Grandparents Get Gold Stars for Returning to School to Help Kids

Every Wednesday, 96-year-old Bert Wilbur grabs his brown cane and walks half a mile to Morning Creek Elementary School in San Diego to help children learn to read.

He’s there rain or shine, one of a growing number of elderly citizens recruited by school principals to volunteer in American schools.

“What I do is really very simple. I let them read, correct them when I think it’s appropriate and help them sometimes with pronouncing words,” said Wilbur, adding that one of his eight grandchildren attends the school.

Wilbur gets a gold star from the National Assn. of Elementary School Principals, which has produced a video to tell the nation’s 57 million grandparents how they can help their grandchildren succeed in school.

The video was developed after research indicated that a rising number of children, especially in low-income neighborhoods, were being reared primarily by grandparents.

The American Assn. of Retired Persons reports that in 1993 there were 723,000 grandparent-headed households with no parent present. There were more than 1 million children in these homes in 1993--up 17% from 867,000 children in 1992, said Renee Woodworth, acting director of the AARP’s Grandparent Information Center.

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More than 10,000 grandparents have called the center in the 2 1/2 years that it has been operating, she said. Among the reasons cited for rearing grandchildren: Their own children are struggling with alcohol and drug addiction, are in prison or have neglected the kids.

“They’re back in the school system and going to PTA meetings,” Woodworth said of the grandparents.

The principals’ association surveyed 3,000 of its 26,000 members about grandparents rearing children. Of the more than 450 who responded, 83% noted an increase in the custom.

“Five years ago at my school, no grandparents were baby-sitting or raising children,” said Susan Van Zant, principal of Morning Creek school. “Now I have more than 20. And I know plenty of other principals who see this as a growing trend.”

Although only one in five principals who responded had set up outreach programs for custodial grandparents, an additional 50% said they wanted to pursue such efforts, according to the survey.

Round Valley Primary School in Springerville, Ariz., has a weekly support group for people rearing grandchildren. Barratt Middle School in South Philadelphia is seeing many more custodial grandparents too.

Willard Model Elementary School in Norfolk, Va., has invited grandparents to two “chew and chat” sessions so far this school year. Principal Lillian Brinkley uses the coffee and doughnut breaks to get grandparents inside the school, where they can be recruited to tutor, read to children, share their life experiences and speak at assemblies.

“We have found it’s a great resource,” Brinkley said. “It’s a sort of hidden treasure that has always been there.”

Ninety-eight percent of the principals surveyed said grandparents’ support of education can have an impact on a grandchild’s success in school.

“Instead of asking, ‘How was school?’ ” the video suggests grandparents ask their grandchildren to describe their school day, or ask them about their favorite part.

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Grandparents who live too far from the school are encouraged to schedule visits around a school play or concert, and to express interest in their grandchildren’s classwork through phone calls or letters. They also are urged to give grandchildren such educational gifts as a globe, atlas or dictionary.

One day, Wilbur listened as four fifth-graders took turns reading aloud an article about the origin of popcorn.

“They are often ahead of me,” said Wilbur, a former accountant who was born in 1899. “Their minds just move faster.”

For a free booklet, readers can call (800) 621-8202. To buy videos or booklets in bulk, write the National Assn. of Elementary School Principals, 1615 Duke St., Alexandria, Va. 22314.