Secondary
Education
by Fran Pratt
Director Center for Understanding Aging Framingham, Massachusetts
Contents
Goals
Many of the same concepts introduced in preschool and elementary
classes are important to secondary students. The definitions,
vocabulary, and basic physiological and mental aspects of aging
should be understood by the time a student graduates from high
school.
Secondary students can study the aging process with more depth,
and it can be included during regularly scheduled classes in
the language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science
classes.
High-school students can expand their exposure to aging concepts
by working either with older people who come into the classroom
or with community organizations that serve older people. Direct
contact with older people will reinforce their knowledge and
provide additional educational experiences for secondary students.
The goals of preschool education on aging are:
- To understand the aging process .
- To understand the implications of the aging process of
older relatives and friends
- To understand that aging is an individual process and the
terms young and old are relative
- To include communication with older people as a part of
their lives
Curriculum
Many secondary students have not been introduced to aging concepts.
It is helpful to understand the extent of your students' basic
knowledge of the aging process and their perception of aging
concepts as listed on page 2. Also review the basic concepts
provided in the manual, that emphasize realistic and positive
attitudes toward older people.
This curriculum offers sample lesson plans in language arts,
mathematics, social studies, and science. The suggestions presented
can be extended, altered, or used as a basis for similar lessons.
The curricula presented at the preschool and elementary levels
are also relevant at the secondary level with added depth and
complexity. At the secondary level, the teacher may also be
able to include information on aging within standard subject
lessons without utilizing entire sessions.
Language
Arts
- Develop ideas on the concept of chronological age and how
age is defined. Ask the class how young is "young"
and how old is "old." When do people become old?
- Put heading "young" and "old" on the
blackboard and list adjectives used concerning age. Which
of the terms describing teenagers and older people are positive
and which are negative?
- Continue the discussion using the following questions:
Which adjectives really indicate the number of years a person
had lived? Are positive words associated with young and negative
words with old?
- Are negative connotations applied when we think of young
or old, things such as automobiles, houses, trees, etc? Are
these connotations applied only when we think of people? Why?
- How can the way we think about the meaning of young and
old influence our personality and self- esteem as we grow
older? How can it influence the way we behave toward other
people we see as young or old?
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Secondary
- Have the students write a composition on "When I Grow
Old" in which they describe what they expect to be like,
and how they expect to be regarded by others in later life.
Use extracts from the compositions for future class discussion
on the meaning of young or old.
- Assign biographical reports and have students research
the lives of people who have achieved significant accomplishments
(e.g. Pablo Picasso, Maggie Kuhn, Claude Pepper, Katherine
Hepburn, Indira Ghandi, Georgia O'Keeffe, etc.).
- Identify, read, and discuss novels and plays containing
positive older characters and intergenerational plots.
- Use the following definitions to acquaint the students with
words associated with aging.
Gerontology:
the scientific study of aging, especially old
age.
Geriatrics:
the branch
of medicine that deals with old age
Life expectancy:
the
average age to which people can be expected to live.
Centenarian: a person
age 100 or more
Seniority:
the principle
of reserving certain rights or special privileges to selected
individuals.
Social Security: a
government insurance program.
Medicare: a government
medical insurance program available to the older population.
Pension:
a retirement
income paid by an employer to a former employee after years
of service
Mandatory retirement:
forced or involuntary retirement due to age
Ageism: discrimination
against people on the basis of age.
Stereotype: a prejudiced
view that fails to recognize differences or variations between
individuals.
Widow:
a woman whose
husband has died
Widower: a man whose
wife has died.
Gerontophobia: fear
of aging or of the old.
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Mathematics
- Use the following questions as topics for discussion of
the following table.. How long a period of time does the table
cover? Over the years what was the trend in marriage age of
women and men?
