Is the provision of older people's education 'neglected'?

Everyone, no matter what their age, and no matter what their circumstances, continues to learn. It happens from birth to death… or, as John A. Lee once said, “…from the erection to the resurrection” (John A. Lee’s Political Notebook, 1930’s; precise date and page number long forgotten). Darling, listen to me…because your baby sister is going to be one year old very soon, the government is going to stop our benefit and I’m going to have to learn how to find part time employment as an artist’s model for the elderly painting classes. Otherwise you’ll experience child poverty.

Is the provision of older people's education 'neglected'? That was the name of the topic I’d initially thought I’d research and present… But that changed as I explored the realities of my chosen topic…

…now it’s become worded like this… That Education provisions for the elderly are 'neglected’ as are programmes which teach society about the elderly. A mainly serious (but sometimes whimsical) moot by Dr Jens J. Hansen Director, Woodhill Park Research Retreat

Despite Winston Peter’s best efforts, and the efforts of other opposition parties, the elderly are not going away… …so the need for ‘elder education’ will continue to grow, almost exponentially! And education about the ageing phenomenon needs to be grown for the young.

So just where does vote education go? • The vast majority of the education budget in most countries continues to be spent on those people aged under 25, despite the fact that there is an ever-growing elderly population. • There seems to be very little spent on education for the elderly although there are some exceptions:

Seriously, is there any vote education funding available for the elderly?

A demographic reality • Since about the turn of this century, adults have outnumbered children and a great number of those adults are either approaching fifty or have already reached that age band. • It’s an international trend: • The US; • The UK; • Australia; • Aotearoa New Zealand • and so on…

Political rhetoric versus fiscal reality • We can’t assume that cohorts of people will automatically retire and that their subsistence will be paid for by the state; • The state cannot afford to pay pensions and they’re mightily backtracking! • Bogan and Davies, 2007, make what they call the absurdity of retirement abundantly clear: see www.avoidretirement.com

In fact theories of adult learning support the notion of continuous learning

Moving beyond espousals… • If the government can’t afford to pay pensioners, it stands to reason that they must be given more chances to learn so they can continue to be paid to contribute to society rather than becoming a financial burden. • We, the older folk of Aotearoa New Zealand have experience on our side – we can use our reservoir of prior experience to mesh with, and contribute to communities of learning and practice. They need your expertise and experience! • Regrettably, opportunities to contribute, and opportunities to participate as learners, have dwindled remarkably.

Rich reservoirs of experience aside, there’s been a drastic demise of the ‘fourth’ sector: see the blog on Anne Tolly’s ACE folly at www.woodhillpark.com • Learning programmes beyond the tertiary sector have a long history of vibrancy in Aotearoa New Zealand: • WEA, Mechanics’ Institute, the Ley’s Institute, CWI and many more; • REAPs, community schools, evening classes and the ACE sector. • Many ACE resources have been halted since the Key government took office; • The fourth sector was responsible for providing about a quarter of all training for volunteers from the NFP sector; • That sector contributes about sixteen billion dollars to the economy each year (Hansen & Hansen, 2004).

It stands to reason that if elder-poverty grows to match current child poverty rates, then elders (unlike children who can’t vote) will be likely to exercise their vote as a form of retribution.

Policy 101 and all that… • I propose that educational planners, economists and governments need to devise learning initiatives which enable society to draw upon the vast reservoir that is available from our vast army of experienced elderly people; • Research that can inform policies is scarce and needs to be undertaken now: • Scans of government websites unearthed few elder initiatives! • Literature searches unearthed few research initiatives which explored elder adult learning. • A notable exception is the journal of Educational Gerontology…

Here is a clip of a useful paper from that journal… What follows is a paragraph from the conclusion of that paper…

Little research has been undertaken where the elderly themselves are asked about learning and education. Withnall (2000) ‘‘has suggested that a possible way forward in respect of the Third Age would be to change the current emphasis from education to learning and to investigate what meaning older people actually ascribe to learning by locating it within a life course perspective.’’ Elders themselves could be involved in the research. In obtaining empirical data, it has been argued that we need a new research paradigm that would place ageing itself at the center of the debate and which incorporates older people themselves into the research process. In that way, it might be possible to move towards a new and more inclusive theory of lifelong learning that would have relevance for societies experiencing demographic and other kinds of change at an unprecedented rate. Hence, we need more data from older people themselves about their attitudes to learning and why, how, and what they want to learn. It would also be valuable to have some data about whether such learning has measurable positive benefits.

But wait, there’s just a little more Developmental Psychology for children growing up Developmental Psychology for adults growing old Across three domains, i.e. cognitive, physical and affective, we want older people to retain their optimised capacities. But they lose them to different extents and at varying rates because all older people are unique. Across three domains, i.e. cognitive, physical and affective, we want children to achieve their optimal capacities. They do so to different extents and at varying rates because all children are unique. It’s like a series of drinking glasses…

Filling the glasses of capability Growing up Children achieve their innate capabilities at differing rates Physical Affective Cognitive

Emptying our capability glasses… Becoming old The capabilities of mature adults dwindle at differing rates Physical Affective Cognitive

So how might we add value for all? • Realise that creating educational initiatives for seniors will not only benefit the elderly but will also afford significant value to society. • Teach politicians that ‘we’ are a force to be reckoned with, not a farce to be dismissed. • Enable free ‘borrowing rights’ at tertiary libraries and enable free ‘listening and observational rights’ at lectures and courses. If assessments are sought, then let the person wishing to be assessed, pay for it! • Introduce courses where the young learn more about the social realities of aging: theories of retrogenesis seem linked to medical studies of Alzheimer's and cerebral deterioration but there’s more to aging than just that.

Certainly, if they do, then so do we…thank you.

Is the provision of older people's education 'neglected'?