DOCUMENT RESUME ED 211 406 SO 013 772 AUTHOR Pratt, Fran TITLE /Education for Aging. A Teacher'sSourcetock. INSTITUTION Acton-Boxborough School District, Acton,Mass. SPCNS AGENCY American Association of Retired Persons,Washington, D.C.; Department of Education, Washington,D.C.; National Retired Teachers Association, Washington, D,. C,. PUB DATE 81 NOTE 202p.: For related documents,see SC 013 771-777. Some photographs may not reproduce clearly fromEDRS in microfiche. AVAILABLE FROM Teaching and Learning about AgingProject, McCarthy-Town School, Charter Road,' .M C1720 ($10.00). 44k EDES PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. EC Not Availablefrog EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Aging (Individual s),; *Aging Education;Annotated Bibliographies; Economic Factors:Elemertary Secondary Education; Futures (of Society); Learning Activities; *Older Adults: Politics;Resource Materials: Retirement; Social Attitudes;Teaching Guides: Validated Programs: work Attitudes IDENTIFIERS Intergenerational Programs: Teaching and Learning about Aging Project ABSTRACT This sourcebook contains background readingsfor teachers and suggests learning activities andresources for teaching about aging at the secondary level. Duringthe lifetimes of present students, the population 65 and over willgrow from 11% tc 20%. Most children now in school will live wellbeyond their 7Cth birthday- ' There is, therefore, a critical need toprepare this longest -lived generation fOr life in an older society,tofoster more positive attitudes toward older people, and to increaseunderstanding of aging and related issues. The sourcebook is comprisedof seven chapters, each of which treats a particular tcpic.These are: what it means to grow old, attitudes about aging, aging in other timesand places, the economics of aging, work and retirement,politics and aging, and longevity and the future. The format ofeach chapter essentially the same, containing the following tomponentsrelating to each topic: a narrative review of current Information,a chapter sunmary in the form of myths and facts, a set of suggestedlearning activities, a glossary, and recommended readings for furtherstudy,. Suggested learning activities are many and variedand include having students conduct oral history interviews withan elderly person, select and discuss quotations about aging, analyzeadvertisements in terms of images of age groups, and analyze statistics.The sourcebook concludes with an extensive bibliography of additionalresources including books, articles, curriculum materials,audiovisual resources, government publications, and organizationalresources. (Author/RM) EDUCATION FOR AGING A TEACI+CR'S SOURCCBOOK US. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) XThis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization onginating it 1 Minor chanws have been made to improve FRAN PRATT reproduction quality Pr :its of view or opinions stated in this docu ment do not necessarily represent official NIE position or policy The support of the National RetiredTeachers Association/ American Association of RetiredPersons, which funded the research and writing of this sourcebook,is gratefully acknowledged. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY /an, "PAatt HARA ANN BOUGANIM _EDLTOR TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." ©' 1981 TCACRINGAND LEARNING ABOUT AGING McCARTRY-TOWNS SCF1001, ACTON,MA 01720 (617) 263-8773 SUPPORTED BY A GRANT TO THE ACTON-BOXBOROUGH REGIONAL SCHOOLDISTRICT UNDER THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT, TITLE IV-C 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER . PAGE INTRODUCTION ONE. Growing Older: What Does It Mean? 1 TWO. Attitudes About Aging 21 THREE. Aging in Other Times and Places 45 FOUR. Economics of P 73 FIVE. Work and Retire. 101 SIX. Pulitics and Aging 125 SEVEN. Longevity and the Future 143 NOTES 173 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 iii 3 0 INTRODUCTION Between the time thissentence is written and time tomorrow, approximately this same 3600 Americans over theage of sixty-five will die and 5000more will celebrate their sixty- fifth birthday. In short, tomorrowthere will be about 1400 more "senior citizens" thantoday. By this time next month, there will be enough "new elderly" to populatea large town; by the end of theyear, there will be enough the size of Birmingham, to fill a city Alabama, or ElPaso, Texas. In 1900, about the time that thegrandparents of today's high selool students were torn, life expectancywas only forty-seven .years. Only one out of twenty-five peoplewas over the age of sixty-five. Since that time, the population of the UnitedStates has tripled, but the population of peopleover sixty-five has grown seven times -- equivalent to the combined population ofour twenty-one smallest states. In 1900, living a long life was some- thing special. Today it is something that mostyoung people can look forward to. This isa new thing for America, of which we-are just starting to become aware. Just a few years ago, the public spot- light was on youth. It was the generation of Dr. Spock,campus unrest, student