When you are little and just with kids your own age, the range of possible activities is restricted by the knowledge and abilities of those in your age group; but in collaboration with older kids there is almost no limit to what you might do!
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In the next several installments I will describe more advantages of an age-mixed educational environment, including advantages for the older children as well as the younger ones.
Meanwhile, I would love to hear from you about examples of age-mixed learning that you remember from your own childhood or that you have observed in children you know. Please include such examples in the comments, below.
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References
1. Greenberg, D. (1992). Sudbury Valley's secret weapon: Allowing people of different ages to mix freely at school. In D. Greenberg (Ed.), The Sudbury Valley School experience, 3rd ed. Framingham, MA: Sudbury Valley School Press.
2. Gray, P. and Feldman, J. (1997). Patterns of age mixing and gender mixing among children and adolescents at an ungraded democratic school. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 43, 67-86.
3. Gray, P. and Feldman, J. (2004). Playing in the Zone of Proximal Development: Qualities of Self-Directed Age Mixing Between Adolescents and Young Children at a Democratic School. American Journal of Education, 110, 108-145.
4. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. In M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, and E. Souberman (Eds), Mind and society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5. Gray, P. The value of age-mixed play. Education Week, April 16, 2008.