rates continue to decline, it is entirely possible for the number of people aged 65 and above to double within the next generation. But one need not look years ahead; the aged are here now.

Some Accompanying Problems

The social and economic adjustments demanded of an aging population are many and complex. While they are inextricably interwoven, the changing nature of five problem areas can serve to illustrate some of the troubles facing our older people.

In the field of health the old killers, the contagious diseases, have been largely replaced by a set of chronic or degenerative diseases for which few specific cures have been found. Control of these diseases depends largely upon hereditary tendencies and the living habits of the individual. Mental diseases, too, seem to multiply with age under the stresses of our civilization. Present rehabilitation centers, home care arrangements, nursing and convalescent homes, and similar facilities are too meager to cope with the problems. Important progress is being made in geriatrics and gerontology, but until earlier mass detection of chronic conditions and better means of control are developed, longer life for some of us will mean years of disability, suffering, and invalidism.

In past generations unemployment problems among older people hardly existed. With the change from a rural to an urban civilization and the rise of large industrial establishments, most men now leave the labor force by age 65 and have years, if not decades, of free time. Whether they are supported by pensions, old-age assistance, relatives, or their own savings, only a minor fraction of men past this age contribute significantly to our economy. In times of economic stress the unemployed older ages become a major social concern. Likewise, the lightening of home duties releases many women for paying work. Many married women past the child-bearing years present special problems; they have plenty of time but often have neither work experience nor salable skill.

Conflicts between trends and needs present serious issues. On the one hand longer life gives older people years of potential economic usefulness in a world that needs their production. On the other hand there is heavy pressure to reduce the retirement age partly to insure full employment to younger workers. Among the specific issues are these:

1. Shall the usual retirement ages be lowered and maintained with assured minimum income through pension plans and other forms of social security?

2. Shall a working population aged 20 or 25 to 55 or 60 support both the young and a growing older population or shall the potential produc tivity of all ages be used?

3. Shall arbitrary retirement ages be abandoned in favor of individually applied criteria for retirement?

If the working life of men and women is to be geared to the developmental needs of people instead of to the demands of the economic world, it will require education in 3 respects: (1) teaching society to accept the productive and useful labor of all throughout their lives; (2) developing individual attitudes of expecting to work as long as able; and (3) retraining of older workers for work in line with their changing capabilities.

As most people became wage earners, retirement found many of them faced with financial insecurity in their later years. Large parts of our population are not covered by private annuities, pension plans, retirement systems, or other forms of social security. Such plans as are in existence often yield too little income for minimum levels of subsistence in times of higher living costs. The result is financial hardship and embarrassment for a great many old people.

Family relationships likewise have changed greatly. Old people are no longer the recognized heads of well-knit households of three or four generations. With the coming of smaller families fewer old people than before can retire with prospects of aid from their children. In this culture of high mobility many older folks are without homes or close family ties; much of the mutual interdependence between generations has disappeared. Housing shortages cause crowding with its accom

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panying psychological strains, while both family and institutional housing arrangements often fall short of meeting the needs of older persons. These changes often leave unsatisfied the basic needs for affection, emotional security, companionship, recognition, and self-respect which are as great among the old as among the young.

In contrast with that of old China, ours has been a young culture which has tended to challenge and reward youth. The old are pushed aside and given reduced status. In our drama, our literature, our advertising, and most other phases of our culture, youth gets the spotlight; youth is looked upon as the golden age. This accent on youth creates undue hardships for the aging and the aged. The old are sometimes tolerated, but too seldom valued. After having been important during most of their lives, they are too often relegated to the scrap heap. The roles expected of old people in such a setting give too few psychological satisfactions for normal happiness. So old age has come to be looked upon by many as an unhappy time, as an unfortunate circumstance, and as the least desirable of all of life's stages.

