Montana is getting older. Five years ago, about 15 percent of the state’s residents were age 65 or older. In five more years, it’s estimated that one in five Montanans will be 65 or older, and five years after that, a quarter of all state residents will be senior citizens.
Over the next two weeks we’re taking a look at how older Montanans are staying active and involved, how they’re helping one another out, and how they’re getting help growing old on their terms, staying out of hospitals and institutions.
Our aging series is being reported by students in the University of Montana’s Journalism School.
Mrs. Messmer’s classroom at Hellgate Elementary School looks like a typical kindergarten class, colorful posters decorate the walls, tiny chairs surround tiny tables and a high-tech Smart board flashes sight words. But twice a week, the class gets a special visit.
Edla Christensen, or Grandma Edla as the students call her, is part of the Foster Grandparent Program, a Senior Corps program at Missoula Aging Services. Foster Grandparents places seniors in elementary and middle school classrooms to provide extra support for low-income students.
The program is meant to keep seniors independent, but the classroom volunteers actually make it easier for teachers to hit higher standards with their kids, something Grandma Edla recognizes with her students.
"You can see it in their eyes when they get that a-ha moment, their eyes get big and, I understand now! So it’s just great. That’s the moment you work here for."
Grandma Edla has been volunteering in exchange for a small stipend and those a-ha moments for seven years. In that time, she’s worked mostly with kindergartners and has become a mainstay in her denim and Keds in the halls of Building 2 at Hellgate Elementary.
The early education of today is markedly different from what she went through 70 years ago.
"They didn’t have kindergarten when I was in school. We went from first grade, so that’s where we learned our ABCs and 123's. And we had to walk to school and back, like they say uphill both ways."
Edla didn’t hit the level of math she teaches Mrs. Messmer’s kindergartners until she was a freshman in high school.
"We had a teacher who did what they called bonehead math. The first day we had to learn what one plus one, two plus two, so forth. I think nowadays they’re going to learn a lot faster."
Teacher Marlene Messmer agrees. She says that having a volunteer in the room to run math or literacy centers, or give special attention to a small group of students, has a direct impact on her kindergartners' academic success.
"It’s changing so fast," said Messmer. "We’re really like a new first grade. The stuff that these kindergarten kids learn and could do is a few years ago what our first graders were doing."
Edla works with Messmer and another teacher at this school, logging about 15 hours a week. She runs sessions, typically in the hall, for four to six students at a time.
All of the schools with foster grandparents are Title One, meaning they meet minimum poverty standards, and foster grandparents themselves also meet an income cap. To Messmer, the one-on-one attention is invaluable
"It is very helpful, particularly with those students who are struggling, to have her," said Messmer. "And I definitely notice that when I do my weekly tests. That spills over to those benchmarks that we meet for the standardized tests that we take.
Edla sees herself more as a classroom helper than a teacher, but she can still appreciate her contribution to the classroom.
"We try to make sure if they come in with no experience at home with the alphabet, by the time school ends they’re the same level as the rest of the class."
Last school year, 38 Foster Grandparents served just over 400 students in Missoula county schools. 97 percent of those students showed improvement. Missoula Aging Services is always looking for more volunteers to train for the program.
