As students head back to school, here comes a big homework assignment: StoryCorps wants teenagers across America to interview a grandparent or elder this Thanksgiving and upload the recordings to the Library of Congress.

The nonprofit oral history organization is asking high school history teachers to have students record the interviews with the StoryCorps smartphone application.

Founder Dave Isay says “The Great Thanksgiving Listen” could collect tens of thousands of one-on-one conversations for posterity.

Isay hopes it becomes an annual tradition. He says it will bring families closer together by using modern technology to share the wisdom of elders with future generations.

Isay adds that the stories are less important than the fact that they’re talking.