Canada (Commonwealth Union)_ It is now time for the learning circle. Rachel Molnar, 11, is negotiating more visitors for her Grade 6 classroom. However, the participants are not other Grade 6 kids. Molnar is a student in a course at the Sherbrooke Community Centre in Saskatoon. She and her peers are spending the school year at iGen, an intergenerational classroom where students and residents exchange wisdom and knowledge Monday through Friday.
According to CEO Kim Schmidt, this program and others at Sherbrooke strive to alleviate the maladies of the human spirit one senior or elder, as they are known here at a time. Sherbrooke has followed the Eden Alternative for more than 20 years, a philosophy that addresses three key components that can afflict the human spirit: loneliness, powerlessness, and boredom. The Eden Alternative, developed by Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. Bill Thomas, investigates strategies to combat the plagues that frequently emerge in long-term care homes.
In order to preserve a dynamic community, the concept proposes innovative ways to combine children, animals, and gardening. Sherbrooke adheres to a “Village Model,” in which nine to ten people live in houses connected to the rest of the institution via an internal roadway. Sherbrooke was built with persons as young as 20 in mind.
Natural encounters between residents and students occur on a daily basis, whether they are going to or leaving school or participating in designated activity groups. Coffee and art clubs are two examples. Students will participate in physical activities such as bowling with the elderly. They even take turns working at the front desk. According to Keri Albert, the main instructor of iGen, not every kid attends to each group every day, but they will have the opportunity to attempt every activity.
