Friends Helping Friends

Every other Tuesday, in the Lower School technology lab, Lower and Middle Schoolers play together with robots. Spread out on the carpeted floor of the classroom, the students arrange flat squares of colors into particular lines. In order for a robot to move down this path of colored squares, the colors need to be arranged in a particular order. The conversation is light but diligent, focused but not strained. If a Lower Schooler stops for a moment, briefly confounded, the Middle Schooler jumps in, giving the peer a helpful nudge before they both continue working. The tone of the work is reassuring and supportive, reverberating with the message: This subject is hard, and I’ve been discouraged too, but I’m here to help.

This cross divisional work is part of the Middle School Helpers Club, where 7th and 8th

Graders volunteer to assist in designated Lower School classrooms every other week.

On that same Tuesday, Junior Kindergartners enjoy what they’ve now come to call Perry

Day, where Perry Greenbaum ’30 and some of his Middle School peers visit Gray Greenbaum ’38 and the rest of the JK students. If the weather is clear, the Junior Kindergartners will invite the Middle Schoolers out to the playground, where they take turns going down the slide. They play basketball, hopscotch, jump rope — all under the careful supervision of the Middle Schoolers and the JK teachers. After all, it’s Perry Day, a day of connection and growth.

To instruct, to articulate how to solve a problem, is another form of learning. “Both divisions are getting so much out of this work,” says Tara Connor, the Middle School teacher over- seeing the club. “With the Middle Schoolers, they get a chance to be leaders. They also get the chance to help with instruction, and that can reinforce some fundamental learning. For the Lower Schoolers, seeing that some of the older students they look up to truly care about them is really beneficial.”

With Middle Schoolers becoming key facilitators in other students’ success, the club increases individual student agency. For some Middle School students, who might not have the opportunity to become leaders in their own grade-level setting, this is a chance to become a role model. “Where I’ve seen a big difference has been with students that don’t have leader- ship roles in the Middle School,” Connor says. “This club has created space for them to cultivate

that position of a role model. For students that are typically used to taking a back seat in classrooms, this has forced them to use their voice.”

The club puts students at the center of academics; they become both students and men- tors. It’s one of the many aspects that makes a Collegiate education unique. When teachers take advantage of cross-divisional activities, students thrive. We all have something to give, and each of us has something to learn from our peers. When students connect, everyone learns. “At the end of each session, when the Middle Schoolers are walking back to their division, there is so much joy,” Connor says. “They go in worrying they won’t be helpful and they leave knowing they’ve made an impact. It gives them a huge confidence boost. They understand that they matter, that they have something to give, and that makes a huge difference.”