The authors of the article analyse the importance of higher education for elderly people. For them, “constructive ageing” is a specific concept of teaching and learning processes that do not have why limit to the working years. In this sense, they stand for introducing a social and cultural change on education as a tool to develop a good ageing.
15 july 2016
Within all the factors that play a key part in the ageing process, Higher Education is one of the least studied. Despite the Spanish educational system has a certain academic tradition for adult people, the opening of specific universities for this part of the population has been carried out recently. Such as José Arnay, Javier Marrero and Inmaculada Fernández ensure on the University of La Laguna in their paper “Education and Ageing: Constructive Ageing”, published on 2012 in the monographic Información Psicológica.
Despite the Spanish educational system has a certain academic tradition for adult people, the opening of specific universities for this part of the population has been carried out recently
These universities, who do not seek to prepare for a professional future, are addressed to people over 50 years old and they include even people over 80, who look for, through this education, a bigger personal, intellectual or emotional satisfaction.
The authors describe a population sector poorly visible in the media, whose stigmatisation is more than tangible, given that this life stage is always represented from a negative perspective. In fact, some of the many stereotypes associated to ageing is the psychological one, which considers this stage as a deterioration process of human skills, drawing conclusions such as elderly people are more prone to suffer from diseases such as depression and anxiety, without a direct relationship between the age factor and depression.
Some of the many stereotypes associated to ageing is the psychological one, which considers this stage as a deterioration process of human skills
Therefore, the authors encourage to avoid the prejudices we have, since they do not represent reality nor the daily life of elderly people, given that they are the result of a widespread lack of knowledge. “65 years old are nothing else than a bureaucratic border, and therefore arbitrary, which until recently indicated that life as an elder started officially when leaving the labour market”, they say.
The authors encourage to avoid the prejudices we have, since they do not represent reality nor the daily life of elderly people, given that they are the result of a widespread lack of knowledge
On the retirement period there are two contrary perspectives: on the one hand, the one that considers the vital cycle in which people become “unproductive”. On the other hand, one contrary to the previous that considers elderly people wiser and more expert. Nevertheless, there is a paradox in this sense since this more positive conception happens in mainly ageing societies, in which is often though that this demographical characteristic endangers the Welfare State.
This often carries young people to reject the elder when considering that “it is their fault” why they have to assume bigger social risks, and even that they are competitors in the labour market. It seems difficult, this way, keeping latent the value that wisdom gave. Contrary to what should happen first-hand, the more elderly people there are, the lesser seems their weight in society. According to the authors, this reality is result of the mercantile concept that we have of human existence, that is, the division between people who work and provide money and people who, unfairly, represent a load for not being “productive”.
This often carries young people to reject the elder when considering that “it is their fault” why they have to assume bigger social risks
Thus, it dangerously increases the margination and social exclusion risk for this part of the population, which leads to their lack of adaptation when it comes to face new challenges, at a political, social and economic level.
This way, to avoid the above mention to occur, if ageing is not a static process, we can understand, such as the authors explain, that their relationship with education can help guaranteeing a personal self-construction which makes easier the cognitive, physical and emotional capacities by helping them assimilating ageing in a positive way ageing.
If ageing is not a static process, we can understand, such as the authors explain, that their relationship with education can help guaranteeing a personal self-construction
“It is necessary that education help to build, together with the personal vision, other social visions on ageing”, emphasise Arnay, Marrero and Fernández. According to them, improving these views supposes pave the way for the coming generation that does not know to what extent their lives are going to be marked by the ageing phenomenon.
Hence the need of develop an education for ageing that helps this sector of society to consider open all the possibilities of reality interpreting, regardless of age. In this sense, education should be the door to emancipation of the person, which gets to break the default limits by biology.
