School of a Lifetime

Kindergartners & seniors create a one-of-a-kind classroom

Peggy Pridgen parks her wheelchair in the sunny atrium and keeps an eye on the front door. Before long, Lena Murphy comes in and sits down. She, too, watches the door.

At 8:20 a.m., the school bus pulls up. Out jump kindergartners, dangling their backpacks and skip-walking into the building. Little McKaylee Pannell already has the giggles. “Hi, Grandma Peggy,” she squeals and runs over and gives the 91-year-old woman a hug.

Pridgen’s smile says it all. This was worth waiting for.

Welcome to the Grace Living Center, a nursing home, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten in Jenks, Okla. Three years ago, the nursing home, school district, and community formed a one-of-a-kind partnership where elders and youngsters work and play together throughout the school day.

“Everybody I’ve talked to is so amazed by the concept,” says Principal Sandi Tilkin. “This isn’t an add-on. The school is an integral part of the nursing home.”

And as word spreads about the intergenerational program, Tilkin gives more tours to educators and parents who just have to see it to believe it. And they’re embracing it; Tilkin must now use a lottery to fill the 60 preschool and kindergarten spaces because of a waiting list.

What visitors see is a central atrium set up like an indoor park with benches, old-fashioned streetlights, a fountain, a shoeshine stand, and an ice cream parlor with a striped canvas awning. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the far wall look out onto a playground with a riding track built wide enough for tyke bikes and wheelchairs to roll side by side.

To the left is the two-room school with a glass front. It shares a glass wall with the Timeless Beauty Shop.

“I happened to be there the first day they opened the beauty shop,” says Shea Taber, mother of Trent, now 7, who attended last year. “Those children were glued to the glass saying, ‘They’re doing their hair, they’re doing their hair.’ It was so precious. Now, they just wave at the grandmas when they’re in there. It seems natural.”

Taber’s younger child, Jordan, 4, also attended last year. “This is a fantastic situation,” she says. “The kids have daily interaction with the grandmas and grandpas. They’ve established relationships on the spot.”

Companionship between the elderly and young came about because of Don Greiner, Grace Living Center’s owner, and the Jenks school district. “We were trying to find ways to introduce children into the nursing home,” Greiner says. “I wanted more than just kids coming in for an hour at Halloween. We have people in nursing homes who are dying of loneliness.”

Greiner had his eye on the daycare center next door, which was part of the district’s community education program. Its playground equipment had become rundown, so he made an offer—he’d build a playground at the nursing home if the children would come and play.

“I’d dreamed for years of doing an intergenerational program,” says Diane Bosworth, Jenks assistant superintendent. “This just landed in our lap.”

During meetings with school board members, administrators, teachers, and nursing home administrators, the idea evolved into something that never had been tried. Bosworth and Greiner met with the chamber of commerce and the Kiwanis Club to involve the whole town of nearly 10,000.

“I did research, but we didn’t have any model to go by,” Bosworth says. “As far as we know, this is a first. Some places might partner with a school, but I couldn’t find anything like this.”

The teachers met with the architect to help design the $250,000 addition, which Greiner financed.

A six-inch gap was left between the top of the classroom door and ceiling to allow children’s voices to ring throughout the halls.

Unconditional love

It’s science time, and Ellen Pongrace, kindergarten teacher, plops a plump snail on a shred of lettuce in front of each student. She explains how they make a wet trail with their tongues for easy movement.

“They don’t have arms and legs,” Pongrace says. “How do you suppose they get around?” She waits for one of the kids to tell her about scooting or wiggling on a belly, but little Christopher Hendrix has another idea.

“They could get around on wheels like the grandmas and grandpas,” he says.

Such observations, Pongrace later says, convince her that the lessons being learned at Grace Living Center go beyond snails and ABCs. “These kids look beyond age spots and wrinkles,” she says. “They love the grandmas and grandpas unconditionally. And the grandmas and grandpas are so tender and respectful of the kids.”

Sharla Walker, the liaison between classroom and nursing home, pairs children with residents. She knows which residents need to work on motor skills and memory games with the kids. She knows who pairs with whom for reading buddies. She knows which residents stash candy for the kids.

Together, they’ve made old-fashioned apple dolls, planted seeds, and built bird feeders. Grandma Leona Alsip, 88, raised chickens and birds for years and is the resident bird expert.

“They learn real quick, and they enjoy it,” Alsip says about her little flock. “The children are so interested in what they’re doing, and they have their own ideas. It pays to listen to them.”

Even residents unable to help in the classroom reap the benefits of having lively children around, says Debra Fehrenbach, nursing home administrator.

“Several residents just sit on the benches and watch them play,” she says. “Our little ladies just love them. And it’s so neat to walk into a nursing home and see and hear kids.”

‘Children are resilient’

It’s music time and Walker leads the young singers into the atrium and gathers the elders. The songs are oldies, and residents join in on She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain.

Freckle-faced Mitchell Bennett sings with gusto. “And we’ll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes,” the youngster shouts and rubs his belly. Grandpa Al Burdick claps and chuckles.

Three times a week, Walker takes the children to visit residents who are bed-bound. “The children know everyone’s name,” she says. “And they know who has animals, who has flowers, and who gives candy.”

Dealing with frailty and the death of a beloved grandparent was the biggest concern for parents, Pongrace says. Grandpa Bill Smalls, who was recuperating from a stroke, was a classroom regular. For his 56th birthday, the kids made him a birthday crown and an apron decorated with their handprints. “He knew all of our songs. He was basically my teaching assistant,” Pongrace says.

With a second stroke, Smalls lost his ability to talk. When he returned to Grace Living Center, the children made him a get-well poster.

“The doctors had given no hope that he would even leave the hospital,” Pongrace says. “But eventually, he was sitting up and pointing to the poster and wanting to see the kids. By the end of the school year, he was signing yearbooks. I really believe that those kids provided hope for him.”

Sadly, Smalls suffered another stroke and died. “We talked about it very honestly,” Pongrace says. “The children missed him, but realized that life is a cycle. Children are resilient at this age.”

When Pongrace gives talks about the school, she takes along a work sheet that then-kindergartner Theron Frederick filled out at home with his mother. On the page, the student is supposed to circle three things that belong in a classroom. The pictures are a book, pencil, little girl, and an old man on a cane.

Theron circled the old man.

Making the connection

It’s reading time, and Juanita Goodrich, 86, listens to Blake Hill read Run Bunny Run. Her hands folded on the table, she gives her full attention.

Together they study a picture of a school bus. “When we were kids, we didn’t have school buses to ride to school,” Goodrich tells him. Blake’s brown eyes widen. “How did you go?” he asks. “We walked,” she says and laughs.

Goodrich, who has four grandchildren, has lived at Grace Living Center for about two years and initially was withdrawn and had to be coaxed into activities, Walker says. Now she works almost daily with the kids.

“He’s smart as a whip,” Goodrich brags and pats Blake’s arm. “I’d like to take him home with me.”

Then she pauses as she realizes that she is home. And tomorrow, Blake will be back at the nursing home kindergarten for another lesson.

Marti Attoun is a freelance writer in Joplin, Mo.

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