The wise and the innocent
A cultural experiment in Finland to house its senior citizens and school children in one space is bearing good results.
WITH her four children and 10 grandchildren dispersed around Finland and Europe, it is difficult for retiree Synnove “Ninnii” Langenskiold to see them often.
But the 76-year-old says she is not lonely – every fortnight she meets her “surrogate grandchildren” from Vindangen – a kindergarten and elementary school next door to her apartment building Folkhalsans Senior House – for reading lessons.
In fact, she says, her life is full of youthful energy – she sees children at their shared dining hall almost daily, while their voices and laughter trickle up to her balcony from the school yard when they play.
This interaction between senior citizens and school children is fostered under a cultural project initiated in 2013 by the cultural unit of Espoo City, which governs the municipality near Helsinki.
The idea came about when the school underwent renovation that year, says Vindangen vice-principal Pamela Bohme.
“We were already sharing the same area with the senior citizen co-housing building, so the city council thought, why not create a more meaningful contact among us?” she tells a group of visiting journalists in Espoo recently.
Co-housing schemes, where apartment owners share common facilities and socialise in communal spaces, are popular among the aged in Finland. With Folkhalsans, Espoo City took it a step further by building a gateway from the neighbouring school to the house and shared facilities for them.
They also built a music hall at the senior house to make it a Swedish-Finnish culture and music
centre. (The Swedish Finnish community is a minority group of the former Swedish colony).
Various music workshops, concerts and other events are organised not only for the senior residents and school children, but also the general public in Espoo.
The “open” architecture facilitates various shared activities between the senior residents and school children, from arts and crafts to light sports.
Crucially, the school decided to tap into the senior residents’ wealth of knowledge, skills and experience. Thus, the Swedish
reading programme was initiated.
“Espoo is a bilingual city with a large Swedish speaking community (Swedish is Finland’s second official language). The reading programme is to help the children who are from bilingual and non-Swedish speaking families strengthen their language,” says Bohme.
The weekly reading sessions are held at the school library and Folkhalsans’s library or common room. Students are divided into groups of four and assigned to a senior resident volunteer to read various books.
Ninnii has never taught in her professional life but she says she has a keen interest in the Swedish language and literature.
“Swedish is difficult, but when we read in small groups, we can help them individually with grammar, spelling and pronunciation.”
She says she is glad she can give back to the community in this way and finds the bonding with the children personally rewarding.
“When one of the children from a previous group saw me at a shop once, she was so excited and shouted ‘that’s my reading teacher Ms Ninnii!’ That felt good.
“Sometimes we take a break from reading just to talk, especially about differences between the past and now. The students are very curious about how it was in Finland when I was growing up and ask many questions about how our school was, what we ate and what games or toys we played.”
This year, with Finland celebrating the centenary of its independence, the children are even more interested in the country’s history, Ninnii adds.
She admits that there was some apprehension when the school was built next to their apartment building.
“We were scared it would be too noisy,” she says, but now many find the hustle and bustle of the school comforting and are happy to interact and share facilities with the children.
The Vindangen project is one of the initiatives in Finland to encourage social interaction between the young and the elderly.
The over-60 set, which has an average life expectancy of 84, makes up more than 27% of the country’s population. And the number is rising rapidly.
Finland is recognised for its initiatives to keep older people physically and socially active, such as discounts and access to swimming pools, gyms, museums and theatres.
However, loneliness and the mental health of the elderly is still a concern as it is the norm for the children to move out once they finish school.
The Vindangen project hopes to keep the Folkhalsans’ senior residents socially and emotionally involved.
Bohme feels the children are also gaining a lot from the exposure to the older generation.
“The reading sessions help students improve their language, but they also get the personal attention of an adult who has time for them. This is a great opportunity for them to talk not only about differences between generations but also build meaningful relationships with the older generation, especially for those whose grandparents live far away. The respect and caring for the elderly comes naturally,” she says.