Aging With Attitude

Aging with Attitude is a course developed to discuss societal beliefs and attitudes around aging and why we should reframe negative ageist ideas as they have real impacts on us as individuals, communities, and societies at large. This first session of the series, the introduction, provides examples of how ageism shows up in our world and lays the foundation for the classes to follow. (Music by: Chris Collins, Indiebox Music)

In this session of Aging with Attitude, we will define ageism and start to talk about how it can show up in personal and professional interactions. According to the World Health Organization, “Ageism refers to the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age.” “Ageism can change how we view ourselves, can erode solidarity between generations, can devalue or limit our ability to benefit from what younger and older populations can contribute, and can impact our health, longevity and well-being while also having far-reaching economic consequences.” As with racism and many other forms of discrimination, ageism is so deeply embedded in our culture that we often don’t even notice it’s there. But the language we use to refer to older people in casual conversation can be harmful and help perpetuate unfair stereotypes, beliefs and attitudes toward older adults. (Music by: Chris Collins, Indiebox Music)

In this Aging with Attitude session, I will read through twenty statements for you to identify if this is a factual statement about aging or if it is a false statement. These statements come from an article written by Herbert Lingren published in the Children and Family Journal from 1991 and while some of the language in the article may be a bit outdated, the beliefs and attitudes continue to exist today. Grab your journal or pen and paper so that you can test your knowledge about aging. We will go over the answers in lesson four. (Music by: Chris Collins, Indiebox Music)

In this Aging with Attitude session, we revisit the twenty statements from the previous class to check our work. Grab your journal or notes in your phone so you can track the facts and myths as we review them. We will identify the facts about aging as well as the myths and sometimes ageist ideas to have better understanding of what is true and what may be a false narrative perpetuated by our society.

In this final Aging with Attitude session, I will discuss various research that supports the idea that positive attitudes around aging can positively affect one’s aging experience. This conversation builds on previous sessions where we discussed how harmful ageist attitudes and behaviors can be to individuals and our society at large. We will conclude the session by committing to an anti-ageist attitude, to sharing our new knowledge about aging and ageism with others and to have gratitude for each moment we are aging- because that means that we are living.