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The Advantages of Senior Citizens In Higher Education People often think that sometimes it is too late for us to do something. This, probably, is the main reason for losses in our lives. The right time for doing something comes when people have a desire to do it, and this is the only way to become successful. It is a common point of view that education is only for young people and not for the senior.
However, sometimes people understand what they really want to do and be only when they become elder. It is often pointed out that people are very age-conscious. The reason for this is not simply that people are curious about others age. When knowing the age of a person one can determine which social and communication codes to employ in dealing with this person.
If a one knows that people are older or younger than oneself, he / she is able to establish how to address, how to greet, and how to treat them. Age carries a very strong message in society. The first challenge for senior citizens is to develop a more positive image of aging itself. This problem might not be unique for the old people. How often do we hear people in every age saying: Oh, I am too old to do this, I cant beat my age, or This happened because of my age. Whether old or young is not linearly correlated with ones biological and physical changes.
It is a well-known fact that the state of mind of the individual considerably affects ones perception of age. Feeling is, to a great extent, a subjective matter. Self-felt oldness probably arises from our past learning. Do optimistic attitudes disappear as people age, or is a more or less persistent characteristic developed over years? Some longitudinal studies indicate that human personality remains remarkably stable (Midwinter). The second challenge related to the attitudes towards aging is to develop the capacity of senior citizens to prioritize the activities they wish to engage in.
The elderly can optimize their level of functioning by concentrating their efforts on things that are important for them, and by seeking to regain some control over the direction of their lives in behavioral domains that are improbable (Bandura 1997). The management of free time in relation to their non-free time (if they have jobs) seems to be one of the crucial factors determining the degree of their participation in individually and socially useful activities. However, it is not the amount of available free time, which directly determines the participation of senior citizens, but rather the ways in which senior citizens perceive time and manage to allocate and use time over different activities. It is a significant fact that in almost all countries, seniors with a moderate amount of free time tend to participate in learning and training activities more frequently than those senior citizens who have plenty of free time. Sense of efficacy through self-direct learning is particularly advantageous for senior citizens themselves: a sense of self-efficacy in controlling their contents of learning, the choice of methods of learning, and types of social activities. A sense of efficacy not only promotes health but also aids physical and social recovery from injuries common to older people (Bandura, 1997).
A sense of self-worth is a contributing factor to the lives of senior citizens. Reducing social stereotypes associated with aging is another big challenge. The general public must be convinced of the groundless nature of some negative images associated with old age, such as being tired, cranky, sick, weak, forgetful, and withdrawn. The optimistic images of aging need to permeate society, treating aging as a normal developmental process, which enables people to continue to learn and to self-actualize, to produce and to contribute to the economic and social sectors of society. The study clearly indicates the general tendency in all countries is that healthy senior citizens are also active learning and social participants. In other words, the more actively senior citizens participate in learning and volunteer activities, the healthier they are result has an important implication for health care for senior citizens.
The NIERs ISPPD study attempted to compare the use of free time management and leisure activities between Japanese citizens in their twenties and those in their sixties. The data reveals that elderly citizens have more free time than the younger people in their twenties. Senior citizens spend more time on TV, radio, and newspaper than the younger group. According to a longitudinal study conducted during 19751990 by the Institute for Integrated Research for the Aged in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, there is a shift from passive ways to spend free time to active participation in sports and hobby activities. The report also indicates that the time spent by senior citizens in learning activities lags behind their participation in leisure and hobbies. The same report also demonstrates a generally high degree of life satisfaction among senior citizens in Japan (Report on Japan).
Culture may perhaps play a role in this perception. The importance of the issue of senior citizens should be underlined, which means that there should be a society, in which senior citizens are to be encouraged to lead an independent life; yet to be cooperative with others and to recognize the diversity of values pertinent to their own self-actualization as well as that of others; and to be able to feel spiritual richness and fulfillment. First, to place the emphasis on self-actualization is to challenge the fatalistic pathological notion of the biological decay and gradual loss of intellectual and social functioning of the individual. The concept of active aging opens up the concept of senior citizens who can continue to grow healthier, wiser, and socially more active.
