When you talk to John Moore about the middle-school kids he’s worked with as a volunteer for Prime Mentors Canada, you can hear just how tickled he is by the way their minds work. A few times a year, he gets to plunge into learning about a topic that’s typically new and unfamiliar to him — whatever subject the student he’s been paired with has chosen as the subject for an oral class presentation. Black holes? Sure. How the heart works? Why not?
People over 50 have a lot to offer those who are younger than we are; and when we act as mentors, we get a great deal in return. A handful of intergenerational mentors shared their stories with me for this piece I wrote for Good Times: Mentoring the Young.