protest and the counterculture. More recently, the focus of the media seems to be shiftingtoward aging and the elderly. A spate of popular books have appeard, includingone best seller which captured a Pulitzer Prize, RobertButler's Why Survive?, Being Old in America. Millions of movie fans have turned out to see films featuring elderly people,such as "Harry and Tonto," ?The Sunshine Boys" and "Going in Style."Both public and private television networks haverun special programs about the activities, needs andconcerns of older Americans. Major features and cover articles are appearing inpopular weekly maga- zines, with some devoting special issuesto the topic. Daily newspapers carry features about senior citizens and regular columns written for or about older people. The focus is not only on tne elderly but on the process of aging itself. Millions of readers have searched the pages of Gail Sheehy s best seller, Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, to find clues to what is happening and will happen to them as they pass through the adult phases of life. Still further attention is being given to such age-related issuesas the family crisis. While much attention is being given to life "crises" or the "plight" of the elderly, many publications also highlight the potential and promise of long life. Public awareness is being translated into public policy. During the last few years, a host of laws,programs and services has been established on the federal, state and local levels to meet the needs of older Americans. Organizations represen ing the interests of older citizens have proliferated, and theif.\. ,memberships are climbing rapidly. Colleges and universities are instituting or expanding offerings in gerontology and related fields. In 1977, Cornell University established the first chair of geriatric medicine in the United States, a move long overdue. As our society moves into the twenty-first century, with perhaps one fifth of its population aged sixty or above, geriatricians may be as common as pediatricians are today. IMPLICATIONS FOR CURRICULUM The longevity revolution and the changing age mix of society have become major social issues of our time. Like all major social issues, aging is now finding its way into the school cur- riculum, both through public pressure to teach'the subject and through far-sighted teachers who recognize the need for it. Educators may grow weary of the constant demands to add new sub- ject matter to already overcrowded curricula, but this pressure helps keep schools relevant to the world outside the classroom. Education for aging is not just another popular whim or passing fad. It is a long-neglected subject which we can neglect no longer. The following are just a few of the important reasons this topic belongs in the classroom. 1. YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY HAVE A GREATER PROMISE OF LONG LIFE THAN ANY PREVIOUS GENERATION. A boy born in 1980 can expect to live to the age of sixty-nine, a girl to the age of seventy- seven. Keeping in mind that these estimates are for average life expectancy, they imply that millions of children with above average chances will live into their eighties and nineties and beyond. 2. THERE IS CLEAR EVIDENCE THAT TODAY'S YOUNG PEOPLE, ON THE WHOLE, HAVE A NEGATIVE VIEW OF AGING AND VERY STEREOTYPED IDEAS ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE OLD, Teenagers may look forward to the time when they enjoy certain privileges of adulthood and establish their own independence and identity, but they definitely do not look forward to being middle-aged or old. In this they share the general cultural bias of our society in favor of youth and youth- fulness. 3. THE CHANGING AGE MIX OF THE POPULATION WITH CONSTANTLY LARGER PROPORTIONS OF OLDER PEOPLE IS RAISING MAJOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES FOR WHICH LONG-RANGE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS MUST BE ESTABLISHED. Today's young people are tomorrow's voters. The decisions they make on tough age-related issues will be strongly influenced by the attitudes and values developed during their formative years. To a large extent, they will help to shape the kind of social environment in which all of us will live out the remainder of orAr lives. vi 4. WHILE AGING IS A UNIVERSALAND SO FAR, IRREVERSIBLE PROCESS, TT IS ALSO ONE OVER WHICHTHE INDIVIDUAL CAN HAVE CONSIDERABLE CONTROL. Successful aging is no accident. It requires the development of lifelonghabits of body and mind that begin early in life. People living in advanced oldage today demonstrate that it can bea good time of life, even the best time of life, if one isprepared. Two thousand years ago, Seneca wrote, "Let us cherish and love oldage, for it is full of pleasure, ifone knows how to use it." More recently, someone said, "There are three kinds ofpeople--those who watch things happen, those who make thingshappen, and those who wonder what happened." 5. YOUNG PEOPLE WILL LEARNABOUT AGING WHETHER WE TEACH THEM OR NOT, BUT WHAT THEY LEARNMAY BE FALSE AND HARMFUL, It is no secret that most learningtakes place outside theprocess of formal education.