Secondly, the senior citizens are encouraged to take more initiatives in their activities and to engage in a more individualized mode of thinking, life style, and professional activities. This means that the elderly citizens are considered as important human resources capable of contributing to the socioeconomic and cultural development of the society, rather than portrayed as passive citizens who become social and economic burdens on society and its younger generations. Thirdly, society places supreme importance on the individual citizens spiritual richness, sense of fulfillment and happiness as an ultimate goal of aging, from which the idea of senior citizens contributing to their countrys economy naturally becomes possible. Fourthly, the gender aspect is explicitly and clearly recognized as a fundamental issue when dealing with all aspects of learning and social participation by senior citizens. The availability of free time is an important factor affecting the degree of participation and non-participation of senior citizens in learning, training, social, and volunteer activities. In all countries, senior citizens have more free time, as they grow older.
So, the free time available for senior citizens is a basic factor, but the activities and purposes contained in the so-called free time is even more important. It is imperative to maintain people in gainful activities longer. In order to achieve this objective, it will be necessary to ensure that educational and training policies are adapted to the specific needs of older workers (OECD 1996). The seriously alarming pressure on government budget for pension benefits and medical costs must be taken seriously in adult education for senior citizens. To reduce this budget pressure, OECD (1998) proposed some measures in economic terms: prolonged retirement scheme; private-sector investment of the state pension funds; reduced pension benefits and reduced contributions; more private contributions from the income of the elderly and to their health and nursing care expenses; and increased birthrate through better provision of maternity leave, improved child care facilities. Active aging scheme, in which individual differences and needs of senior citizens are fully taken into consideration, is a major option.
The ICLSE and ISPPD studies demonstrated some key factors to be taken into consideration in order for senior citizens themselves and their partners to effectively support learning and social participation of individual senior citizens. The following implications can be drawn, particularly in view of the current efforts to meet the learning requirement of senior citizens in the changing world: - Education and training is an investment, which can help to reduce the budgetary pressure? on pensions and medical care of the aging society. Education and training for senior citizens involves education and training for all about senior citizenship among themselves, all generations, and all partners (government, NCIOs, Community Centers, the general public) (Keith); - Education and training for senior citizens needs to be built in their philosophy and practices of lifelong?
education, which is a major guiding principle of education: education and training about and for senior citizens citizenship can start early in life as an integral part of the human developmental scheme of learning and teaching; - Education and training for senior citizenship needs to be focused on the unique need and empowerment of? the individual learner: each senior citizen is unique and may aspire to different needs, and when each senior citizen feels empowered with self-efficacy, self-direction, and self-control. Education and training for senior citizens become an effective course of action. The policies, support systems and other helping efforts of partners for active senior citizenship can be geared towards satisfying the individual needs of senior citizens (Durkin); - Senior citizens and younger generations need more opportunities to learn about the importance of?
self-management of free time with and without employment: techniques of how to use and apply multimedia technologies to the benefit of their life, work, leisure, and social activities. Developing learning and social networks with the aid of such technologies opens up unlimited horizons of their life; - While meaningful and enriching partnerships between women and men are essential? ingredients of active aging, gender disparities in learning and social participation of senior citizens can be narrowed, particularly by encouraging more the participation of female senior citizens in higher level of education, employment, professional training, and health management (Keith). - The childcare facilities should be improved and other institutional obstacles can be? removed to make both female and male senior citizens learning and social participation easier and more accessible (Durkin); - Education about and for health is an important priority concern for active aging. People are more and more convinced by the idea that active learning and social participation do improve our health, which, in turn, make possible more active learning and social participation of senior citizens; - Effective and flexible partnership and resource mobilization efforts among different?
individuals, bodies of senior citizens, different public bodies and ministries, between national and local bodies is a key to promote acting aging scheme of the society and any assessment attempts of such partnership and coordination must be learner focused; - Current practices and innovations designed to promote intergenerational interactive communication and cooperation, pleasurable and mutually beneficial inter community programs, curricula, and learning opportunities, are key education issues for active senior citizenship. Finally, international comparative studies, exchange, and dissemination of information is a useful means to promote, stimulate, and review innovations and practices of senior citizenship of ones country from a global perspective (Albert, 34). References Albert, S. and Cattle, M. 1994. Old age in global perspective.
New York: Human Relations Area Files, Inc. Bandura, A. 1997. Self efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: WH. Freeman and Company Durkin, K. 1995. Developmental social psychology.
Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers. Japanese Association for Lifelong Education, 1990. Shogai gakushu jute (Dictionary of Lifelong Education). Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki Publishing Ltd.
Keith, J. et al. 1994. The aging experience: Diversity and commonality across cultures. SAGE Publications: London & New Delhi. Midwinter, E. (ed). 1997. Older adults as helpers in learning processes.
Barcelona: Report of the European Association for the Education of Adults.
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Research essay sample on The Advantages Of Senior Citizens In Higher Education
