Kendal and the Kids

Kendal is full of teachers. And for the third straight year some of our residents have spent time this fall with second-grade students in the Newark school system in a program (“A Call to College”) designed to put the possibility of attending college in their minds. 

The intrepid Kendal classroom posse, styled “Guest Interviewees” by the program, consisted of Ted Barclay, Reed Browning, Janie Drake, Tom and Myra Gallant, Virgil Hoftiezer, David Skeen, and Harriett Stone. Each – with the Gallants operating as a spousal team – spent a morning at the Newark Public Library talking with the kids (a different group of 40-60 each week) about the way that college had made their interesting lives possible.

The Guest Interviewees took turns with their adult versions of show-and-tell. Some sported odd hats and unusual attire. Others brandished unexpected items – a baseball bat, or a foreign flag, or a nineteenth-century lamp. They all had stories of adventures to tell. In short, the Kendal squad was living testimony to the importance of books, libraries, and education. (The photo shows Myra and Tom Gallant.)

The kids seemed to love it. For many, it was their first visit to the library. They had been prepped for these encounters with rehearsed questions – where did you go to college? what do you like to read? what are your hobbies? - but being kids, they also popped out with loads of extemporaneous interrogatories. How did you get here? (i.e., to the library). How old are you? Have you ever met someone famous?

Several residents returned to Kendal to report that, while they’d enjoyed their chance to meet the kids, they were uncertain about the long-term benefit of such brief interactions. And even knowing that this second-grade program is but part of a wider Newark program of K-12 college-focused interventions doesn’t eliminate that concern. Still, the important point is that since the directors of the program are annually charting its successes, measuring its effects, and working to find appropriate adjustments, Kendal residents can be assured that their participation allows this experiment in inspiring ambitions for college to refine itself with each passing year.

Besides, it gives us memorable anecdotes. My favorite came from Ted Barclay’s visit. He told the kids about a number of sports he had coached, including lacrosse. Sensing some puzzlement among he second-graders, he asked them if they knew what lacrosse was. An eight-year-old girl replied: “That’s what they nailed Jesus to.” How do you top that?

(This piece will also appear in the December issue of Tower Lines.)