Peek inside a typical South Dakota classroom, and the scene includes rows of young students hard at work. But some rooms feature an unlikely amenity: foster grandparents.
A Watertown kindergarten classroom bursts with activity as students transition from one project to another. Among the four-foot-tall students scampering around their tables, one woman with shiny silver hair sporting an argyle sweater darts around helping kids dot there Is and cross their Ts.
They call her Grandma Esther. Esther Bakeberg is a foster grandmother to Mellette Elementary’s kindergarteners and first- and second- graders. She helps with day-to-day classroom functions from a classic grandparent vantage point.
"It’s fun when you can see them progress, and it’s not so much fun when they start fidgeting, they won’t sit still, their attention span is short," Grandma Esther says.
For a fifth year, Grandma Esther works one-on-one with students in reading and math. Sometimes she hits the books alongside her young scholars.
"It took me three years to learn the first type of handwriting," Grandma Esther says. "Then they changed it, and I haven’t been able to get back from one to the other yet, so I’m still doing the old way."
As Grandma Esther details the constant flux in curricula for her foster grandchildren, elementary principal John Decker smiles and shakes his head. He’s heard all about this and other challenges.
"If Grandma Esther and I didn’t have a great working relationship, it wouldn’t work," Decker says.
Decker says his school examines where Grandma Esther best serves all students, especially the ones struggling. The principal says foster grandparents offer his students perspectives teachers alone can’t provide.
"They’re going to bring in their wisdom and their experience of life into the classrooms that we so need right now for our younger kids," Decker says. "They need those role models. They need the grandparents that will present the authority piece which also enhances the respect."
"I can see them advance, like they begin to read. They may say I don’t know how to read and pictures and the story and you can tell what the story is by that. First thing you know, they’re taking off reading," Gaylen Tierney says.
Tierney is in his twelfth tour of duty as a foster grandparent. Affectionately known to students and staff as Grandpa, his eyes sparkle and pride shines through as he details his work in the classroom.
GRANDPA: Kindergarten and third grade.
BULTENA: There’s a big difference in ages between the two of those.
GRANDPA: Yeah, and I wouldn’t go any higher than third grade.
BULTENA: No, no. The math gets to hard?
GRANDPA: Math in third grade, I tell ya!
Foster grandparents play a major role in helping students with their coursework, but they also aid in zipping jackets and tying shoes. Grandpa is quick to admit he has more than a little fun – and he hears some stories.
"A girl, she was supposed to take her crayon down a line, and it went off the line. And she says, ‘I didn’t do that. The crayon did!” Grandpa says. "And another girl says, ‘Teacher, my mother lied. I was not sick yesterday.’"
Grandpa says children don’t always live near their biological grandparents, so foster grandparents can help guide them and fill the gap geography creates.
Kathy Perry spearheads the foster grandparents program for Volunteers of America, Dakotas and echoes Grandpa’s sentiment.
"It means a lot to the children to have that kind of presence," Perry says. "To the foster grandparents, it also means so much. There are days when we suggest that maybe they’d like a little break and they can stay home and rest. And they tell us, ‘No. The children will miss me if I’m not there.’ And they tell us over and over that this is the reason they get up in the morning."
Foster grandparents get support from administrators and classroom teachers. Coordinators agree, regardless of grade level or school subject, the number one requirement for a foster grandparent is a genuine love for children.
"They’re like my own," Grandma Esther says. "I have 29 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and they are all grown. The oldest one is 25, and the youngest is 14. So now I’m with kids again."
Grandma Esther’s spent her life with children; now she’s working toward a degree in arts and early childhood education. It’s proof the foster grandparent program inspires learning across generations.
People who are more than 55 years old are able to participate in the foster grandparents program. They commit to a minimum of 15 hours a week, and some work a full 40 hours. Volunteers of America, Dakotas coordinates the program; find additional details at this link.
The organization has other opportunities for seniors to volunteer in various capacities. The RSVP program lets volunteers work as often or occasionally as they like. Information on those volunteer options is online at this link to the Volunteers of America, Dakotas website.