Classroom Links Countries, Generations

The students in my Adult Basic Education class are from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Some are immigrants in their 20s, brushing up on their English before applying to college in the United States. Others are parents in their 30s and 40s, learning English so they can get better jobs and help with homework that their English-speaking children bring home. Still others are retired adults, having left the workforce and now having time to study English formally. Our doors are open to all of them.

Part of the beauty of this range is a built-in multigenerational classroom. While it may seem challenging from the outset, the rewards dwarf those challenges. For students re-entering school after a multiyear classroom hiatus, seeing other students of advanced age gives them hope. Successful students provide role models to any age.

Another benefit of a multigenerational classroom is that the older students help the younger students stay disciplined in their studies. Sometimes the younger students chatter, laugh and get too distracted. Nothing quiets a group of young, chattering Somali students like a stern look from a Somali elder, along with a gravelly admonition: “We are here to learn! Be quiet, please.”  

I also enjoy how the younger students help the older students understand assignments, especially those involving technology. They help the older students log on to the computers, find websites and leave comments on the class blog. The younger students also help the older students understand how to use their cell phones and electronic dictionaries.

Many schools must reach out into the community or even into the homes of their students to take advantage of this type of multigenerational class. And they should. Everyone benefits.

Our school has fully embraced multigenerational learning by stocking our library full of children’s books. Adult students can choose a children’s book, take it home, practice reading it by themselves and then read it with their children. This is good for so many reasons. The adults can read something that is written in easy English, their children can practice reading and the whole family can share in the experience. My adult students always comment on how much correction they get from their children as they are reading. “My 6-year-old daughter says, ‘Mommy, you don’t say it like that. You say it like this.’ She knows better than me,” a student told me.  

In this classroom, the accumulated life experience of students has value—and is useful for all classmates. Whenever we have a pregnant student in the class, all of the students celebrate. Grandmothers and grandfathers give all kinds of advice to the young parents. Sometimes the older students organize celebrations and gifts for the pregnant students. One 68-year-old Eritrean man offered to be the godfather for the child of a 24-year-old Mexican woman. When the baby was born, she came in and all the older students crowded around her to congratulate her and give her advice.

Anfinson is a civics ELL teacher in Minnesota.