The possibility of older people being neglected by our economy and society in general means personal trouble for many. When these troubles affect enough people, they become public problems. Older men and women must regain their chance to be useful people once again, to earn a living, to have financial security, to live in adequate housing, to receive educational, medical, psychiatric, and social services when necessary, and to take part in the ongoing social and spiritual life of their community. Most of all they must regain the chance to live as free human beings with dignity and respect in harmony with our American democratic principles.

To bring these conditions about is the concern of many agencies, both public and private, working at the local, State, and National levels. Many of the problems to be solved lie within the province of health and welfare departments, of social agencies, of recreation divisions, housing authorities, employment agencies, and other community groups. Some involve questions of social policy which eventually will have to be worked out through legislative channels, through labor-management agreements, and through changes in public opinion and attitudes. In nearly all of them, however, education has an important part to play; it has a broader responsibility for their solution than any other field. Many of the problems can be prevented or ameliorated by the right kind of adult education. This bulletin has been written to point out some of the ways in which organized education can help.

The Responsibility of
Education

The Educational Tasks

Among the major responsibilities of education is that of helping people adjust constantly to the changes in their individual situations and to the demands and expectations of society. Out of the effort by the schools to become more effective in meeting the needs of both the individual and society has come the current emphasis on Life Adjustment Education. Life Adjustment Education, however, cannot be limited to youth; people of any age and all through life have to adjust to the changes demanded by their internal and external environments. This is the major reason why education should be a service available to all ages and why it should be age-related in two respects: (1) It should assist with present adjustments; and (2) it should help lay a foundation for best adjustment throughout the rest of life. A good share of the education for a long and useful life necessarily must occur during childhood and youth. This bulletin, however, deals more with the postschool years.

While many problems intensified by the increase in life span are largely social problems and must be dealt with by many other agencies, organized education can help to solve many of both social and personal import. In fact, there is hardly a problem connected with the aging process which education cannot help solve. As with any other educational task, education in problems of the aging has to be concerned with changing human behavior in both the aging and in the general population. The learning process must help people to act differently. This usually involves changes in knowledge, skills, habits, and attitudes.

Some examples of tasks in which the school or other educational agencies could help the individual are these:

1. Developing throughout life health habits based on medical knowledge. 2. Developing mental hygiene practices and increased mental and emotional maturity.

3. Developing recreational skills and interests appropriate to advanc

ing years gradually to replace those lost with the passing of youth; the building of other new, useful, and creative interests for expansion in periods of increased leisure time.

4. Developing attitudes and outlooks appropriate to a changing family status as children leave and spouses die.

5. Counseling and guidance of adults faced with changes in vocation or other major life patterns.

6. Retraining workers for full-time or part-time jobs suited to their advancing years.

7. Building and maintaining an alert elder citizenry concerned with and active in public affairs at the local, State, National, and world levels.

8. Teaching people how to retire with satisfaction from full occupational life to a life of other activities.

These educational tasks are more social in character:

1. Building general public attitudes of acceptance of the aging as an important part of our society.

2. Building into all people habits of continual learning so that the accumulated wisdom of advancing years will be strengthened by a growth in attitudes and concepts suited to the changing social, economic, and political conditions.

In a larger sense education for the aging has a great social responsibility. Considerable evidence shows that a very great loss in our human resources occurs at the mature end of life. A wealth of wisdom, energy, and potentially constructive work is allowed to waste away because we have not yet become wise enough to use it to the maximum. During the next 30 years, with the help of our school system, other agencies, and the media of mass communication, it should be possible to build into a generation of people strong attitudes of lifelong learning, and to expand our adult education activities materially. Unless opportunity for adult education is provided and enough people become interested in systematic lifelong learning, an increase in the average age of political and business leaders, laboring people, and citizens generally, especially in the proportion of them past 65, may mean a less efficient nation. Scientific discoveries and other developments constantly call for new learning on the part of public and private policy makers if their decisions are to remain of high quality. Added to all the potential personal happiness that proper age-related education could help insure, from the public standpoint such education has an even greater role. It helps insure a sound national economy and undergird our strength as a free nation.