Intergenerational forums can solve school-based issues. Controversy and troubles that boil up at school can be transformed into opportunities for intergenerational problem solving. An Oakland, CA teacher convinced students involved in gang activity that their input was needed to make the school safer. Meetings and informal gatherings between students and teachres revealed that a local citizen, a 65-year-old grandmother would make an excellent security guard for the school because she was a symbol of moral authority. The school district hired her.

The above is one of several intergenerational programs featured in the Constitutional Rights Foundation Network magazine, Winter 2001. Written by Wendy Schaetzel Lesko