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LET’S MAKE THIS CRISIS THE (GRAND)MOTHER OF INVENTION
By Marc Freedman,
Carol Larson, and Trent Stamp
May 20, 2020
SDI Productions/Getty Images
“Stay home, stay safe.” When it comes to the heightened vulnerability of
America’s elders in the face of Covid-19, these are often wise words. But the
unwritten injunction might as well be “Stay home, stay safe, and stay out of the
way.”
Report after report has described the rise of ageism over the past months, but
just as worrisome is the insidious implication that older people are exclusively
the objects of service, helpless not helpers, anything but essential.
What a contrast to the thousands of older doctors, nurses, and health care
workers who are working the front lines, many of them coming out of retirement
to do so. And then there’s the nearly 80-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci, a bastion
of steadiness and clarity throughout the fight. Reminders, all of them, of older
adults’ vast reservoir of experience and how desperately it’s needed today.
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“Stay home, stay safe.” When it comes to the heightened vulnerability of
America’s elders in the face of Covid-19, these are often wise words. But the
unwritten injunction might as well be “Stay home, stay safe, and stay out of the
way.”
Report after report has described the rise of ageism over the past months, but
just as worrisome is the insidious implication that older people are exclusively
the objects of service, helpless not helpers, anything but essential.
What a contrast to the thousands of older doctors, nurses, and health care
workers who are working the front lines, many of them coming out of retirement
to do so. And then there’s the nearly 80-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci, a bastion
of steadiness and clarity throughout the fight. Reminders, all of them, of older
adults’ vast reservoir of experience and how desperately it’s needed today.
Nowhere is the need more dire than in the lives of America’s children. Already
acquiring the moniker of Generation C (for Covid), millions of young people have
had their schooling upended. Cut off from friends and relatives, too many are
facing economic hardship and trauma comparable to their Depression-era
predecessors. Some face heightened levels of abuse and danger at home.
In 2015, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam laid out the myriad struggles
America’s children faced in Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. If the
widening inequalities and diminishing opportunities Putnam wrote about didn’t
create an all-hands-on-deck moment five years ago, we certainly have one now as
the two crises merge. The resulting storm will continue for years, perhaps
decades, as this generation comes of age.
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Where to turn for help? The one natural resource in this country that is both
untapped and growing: older people. The ones who have no interest in staying out
of the way. The ones who see the need and the chance to elevate their own
generation by lifting up another.
It’s a match as old as time. Researchers in anthropology, human development, and
an array of other fields have shown that the needs and assets of the generations
fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Young people thrive with more
caring adults in their lives. And far from being superfluous, older people
possess just the skills young ones need.
As we get older, our knees may creak and our hearing might not be quite as
sharp, but the skills required to form bonds with young people — such as
emotional regulation and empathy — burgeon. And the impulse to connect in ways
that flow down the generational chain just gets stronger.
Indeed, the Harvard Study of Adult Development shows that these bonds are a key
to happiness in later life. Older people who connect with younger ones, the
study shows, are three times as likely to be happy as those who fail to do so.
‘COMMUNITY GRANDPARENTS’
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And happiness is just the start. Other research underscores that older mentors,
tutors, and “community grandparents” — unrelated but no less devoted — reap
significant gains to their physical and mental health from spending time with
kids. One Johns Hopkins University study found that volunteering to help
children struggling to learn to read “halted and, in men, reversed declines in
brain volume in regions vulnerable to dementia.”
Better health outcomes equal cost savings. And we’d save money, too, by chipping
away at the loneliness epidemic, which erodes health as much as 15 cigarettes a
day and costs the federal government an estimated $6.7 billion in additional
Medicare spending each year.
Ultimately, the most important gain might be to our fraying social fabric. In
2019, for the first time in history, there were more people over 60 in the
United States than under 18. Last year also introduced the “OK Boomer” and “OK
Millennial” jabs. Not a good start to the more-old-than-young society already
washing over us. And an unhappy detour, as well, given what we know about the
natural connection between the two generations.
From where we sit now — with so many grandparents unable to hug their
grandchildren — it might be hard to envision how older people can step up to
nurture millions of other people’s kids. But crisis can be the (grand)mother of
invention.
To help stop learning losses — the so-called Covid slide — caused by school
shutdowns, nonprofits across the country are working hard to move tutoring and
mentoring programs online. Mentor and iCouldBe have joined forces to create the
Virtual Mentoring Portal, a free tool to help nonprofits move mentoring
relationships online. CricketTogether has joined to expand the portal’s reach to
children 12 and under.
ADVERTISEMENT
Other efforts have always been virtual. Volunteers can train to become a
counselor with the Crisis Text Line, supporting young people in crisis through
text messages. Others can use UPchieve to provide math and college-planning
advice to low-income high-school students. Still others can give career advice
to young people on Careervillage.org. And millions will want to search for more
opportunities on online portals like VolunteerMatch and the AARP’s Create the
Good. A newcomer on the scene, Eldera, matches “kids and vetted elders” for
stories, help with homework, “or just a friendly chat.”
BUILD A NATIONAL CORPS OF ELDER VOLUNTEERS
As impressive and timely as these efforts are, they aren’t sufficient to realize
the full need and the opportunity for older people to help younger generations —
virtually right now or in face-to-face ways once we begin moving beyond the
virus.
That’s why we need more than a call to action. We need a call to innovation to
develop a new generation of efforts mobilizing older people to help younger ones
academically, socially, emotionally, and vocationally as they attempt to wind
their way through the crisis. And through life.
What about a vast national corps of elders aimed at helping young people get off
to a healthy start, read by the third grade, navigate the transition to
adolescence, and find a foothold in higher education and the work force — one
that might also bolster the legacy of the baby boomers in the process? This
isn’t just a nice idea and a soft appeal to unify the generations. This is a
necessary demand that we older people step up to save the American dream for a
generation we are neglecting.
ADVERTISEMENT
This can actually happen if leaders in philanthropy and the nonprofit world join
us. Together, we can generate the resources to support promising models, then
demonstrate their efficacy and impact. When the time is right, we can add
partners, from government and business, to help expand these efforts. But we
must act now. The time for foundations to lead is upon us.
Our generation has not done all we can for the next one. But it’s not too late
to turn that around — with innovative ideas, programs and technologies, and the
power of millions of people who want to stay safe but refuse to stay out of the
way any longer.
Let’s come forward, roll up our sleeves, and help young people navigate the
rocky road ahead.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the
editors or submit a letter for publication.
Marc Freedman
Marc Freedman, CEO of Encore.org and author of “How to Live Forever: The
Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations.”
Carol Larson
Carol Larson is a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity
Trent Stamp
Trent Stamp is CEO of the Eisner Foundation.
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