The personal papers of Carol Tice document her contributions to the development of intergenerational education in the Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Ann Arbor Community more broadly.
Carol H. Tice was born in 1931 and received a B.S. from Manchester College in 1954 and an M.Ed. from Cornell University in 1955. She taught several grades at a few different schools in Princeton, New Jersey before moving coming to Ann Arbor, Michigan to teach elementary art.
While teaching, Tice started the Teaching-Learning Communities (T-LC) program in Ann Arbor Public schools in 1971. This intergenerational initiative brought volunteer "grandpersons," senior citizens who volunteered as mentors, into the classroom where they worked with students on creative skills, such as handicrafts or cooking. In this way, T-LC gave students an opportunity to learn from their elders and the elders an opportunity to stay active in the community. The goal was to unite two generations that might not otherwise interact, fostering greater mutual understanding and respect among different generations.
Tice served as director of T-LC until 2000, during which time she continued to teach and pursue other professional activities. In 1979, she founded a non-profit organization called New Age, Inc. (which changed its name to Lifespan Resources, Inc. in the early 1980s) to support T-LC and other similar intergenerational initiatives in schools. Lifespan provided resources for the adoption of intergenerational programs modeled on T-LC in other locations, including Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta. Tice supported this work by publishing and speaking at conferences around the country. She also participated in various larger projects such as the International year of the Child and as a consultant for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
After retiring from Ann Arbor Public Schools in 2000, Tice continued to operate Lifespan Resources, Inc. in a smaller capacity and also volunteered with other projects in the community.
