Donna Selin—known to the first- and second-graders at Silver Lake Elementary School as Grandma Donna—has been retired from the Washoe County School District for about 20 years. For about 16 of those years, she’s helped teachers in local schools through the Seniors in Service Foster Grandparent Program. The program is seeking new volunteers who are 55 or older and enjoy working with children. To learn more, visit www.seniorsinservicenevada.org.
Tell me about the classrooms you volunteer in. What is your job while you’re there?
This whole year, I’ve been working with first-grade and second-grade teachers. And if there’s a student who is behind, we’ll take them out and work with them on whatever the teacher is working on at that time—whether it’s math, reading, whatever they want us to do.
What, in your mind, are the most important qualifications to be a good foster grandparent in a school?
Well, you’d better like kids, number one. And patience—a lot of patience. You’re working with the slower children, not the star students. You’re working with a student who gets kind of left behind, so you want to make sure that child feels good about themself and wants to learn. And you give them something to work toward and tell them: “You can do it. You just need to work hard. We can do it together. I know we can.”
How do kids respond when you remind them that they’re capable like that?
Well, they’re always happy when I come to the door. … They need that extra little bit of attention. They can catch up. A teacher has 18 to 20-something kids in a class. I’m working with a little boy right now who’s in first-grade, but he’s still at a kindergarten level. And that teacher cannot take the time he needs, because she has 18 other children in her class. So, if I take him out for an hour a day and work with him on the alphabet or numbers, maybe he’ll catch up.
What has been the biggest change in education since you were in elementary school?
I think it’s respect—and parents both have to work. They do not have the time to sit down and say, “What did you learn today? Do you have any homework? Bring it out. Let me see it. I’ll help you with that. Is it done? What’d you get on your test? Let me see which ones were wrong. I’ll help you with them.” That’s gone. My mom sat down with me. My mom asked me questions. She attended any conference, any meeting. Now, parents are working—both of them—to survive. They don’t have that kind of time. They have to come home and make meals. They have to do the wash and grocery shopping and then soccer and baseball. That’s the difference.
What’s the best part of being a foster grandma?
I have to say the kids. … They love you. They don’t see you as being a grandma. They see you as a person who loves them. They don’t judge you. They’re just kind to you, and they want to learn. … It helps me now, because my husband recently passed, and to sit home and do nothing, I think that’s the worst thing in the world for older people. You need to be needed. You need to get up, get your clothes on, your makeup, and get out of the house. And those kids are happy to see you.