Very Young and Very Old

ABC News recently ran a story on the Intergenerational Learning Center — a preschool that is located within Providence Mount St. Vincent, a senior care center in West Seattle.  Five days a week, the children and residents come together in a variety of planned activities such as music, dancing, art, lunch, storytelling, or just visiting.

In the process of making a movie about this program, filmmaker Evan Briggs observed:  Residents of "the Mount did a complete transformation in the presence of the children.  Moments before the kids came in, sometimes the people seemed half alive, sometimes asleep.  It was a depressing scene.  As soon as the kids walked in for art or music or making sandwiches for the homeless or whatever the project that day was, the residents came alive."

Interestingly, the parents of the students don't send their kids to the Intergenerational Learning Center primarily for the experience with the seniors.  "It's got a great reputation and great teachers," said Briggs.  But parents of kids who were in the class that she embedded herself in for the school year now tell her they see the benefit of the model.  "One father told me that he especially sees it now that his own parents are aging."

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