“An Irish teacher is trying to assist her struggling fourth graders recall the meaning of the word cannibal”, I declare in my best imitation Irish brogue. “In an effort to prod their faulty memories, she says to one of them: “Shamus, we studied this yesterday in social studies. If you were to eat your mother and father, what would they be calling you now’?”
Pausing before the punch line, I glance out at the perplexed faces of my senior citizen audience. They are wondering what I, a middle school principal, am doing here in their meeting hall. Have I come to ask them for money, or to support the school budget in the upcoming town meeting?
“Finally, after turning the question over in his mind a couple of times,” I continue, tugging at my tie a la Rodney Dangerfield, “Shamus ventures with anything but assurance: ‘an orphan?’ ”
Laughter fills the hall and everyone relaxes a bit; still they wonder: Why has he come here? Theirs is not a territory into which many educators venture. So, after a few more jokes that played well at my own dinner table, I tell them. “We are here, my sixth grade companions and I to recruit some of you for a Sixth Grade/Senior Citizens Spelling Bee we are planning.” A slight but audible gasp stirs through the hall.
The spelling bee is the brainchild of John McSheehy, one of the teachers who has accompanied me here. He takes the microphone to explain the concept and tell why we need senior citizens to make it work.
It’s simple really. Youngsters spend five and a half hours each day in school learning skills we say they will use some day as members of society. But do they believe us? Or do they think that this is little more than “teacher talk”? At Varnum Brook Middle School we want them to learn that the skills they are mastering now are valued and used by members of society. Seated in front of us in this senior citizens hall are the adults who can help us convey this message. Will they accept the challenge?
We know that senior citizens, many of whom have little contact with youngsters, are often fearful of them. In newspapers they read about acts of violence committed by children and see examples of it on TV. We want them to know the middle school students we see every day: affectionate, idealistic; not unflawed, but nonetheless hard-working students who are solicitous about others and involved in their community. We would like seniors to see that middle school youngsters today have much in common with the children they were forty or fifty years ago. If we could accomplish that, a special bond of friendship could be forged between one generation and another. Our students would benefit from such a relationship with adults who could teach them to be unafraid of accepting academic challenges. Seniors would learn to appreciate our students as community members to be valued rather than strangers to be feared.
We didn’t expect that getting seniors to participate would be easy, and it wasn’t. Adults often exhibit the same reluctance to risk taking that students display. The seniors were unsure of themselves. Some worried about infirmities impairing their ability to perform; others did not want to disappoint themselves and us with a poor showing. To help allay fears, we promised to give them copies of the spelling list we would use in the competition so that they could study. We also offered them practice sessions and instituted some rules to accommodate for individual handicaps.
For instance, seniors (who might have difficulty hearing) could request to have a word repeated as many times as they liked and to hear it used in two different sentences instead of one. Those who had difficulty getting up and coming to the podium could spell a word from their seats. Above all, we stressed that winning the competition was not the important thing; teaching children the value of good spelling was. An exhibition of how one generation after another learns to practice an important academic skill was our focus. The participants would be part of an historic event, the very first Varnum Brook Sixth Grade/Senior Citizens Spelling Bee.
Convincing seniors to take the plunge required persistence, but persistence paid off. We were invited to dinner and by the time dinner was over we had recruited eight adult contestants. In the intervening six weeks before the event, we would lose two, but with half a dozen seniors remaining, we had enough to insure that the spelling bee would be a reality.
On the day of the spelling bee, our program began with a brunch for all participants: contestants, judges, timers and moderator. The middle school jazz band entertained us as we ate. Sixth graders introduced themselves to the seniors and the groups were given plenty of opportunity to get to know one another before the competition began.
The competition proved to be a spirited one indeed. Both sixth graders and seniors performed well. Although there was both a sixth grader and senior citizen winner, the final contestant left standing was a senior citizen—a retired English teacher who had taught for twenty-five years and had loved spelling bees as a youngster. She later revealed that she had won many of them in her early years and was delighted with the opportunity to compete in another.
When the spelling bee was over, I presented each sixth grader and senior with a certificate of participation, a school pride pin and a letter of appreciation signed by the principal. After that, the sixth grade participants took the seniors on a tour of the school and invited them into their classes. What did the seniors think of all of this?
“This was a wonderful experience. I’m so glad I came”, said one.”
“These children are so lovely. You have a wonderful school’, said another.
“Can we count on you to come back and join us again next year” I asked as they prepared to leave?
“Oh yes, came the enthusiastic replies, “and we’ll bring some friends with us”.
Three years later when I left to take a position at an international school, the Sixth Grade/Senior Citizens Spelling Bee was still going strong. With each succeeding year it had grown in stature. Each year sixth graders and seniors looked forward to it with increased anticipation. So did the public. After the first year it was covered by both local newspapers and had an enthusiastic audience of senior citizens and sixth grade parent supports.
We had no difficulty finding seniors to participate after that first year. They knew that they were welcomed and appreciated by our students and staff who looked forward to their arrival. The prizes we offered – a twenty five dollar gift certificate for dinner for two at a local restaurant for the winning senior and a fifty dollar savings bond for the winning sixth grader – are not what drew those who competed. The opportunity to meet and learn from one another is.
A society whose children are not connected with adults of previous generations, learning from them and emulating them, is a society whose children are being hurt. Grown-ups are meant to be children’s guides, and youngsters expect to be taught by them, coached by them, and mentored by them. Most of all, youngsters need adults who are models of what is good and right and positive in life. Adults, too, benefit from working with young people. In teaching children what they have been taught and assisting them in cultivating habits of the mind and heart that are necessary for successful living, grown-ups fulfill a responsibility to posterity and to our nation. In the process, they ensure a better future for themselves.
Retirees and senior citizens have fewer opportunities to influence society now than when they were younger. They welcome a chance to demonstrate that they still have something to offer. By providing occasion for members of two generations to meet on a level playing field of academic competition, the sixth grade/senior citizen spelling bee furthered the cause of education and built a much needed bridge over which students and senior citizens could cross to touch each other’s lives.
This blog was originally written as a chapter in my book What They Never Told Me in Principals' School published by Rowman and Littlefield