Future by Learning from the Past

Collaborative Community Projects - Preparing for the Future by Learning from the Past

By Alan Cox, Beijing City International School, Alan.Cox@bcis.cn

Research indicates that interactions between young and old help to develop a broader understanding of the concepts: perspective and change. (Photo by Ming Jin)

Recently the Beijing City International School (BCIS) educational leadership team were invited by founder Mr Ni Haohua, to ask any question we may have – sort of in the style of Google’s TGIF meetings where leadership respond openly to unscripted questions from employees. While Mr Ni normally leaves the work of ‘schooling’ - achieving its mission and vision for education - to the school leaders and executive board, this was a rare treat for such an open Q&A session.

Something close to my heart at BCIS is the fantastic opportunities found within our intergenerational program – a collaborative partnership between the school and a neighboring retirement and assisted living community. I took this opportunity to ask what his vision for such an intergenerational program would ultimately be. He responded by describing scenes where the eyes of both young and old widen with joy and kindness at the sight of each other, where loneliness in residents is reduced and where student motivation for social responsibility in the local and global communities is increased. Compassion, respect and kindness grow as the lives of both students and residents are mutually enriched through their interactions.

In fact, Mr Ni is not far off as research points to the benefits afforded to both the youthful and the experienced through intergenerational relationships. Beyond providing the opportunities for both groups to learn new skills from each other, the benefits to children include: • The long-term retention of knowledge, skills, and attitudes learned from the elderly. (Research shows that learning directly from older adults tends to have a more lasting effect on children than from other sources of information); • Developing positive relationships with the elderly at an early age helps reduce developing ageist stereotypes as children grow older; • Further developing a sense of continuity, perspective and history; • Further developing their self-esteem and emotional and social intelligences; and • Further developing a better understanding of the whole of their And besides keeping up to date with the latest social media apps, memes, photo filters and technological trends, the benefits to older adults include: • A reduction in the likelihood of depression and feelings of isolation; • An increase in the feelings of happiness, hopefulness about the future and life satisfaction; • A decrease in physical health related issues and an increase in memory abilities; and • Continuing to use and share the skills and abilities, as well as life lessons, they have acquired over their lifetime.

Mr Ni continued by appropriately comparing the residents to a library. Each one a thick book detailing a love story, an adventure or problem to be solved - Stories showcasing the spirit of grit and bravery when facing difficulties in one’s life and highlighting the necessary skills and attitudes to move forward.

He continued pointing out that the role of the school is to not only help students succeed in the moment, but to be successful twenty - thirty years into their futures. To this point, schools today have witnessed the steady growing trend to evaluate current teaching practices in relation to students’ uncertain and unknown futures. There is continued importance placed on inter- and intra-personal skills and knowledge as well as the importance for increased opportunities for contextualized, place-based transdisciplinary learning and transfer to take place.

Regardless if a school is looking to establish its own intergenerational opportunities within the community or not, there are certain key factors a school should consider when establishing any successful community-based collaborative project or program: • A vision is co-developed to not only address the identified need or common interest, but also guide the identification of outcomes for success; • The perceived benefits of the project outweigh the perceived resource costs (time, money, & people); • Roles have been clearly defined and the project’s membership has the necessary capacity, leadership, knowledge, and skills to be successful; • Effective communication channels are in place between all stakeholders; • Common procedural agreements are co-developed and enforced, particularly related to data-sharing, funding and reflective of any discrete regulations associated with any one organization within the partnership; and • Participatory assessment and monitoring feedback loops are established.

And while not necessarily tied to success, many such collaborative projects are more likely to succeed when established within the local community - with ease of regular face-to-face contact and increased opportunities for students to witness first-hand the positive impact of its successful implementation.

Having developed informally over the past six years, BCIS looks forward to working closely with our elderly neighbors to further establish and formalize this collaborative intergenerational partnership between our two institutions.

References Harvard Family Research Project. (2010). Partnerships for learning: Promising practices in integrating school and out-of-school time program supports. Kaplan, Matthew S. (2001) School-based Intergenerational Programs. UNESCO Institute for Education. Narayan-Parker, Deepa. (1995) Designing community-based development. Washington, DC: The World Bank.