Pairing up older and younger students has benefits, teachers say

Published: 2004-09-16

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) -- During a recent picnic lunch at St. Patrick's School in Seneca Falls, most students were sitting on the lawn eating, but 12 kindergartners were lined up outside the school's main entrance, anxiously waiting for the eighth-grade students to come outside. And as soon as the eighth-graders walked through the doors, each kindergarten student walked up to one of the older students, took his or her hand and the pair walked away to get lunch. These kindergartners and eighth-graders have been paired up through the school's buddy program. "It's been a wonderful program. They've just developed wonderful friendships," said Michelle Brown, kindergarten teacher at St. Patrick's who helped develop the program. Eleven years ago, the school decided that the kindergarten students would start attending first Friday Mass with the rest of the students in the school. Brown met with Mary Ann Kolo, who teaches seventh- and eighth-graders, and the two decided that the kindergartners might behave better if they went to Mass with an eighth-grade "buddy."

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