Newsletter #22: Thinking Across Generations

My parents are Boomers. My children are Zoomers. I often find myself at odds in conversations about anything with them. No, I am not the problem. Finding common ground is. I need a thinking routine to help me build bridges of understanding between generations. Guess what? It exists. Project Zero (PZ), a Harvard Graduate School of Education initiative, has thinking routines to build empathy and understanding of complex structures — like relationships.

Learning From Other Generations is an activity to explore what we can learn from people who belong to different generations. Adapted from Out of Eden Learns (OOEL) a Harvard curriculum, this routine can bring generations together.

• Activity: Invite a person over 50 years-old to come to the classroom for a visit. Have them bring an object that is at least 30 years-old. (It could be something from when they were young or something that is passed down from generation to generation.)
• Look at the object carefully as a group. Invite children to explain what they see. Document their findings or simply have a conversation.
• Wonder about the object. What does it do? What was it used for? What is it worth?
• Connect. What connection does the guest have with the object? What connections can the children make with the object? What connections can be made between them?

This routine can be performed with multiple people in many different age groups. Building connections with diverse people creates bonds and a sense of community. It makes us a part of something bigger than ourselves and links us together.

An adaptation of this would be to invite the guest to answer open-ended questions from students. At the end of a predetermined time period invite the children to answer the following questions:

• Same: In what ways might this person and you be similar?
• Different: In what ways might the person and you be different?
• Connect: In what ways might the person and you be connected as human beings?
• Engage: What would you like to ask, say, or do with the person if you had the chance?

Finding connections and commonalities links us together and makes us all human. Not Boomers, not Zoomers, nor Gen X, Y, or Z. We are all people.