Older People's Activities
Health matters
Many of the story-tellers speak of their health in this section. Having
access to free medicine is vitally important for them. How do they rate
the service they receive from their local GP, clinic or hospital?
Highs and lows
Looking back over their lives, can the older people pick out the really
significant 'high points' (and maybe a few low points too) by marking
them above and below a life line representing the different decades? This
can be expanded to include photos, certificates and maps to make a personal
life display board.
Life portraits
A variant on this activity is to help the older people to make a Life
Portrait Box. This can be in a special wooden box, or even just a supermarket
box, and it can show the memories which matter to the teller through photos
and captions, small momentos, press cuttings, etc. Really ambitious box
designers can add light and sound to the box using hidden CDs and wiring
the box to a plug.
Desert Island Discs
What are the songs of home which have stayed with people through their
lives? Arrange a 'Desert Island Discs' session for each member of the
group and sing through or play recorded versions of best-loved music and
its associations. Sometimes a group can co-operate to find all the words
of a well-loved song, where the individual can only remember a line or
two. This is a pleasurable activity for small groups and opens up opportunities
for singing together and sharing memories.
Choosing CDs
Ages apart
Some of the story-tellers express great concern about the language and
culture gap which has opened up between themselves and the younger generation
in their families. What do group members feel about their children's language
ability? And their grandchildren's?
Take me home
Burial customs are clearly very different from one culture to another.
It is important to some of our story-tellers to be taken to their home
country for burial and for all the correct rituals to be observed. What
do group members feel about this matter? What do they think are the implications
for their families of their wishes with regard to their funerals? Have
they written out their wishes? What would they be if they did?
A place of our own
How important do members of the group feel it is to provide separate facilities
for ethnic minority elders? What do they see as the pros and cons of separate
provision? Write these out in two columns on a large piece of paper and
compare opinions?
Meals and menus
What is their experience of using general services such as social services
day centres and meals on wheels? If they could give advice to the meals-on-wheels
providers about what they prepare, what would they ask for? Prepare some
menus which would please the group. Maybe even send them to the local
providers.
Whose responsibility?
How far do the elders in the group feel that their care should be the
responsibility of their families and communities, and how far should the
state provide? Do they think their children would give the same answers
to these questions?
Pride
Do members of the group enjoy wearing traditional clothes associated with
their home background? When do they feel it is important to be dressed
in a traditional way and when do they feel it is inappropriate?
Mrs Phuong La and Mrs Ah Poh Luong modelling traditional clothes
back to top ^^
Young People's Activities
When I am old
Health is a very important issue to the elders speaking in this section.
Older people are prime users of the health services, and have free access
to medicine and treatment. Discuss in the class whether you think there
will still be a National Health Service there for you when you are old?
Together or separate?
Special community groups and services, often supported by social services
departments, are being established for ethnic minority elders. What do
you think of this development? Discuss the pros and cons of separate provision
in your group.
The story of my life
The story-tellers in the project have talked about different stages of
their lives in chronological sequence. School students have not lived
through so much but there is still plenty to remember. Write down some
of your earliest memories, people you have been close to, special events
and exciting journeys. This could be in the form of a life-line with dates
along it. Or you could choose to try writing a poem which tells in short
phrases the moments you wish to recall and remember.
You may discover that it is quite painful to think about some of the
sad things that have happened in your life so far, and you may want to
pass over them quickly. Talk to another person about how that feels, and
then consider together some of the sad stories told by the elders in this
section. They will have had to revisit some painful memories too during
their interviews, but they still wished to participate because they wanted
a record of their lives to survive.
A life story interview and book
If a grandparent or another older person is willing to come to the classroom
to talk about his or her life, you could conduct a life story interview.
Follow the section headings and prepare some questions to ask. Be sure
these are open questions, and not the sort which require a yes or no answer
or a single word answer. You may like to divide into groups and let each
group take responsibility for asking about one section of the older person's
life. Write down what you remember and illustrate it with your idea of
what the people and places in the story looked like. Then invite the older
person back to enjoy the end result.
What I miss most
What do you think it would be like to grow old far from where you grew
up? If you were to spend all your later years in a far-away country, what
do think would be your strongest memories of Britain and what would you
miss the most? How might you hold on to some of your own childhood culture,
even if you knew you could never come back to Britain?
back to top ^^
© Age Exchange 2006
|
