Grandmothers: A Learning Institution - Basic Education and Policy ...

– Who am I? Assign children to askfamily members, including grandmothers,to answer the child’s question:“Who am I?”This is an activityto help children define their ownidentity, in the family, and in thecommunity.– Living History. Assign children tointerview elders in their family orneighborhood, including grandmothers,on a topic related to the historyof the neighborhood or village.Teachers can make this a part of thehistory curriculum.– Make curriculum relevant.– Build Ownership of the school curriculumby the community.– Making connections between the“old way” and the “new”.INTEGRATE TRADITIONAL VALUES INTOTHE CURRICULUM.• Collect stories, proverbs, and songs,and analyze the values expressed inthem. Use these traditional materialsas a basis for discussion of cultural valuesand of the similarities and differencesbetween traditional and modernvalues.DEVELOP PARTNERSHIPS BETWEENGRANDMOTHERS AND SCHOOLS.• Encourage families to create homeenvironments that support success inschool.• Encourage grandmothers, who oftenhave more free time than mothers, towalk children to school to assure theirsafety.• Identify stories told by grandmothersin the community that relate to thecurriculum and use these stories asteaching tools. Invite these seniorwomen to tell stories in special storytellingsessions at schools or in informalsettings.USE PARTNERSHIPS TO PROMOTESCHOOL IMPROVEMENT.• Empower parents to participate inschool planning for curriculum content,school climate, and staff development.• Identify grandmother leaders and networks.• Form Grandparent-Parent-TeacherAssociations.• Empower families to learn to use theircollective power to advocate forschool change.• Involve community elders, includinggrandmothers, grandfathers, and religiousleaders, in providing input forquality control of schools and teacherperformance.Many of these recommendations do notdepend on large amounts of financialresources. They simply introduce newapproaches to project development thatutilize the knowledge, experience, andenthusiasm grandmothers have for children’sdevelopment. By exploring theserecommendations, child development programswill be able to access a wider rangeof resources—including grandmothers’experience, their networks, and their influenceover families—and, therefore, generategreater potential for sustainability.GRANDMOTHERS:THE LEARNING INSTITUTIONxv