Michigan—Years ago I learned that one of the joys of teaching in a one-room school is that students feel like members of a family. The older students quickly learn they are depended on to help with various activities like answering the phone, tying first graders’ shoes, and setting a good example.

A memorable example for me of this feeling of family occurred during a football game at recess. A big eighth-grade boy caught the football and ran toward the far end zone. Along the way, he picked up a little first-grade girl, gave her the football, and carried her across the goal line, and credited her with the winning touchdown. That’s the kind of close friendship the one-room school can inspire.

Grand Rapids Adventist Academy looks nothing like that little school. With three floors of classrooms that once housed the neighborhood public school, the stairways and long hallways keep classrooms distant from each other.

How can the teachers grasp that wonderful feeling of family in such a big building? Grand Rapids Adventist Academy is reaching across halls and down the stairs to bring students together in their quest for excellence in education. Let me share an example.

The sixth-grade students, halfway between kindergarten and academy seniors, are not lost in the multitude. Although academy students may think of them as little, they are considered the “Big Kids” to the kindergartners and first graders.

This year these “Big Kids” are helping in the first-grade classroom. On alternating days, the sixth graders take turns reading to the first-grade class. The first-grade teacher helps the older student select a special theme book. The student then takes the book home to make sure they know all the words and can practice reading the story. During the read-aloud time the following day, the first graders gather to listen. The sixth grader is motivated to read with expression and enthusiasm to keep the attention of these energetic students.

On Friday afternoons, the sixth-grade class scatters around the kindergarten classroom. Each “Big Kid” sits with a grinning kindergartner. The kindergartner has selected a book or two to have their older friend read.

During this one-on-one reading time, the sixth grader learns to ask comprehension questions of their young listener. Also, the kindergarten and first-grade teachers are encouraged to hear the reading progress their former students are now demonstrating.

Improved reading skills are not the only benefits that are reaped from this multi-grade project. The younger children in the building now have special big friends. The little ones are not afraid to race up to one of their older friends and give them a hug or ask for help with tying a shoe, zipping a coat, or carrying a book bag.

The older students are quick to praise artwork, brag about the child’s reading ability, and wave when the class walks past them in the hall.

Isn’t that what God had in mind for this world—that we help one another, for their joy and also for our own?

At Grand Rapids Adventist Academy, students don’t have to wait to go into the world to be a witness, they just go into another classroom.

Judy Shull, sixth-grade teacher at Grand Rapids Adventist Academy