Tuesday, March 16, 1999

Little learners look up to 90-year-old teacher

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BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jeanette Scott works with Jason Cornelius, 3, at the Memorial Baptist Church. (Saed Hindash photo) | ZOOM |

        Alexis Hope, 3, scribbles on a piece of paper. Zaire and Jason Cornelius, 3 and 4 years old respectively, struggle to keep their coloring within the lines. They pause and look to get the approval of their 90-year-old teacher.

        This is the world of Jeanette Scott, a retired licensed practical nurse. This is her work at the Kidd Kids' Christian Academy in the West End.

        Mrs. Scott is part of the Foster Grandparent Program. She works with 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds four hours a day, five days a week at the academy.

        She tutors them on reading, coloring, scribbling on paper, singing and buckling their shoes.

        The Foster Grandparent Program, created in 1968, is sponsored by Catholic Social Services of Southwestern Ohio. Seniors spend 20 hours a week with kids ages 2¹/₂ to 6 in public and private schools. The kids and volunteers alike benefit.

        Mrs. Scott never had children of her own. But she is a mom, grandmom, great-grandmom and pal to thousands of youths who come to her for something as simple as loving care and a word of encouragement.

        “A lot of people don't have the patience to work with tots, but I do,” she said. “Most of them will do whatever tots at this age will do, but I always give them a sticker for trying to do something.”

        Mrs. Scott works along with teachers Michelle Stevenson and Lashonda Pitts on drilling the kids on classroom work, games and songs.

        “We are blessed to have her here,” said Erma Kidd, owner of the academy. “The kids look up to her as if she is an angel.”

        Mrs. Scott said she has been working with kids all her life. She even had a job at age 6 in 1915 taking a kid to a baby sitter while the parents went to work.

        “I made 20 cents a day.”

        Mrs. Scott was trained as a practical nurse at the old Cincinnati General Hospital (now University Hospital) in the 1950s.

        In 1969, she said she retired from nursing to become a foster parent to a 4-day-old baby.

        “I had taken the baby's mother in because she was pregnant. But after the baby was born, she wouldn't look after it. So I took her and raised her,” she said. “I took in a lot of children in my lifetime. If I saw them not being cared for, I would take them and look after. We didn't fool with adoption. I just took them in.”

        One person who benefited is John Penman of Walnut Hills.

        “I think I was 13 years old when she took me in. She cared for me, raised and sent me to school. I have the greatest deal of respect for her,” said Mr. Penman, now 43.

        Mr. Penman said he calls her daily and visits her weekly in her Avondale home.

        She has been in the Foster Grandparent Program since 1989. She has volunteered at Douglass Elementary School in Walnut Hills, the Parent/Child Center and Madisonville Day Care.

        In 1995, she received the Cincinnati Board of Education's Volunteer of the Year Award and the Woman of Tomorrow Award. She was elected to the Senior Citizen Hall of Fame in 1997 by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission.

        For more information on the Foster Grandparents Program, call 241-7745.

       

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