Forever Young

With our FCE classes we dealt with the topic of “Stages in Life” in our coursebooks. We studied a really interesting article called ”My Generation”, which was about a group of elderly people in the UK who got together and formed a rock band named “The Zimmers”.

As a follow-up activity we watched their video on YouTube and then we talked about how brave, how enthusiastic, how unbelievably young these elderly people looked. In contrast, we also talked about those other people who are dumped in homes, marginalized and forgotten.

And thus the idea of the project was born. We thought we could visit a home near Cultural and spend a nice time with the inmates there. So we got together - FCE “G” and FCE “M”- several times, rehearsed a couple of songs and a puppet show and the students had good fun  during the rehearsals.

On August 24^th we happily made our way to “Excelencia”, a home on Laprida Street, and we spent an absolutely delightful afternoon there. The elderly people were fascinated to see so many young people around, talking, singing, dancing for them…They were moved to tears. They were so grateful to us for the visit!!

Yet, we believe our students -really sensitive kids by the way- were still much more touched. They were amazed at the lively chat, the easy manners, the sweet looks these people gave them in return for their songs and dances.

We conclude our students learnt that elderly people are not always unhappy and that sometimes feeling 'forever young' is possible, that there is always a will to go on…

It was an utterly rewarding learning experience for the elderly people in the home, for our students and for us, which made us all feel better people. Unforgettable…

Teachers: Laura Lupo and Patricia Zorio

Classes: FCE 'G' and FCE 'M'

                  Artículo en Español