Family Trends
The attached table illustrates how the life cycle has changed
for American men and women from colonial to modern times. The
figures averages in the years indicated.
| MALES |
| Year: |
1650 |
1750 |
1850 |
1950 |
| Average age at: |
| Marriage |
24 |
26 |
26 |
23 |
| Birth of last child |
42 |
43 |
37 |
29 |
| Marriage of last child |
65 |
66 |
61 |
50 |
| Death |
52 |
52 |
62 |
77 |
| FEMALES |
| Year: |
1650 |
1750 |
1850 |
1950 |
| Average age at: |
| Marriage |
20 |
23 |
24 |
20 |
| Birth of last child |
38 |
39 |
35 |
26 |
| Marriage of last child |
60 |
63 |
59 |
48 |
| Death |
50 |
50 |
61 |
81 |
Table 1: Family Trends 1650-1950
- Using the same table, observe the change in average age
at which married men and women had their last child, lived
to see their last child married, or the number of years
lived after the last child married.
- In sentence form, based on your answers above, write
three general conclusions about how the life cycles of married
men and women have changed from colonial times to the present.
- Have the students draw time lines using the data from
the male- female table. Illustrate how the stages of the
life cycle have changes from 1650 to 1950. Using the same
data, prepare other types of problems that require different
math skills, such as percentages.
- Discuss the reasons that people are living longer lives.
In 1900 life expectancy at birth was only forty-seven..
Women used to die at a younger age than men, and now they
outlive them. The birthrate or number of births per one
thousand people has generally declined throughout the past
three hundred years. Discuss the trends in marriage, birth,
and death from 1650 to 1950.
- React to the statement: Married couples now have a long
period of life left after their children have grown to maturity.
In modern times, this phenomenon is sometimes referred to
as the "empty nest" syndrome. For vast numbers of older
people it represents a whole new stage of the life cycle
when married couples who have raised their children are
free of child care and able to do many things that would
not have been possible earlier.
- In modern times, compared with the past, many more women
become widows. Until the 20th century men, on the average,
outlived women. Today, three out of four women who marry
and remain married become widowed for an average of about
eleven years. Compare life expectancies for men and women
at various ages.
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Life expectancy graph
- Today children are more likely to have living grandparents.
In the past many husbands and wives died while their grandparents
were still very young, or even before they were born. Today,
most young children have all four of their grandparents
living, and very often even have living great-grandparents.
Ask your students how frequently they see their grandparents,
how far away they live. Compute a mean, median, and correlation
for the class.
- Have the students gather additional data on age demographics
from the United States Census Bureau publications and almanacs.
Find information on changing longevity, and changing age
mix of the population. Graphing or creating tables illustrating
ways that greater longevity and declining birth rates are
affecting population figures.
- Use similar charts and tables related to aging to teach
concepts in Math while at the same time teaching about aging.
Social
Studies
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Science
- Below is a diagram representing three factors that determine
how we grow up and grow old. Our genetic inheritance is received
from our parents. Environmental factors are conditions surrounding
us throughout our lives. Life style involves personal habits
as we grow and mature.
- Explain genetic, environmental, and life-style factors
that affect the aging process.
Genetic Environmental Life Style graphic
- How does genetics determine the way in which a person develops
and grows old?
a. Genetic inheritance controls the developmental process
of the body through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and maturation.
b. It determines the age at which a person will walk, begin
to shave, need glasses, develop wrinkles, turn gray, etc.
- How do environmental conditions determine the way in which
a person grows up and grows old?
a. Environment may affect a person's health and appearance.
b. Respiratory ailments may be caused by air pollution; hearing
impairment may result from noise pollution; excessive exposure
to sun may cause wrinkling or skin cancer; etc.
c. Work situations may affect the aging process by creating
stress.
- How do personal life-styles determine the ways in which
people grow up and grow old?
a. Many life-style factors influence both the quality and
the length of life, for example. smoking, diet, substance
abuse, exercise, etc.
b. How do finances or economic factors affect and individual's
work, living conditions, diet, etc. and eventually affect
the aging process?
Summarize by listing ways that genetics, the environment,
and life- style determine the way a person grows up and grows
old.
- Discuss this statement: The aging process is different
for each individual, since no two people have identical genetic
inheritance, environmental conditions, or life-styles. There
can be no particular chronological age at which people begin
aging, nor any specific age when people become old.
- Discuss the statement: "You can't do anything about
aging; it's just something that happens to everyone."
- While everyone ages, people have a good deal of control
over how they grow up and grow old. We have more control over
some aspects of aging than others.
Contact with older people is the best way to develop an
appreciation for them. Literature and films in which older
persons play an important part are helpful in extending
the range of ideas about older people.
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