zavarella with making the program possible for the students by scheduling visits, providing ad-ministrative support, and being open to innovation. Intergenerational learning is beneficial to the students, who are keeping journals on the history they learn and their own reactions to it.
The goal of a home-like atmosphere at Heritage has included birds and cats, but the presence of the young people and the activities taken on together by these two age groups have really helped. The week before Christmas, students and residents made Christmas ornaments and donated them to the Giving Tree in Tower Square in downtown Springfield
And in the spring, they will put on a production which will include music from the era best known to the residents of Heritage.
Probably the most inspirational event so far, however, apparently for both age groups, was on December 16th, when the students caroled at Heritage Hall. The students had been practicing their singing during studies at school. Volunteer parents drove students to Heritage South Building and Heritage Woods, where the kids literally "exploded into music, and the residents joined in," according to Spiro, who felt that "it turned out to be a wonderful experience, one very difficult to describe."
One student summarized the feelings in her journal as "a warm, fuzzy experience."
There is a feeling of seasonal magic, a magic that will not stop after the holidays. With commit meant and dedication to allow intergenerational events and relationships to form, the Middle School students will be using resources that just might supercede the mighty computer. Watch out, K2000! Computers won't compare to these living history resources.
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