Achieving "Gray Integration"

A Michigan high school thrives by taking in senior citizens

The citizens of Harbor Springs, Mich, (pop. 1,600), like people in cities and towns all over America, were worrying about what to do with the old folks. For a time, a church basement served as a center for the area's 400 retired, sometimes ailing, senior citizens. But the place was hard for many to get to, and its facilities were limited. Harbor Springs High School, though, had room, as well as a varied curriculum. So earlier this year Community Schools Director Robert Doan made a proposition: Why not bring older people to the school? As he puts it: "Why should a community build an expensive, isolated senior citizens' center when it is possible to use a multimillion-dollar complex staffed by professionals?"

There were doubts, of course. Explains English Teacher Suzanne Johnson: "Some faculty members wondered, 'What do you do when some old guy disrupts your class?' And I know a lot of older people have had negative images of kids. They think first about drugs and booze." But this fall term Harbor Springs became one of the nation's first public high schools to try "gray integration," and the experiment has softened some of the harsh stereotypes that often divide young and old.

Attracted by the prospect of free cookies, for example, students have begun to drop in at the converted first-floor library that serves as the senior citizen Friendship Center. Jerry Jessick, 17, center on the school's football team, and Classmate Kevin Gilhuly, 16, have scheduled a weekly game of Scrabble with Florence Stewart, 73, who has been slowed down a bit by a stroke. Says Jessick, admiringly: "She's very competitive." Other students watch and kibitz at games of "cutthroat cribbage" played after lunch by Martin Bethke, 86, and Milford Howell, 66. Says Butch Hogan, 16: "I'm just learning."

One home economics class, taught by Maggie Miller-Kleinhenz, now includes Lena Schmidt, 73, who regularly goes downstairs from the center to help teach embroidery to seventh-graders. "Embroidery requires a lot of individual attention, and Lena makes it easier for me," says Miller-Kleinhenz. "It's been fun to watch the little kids flock around her, and I can learn something about patience."

In Gretchen Nelson's yearbook and journalism class, students at first were standoffish about Clara Schmidt, 70, a retired journalism teacher. But now they rely on her advice. Says Schmidt, whose arthritis forced her to give up teaching at age 62: "Working with them I forget all my aches and pains." Adds Teacher Nelson: "She is picky, and I like that. I've heard her ask the kids to do things over that I might have let go. They respect her." Mabel Karelse, 79, has been going blind for three years, and students help her select meals at the cafeteria and read to her. In turn, she has been able to help Senior Pattie Gregory, 17, who began losing her sight at age 13. Says Pattie, who is teaching Braille to Mabel. "Someday I'm going to ask her to help me with cooking. I have such a problem with cooking."

In many communities older voters oppose school taxes since they no longer have children in school. But the senior citizens in Harbor Springs organized a voting drive that helped pass a recent tax proposal. Says Gertrude Ross, 76: "I didn't vote before. But I think they've got a beautiful school, so when they brought me an absentee ballot, I voted."

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