Opinion: Play together to link up the generations

Recently, I visited one element of a local authority's alternative curriculum programme. This involved a group of lads spending a couple of days a week refurbishing an old-fashioned community hall. The young men had already done a quite magnificent job whitewashing the external walls and fitting some security grills over the windows. They were about to embark on brightening up the drab, nicotine-stained interior.

I asked a couple of the lads if they had ever met any of the old folk who used the building, to which their answer was no. One of the supervisors told me the place was really only used a few evenings a week, largely by a group of elderly men who congregated to have a chat and pot a few balls. No-one seemed to have thought about the potential of this context for some social learning. It had occurred to me that an evening snooker competition between the lads and the clientele - or, even better, doubles involving teams comprising one of the old men and one of the lads - could yield real dividends. The users of the building would have a chance to thank the boys for what they had done. The boys could revel in the praise for their contribution, and cement their sense of achievement. Moreover, the casual chat that would ensue would reveal things shared, as well as changes and differences, between the youth of today and the youth of yesteryear.