I sometimes stray off in class. Like some students, the
classroom becomes my own little world of fantasy. Except, unlike my students, I
am teaching the class.
Last week I was discussing how peer-ist our society is. We
tend to only mix with people our own age. As I was lecturing I tried to recall
the last time I held a baby in my arms, and in front of 110 students I realized
that it must have been more than two years ago. I joked that I see a lot more
older people because that is my job. But unless you live in an extended family,
and most students in the United States do not, then it is unlikely for them to
interact with children or older adults on a consistent basis. By not engaging
with older adults my students are likely to develop negative ageist stereotypes
In 1992 Joann Montepare and her colleagues looked at how
college students’ spoke with their grandparents and parents on the phone. They
found that with their grandparents, college students had a higher pitch used
more babyish, feminine voice, while at the same time being more deferential and
congenial. Different from the type of speech exchanged with their parents. And
this differential treatment starts much earlier than college.
Children tend to evolve a negative view of older adults early
on. Negative views of older adults seem to come naturally to young minds. For
example in 1990 Charles Perdue and Michael Gurtman asked children to recall
traits after they were introduced to the person they are recalling the traits
for. They could recall more negative traits when their reference was an “old”
person and more positive traits about a “young” person. Children already have preferential
memories. They remember AND recall negative traits because they are already
associated with older adults. The author argue that these age biases are
automatic, unintentional and unconscious. It seems that such discrimination is
pervasive and results in negative behavior towards older adults.
In 1986 while observing behavior of children as they
interacted with elderly people Leora Isaacs and David Bearison found that
children were quite discriminating. When
faced with either of two study helpers—one was much older, but both dressed
similar and professionally—when with the older helper, children sat farther
away, made less eye contact, spoke less and initiated less conversation and
asked for less help. Children have already learned to keep older adults at a
distance.
Could closer
interaction remove these stereotypes?
One way to
deal with these negative stereotypes is to develop a closer association with
older adults. But the results were initially surprising. The University of
Maryland professor, Carol Seefldt in 1987 found that 4 and 5-year-old children
who had visited infirm elders in a nursing home once a week for a full year
held more negative attitudes towards older adults compared to a similar group
without this contact. However, the day care and nursing home staff,
reported positive and long-lasting benefits to both the children and elders.
I remember my children coming home from Montessori School
proud to tell me that they visited a nursing home with “old people.” Knowing
that this was my interest they knew I was interested in what they learned and I
was anticipating a positive response. Smelly and horrible was their response.
But then in hindsight it should not have surprised me. If my experience of
older adults is exclusively based on a nursing home, I similarly would have a
very negative view of aging.
Which explains why the evidence that intergenerational
contact influences children's attitudes is mixed. In 2002 Molly Middlecamp and Dana Gross enrolled 3-to-5 year old
children in either an intergenerational daycare program or regular daycare program.
They found that the two groups were very similar in their attitudes to older
adults. In general, children rated older adults less positively than they did
younger adults, and these children believed that older adults could participate
in fewer activities than children could. The take home lesson is that not all
prejudices can be overwhelmed by knowledge, only through appropriate knowledge.
Without appropriate engagement, we get a voluminous amount
of information about older adults exclusively from the media, especially as
reflected in adolescent literature. David Peterson and Elizabeth Karnes
reported that in fiction literature older persons were underdeveloped and
peripheral to the major action in the books reviewed. And there are nuances in
perception that are determined by the socio-economic context. Tom Hickey and
his colleagues as early as 1968 found that among the third grade, students from
higher socioeconomic groups looked more favorably on older persons (although
perceiving loneliness problems), and children from poorer homes did not
anticipate loneliness but expected senility and eccentric behavior. A social
component of the type of stereotypes is evident.
If my information is coming from a negative source, then my
negative views are unlikely to be assuaged. My social class or culture might
modify these stereotypes. By designing an appropriate intervention, where young
people interact in a meaningful way with older people, only then can negative
views of aging be replaced with more realistic perceptions. This was the
intention and success of a 2002 program initiated by Eileen Schwalbach and Sharon
Kiernan. The program was designed for fourth grader to visit an elder
"special friend" at a nursing home every week for five months. They
were primed before their visit by describing some of the issues that might come
up during their visit. During the course of the study, the 4th graders’
attitudes toward their "special friends" were consistently positive
and their empathy increased.
Milledge Murphey, Jane Myers, and Phyllis Drennan wrote a review
of such effective programs. They especially focus on the seminal program begun
in 1968 by Esstoya Whitley. As part of
their school curriculum, 6-8 years old students "adopted" a
grandparent from among residents of a nearby nursing home. As anticipated the children’s attitudes
became more positive towards their adoptee. But what was unexpected was that the
children continued visiting their adopted grandparents for a few years at least
three times per week. The children gained a positive attitude toward the
elderly and a more realistic view of aging and developed a true relationship
with their adoptees.
But perhaps the most memorable study of interaction was a
recent 2017 British factual entertainment program—euphemism for reality TV in
the United States—by Channel 4. Although such intergenerational programs have
been conducted in the United States for more than half a century, this was the
first time it was televised from the start. The nursing group participants came
from St Monica Trust retirement community in Bristol where once a week for six
weeks a group of 4-yer old kindergartners descended upon the sedentary tranquility
of the nursing home and infused it with ambulant energy. The weekly television
series updates the viewers with funny and eccentric interactions. But at the
end what the show clearly shows is how the older residents improve their
cognition, physical ability and mental health across the six week of
interaction with the children. In turn the children develop greater empathy for
their older playmates.
And the question is why were we separated in the first
place? How and why society become so age-segregated?
Looking across a sea of young faces in class I realize that we
start at school and the best place to disaggregate is schools. Ivan Illich, the
infamous activist from the 1960s already covered this topic. In the 1971 book
on Deschooling Society Illich discusses ways of removing the barriers to
education and to incorporate education into the general social network through social
hubs like libraries. With the incredible amount of money that educational institutions
make—especially publicly funded ones—there is no incentive to change the
status quo. Until then, we have to suffer the consequences of age apartheid
that we continue promoting, while feeling enriched and uplifted when we see
those barriers removed, even if for our brief viewing pleasure, albeit on television for now. In the meantime I need to get back to my age-disaggregated class.
References
Atchley, R. C. (1980). Social forces in later life. Belmont,
Calif.: Wadsworth.
Brubaker, T., & Powers, E. (1976).The stereotype of
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Channel 4 (2017). Old Peoples Home for Four Year Olds.
Accessed online 12/9/2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2z5468htA
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