"We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there." --Charles F. Kettering

Today, the fastest growing minority in the world is "senior citizens."  Their voices are being heard in all facets of society--the economy, politics, the sciences, the media, and education.  While we have become sensitive to the issues of racism and sexism, we have neglected to confront the needs of our older population.  Aging is viewed as a leveler of individual differences, placing all older adults into a collective unit.  However, aging, like race and sex, is not a matter of choice.  It is inevitable for all.

As educators, we must be concerned with the stereotyping of the older generation.  Through reading, the basis of all curriculum, we can confront this problem, for literature is an important means through which the attitudes and values of a society are transmitted to its members.  Yet, an analysis of past and present literature shows that the aged have been stereotyped and portrayed negatively.  By not assigning them a full range of human behaviors, emotions, and roles, authors have categorized them, resulting in "ageism."  This term is currently being used to refer to discrimination against older persons.

Literature conveys writers' and society's stereotypic and negative images when:

• Authors consistently use adjectives such as "old," "poor," "little," "sad," and "wise" to refer to older adults.
• Older men are depicted with wrinkles, white hair, and canes, while older women are portrayed as fat or skinny, with their hair in "buns" and wearing aprons.
• Senility is considered to be synonymous with old age.
• The aged are pictured as sitting in rocking chairs or engaged in passive roles, such as storytelling, fishing, or housekeeping.
• Personality is characterized in forms--crotchety or unfailingly pleasant.

To confront the issue of ageism in literature and to determine its extent, we visited public, college, and school libraries, as well as bookstores.  Approximately eight hundred books from the kindergarten through adult levels were investigated.  The following conclusions were reached.

Currently in America, men and women, aged sixty-five or older, represent over eleven percent of the population.  This figure is steadily rising.  In literature, however, they are not proportionately represented to their general occurrence in the population.  Furthermore, while older women outnumber older men by a ratio of 100 to 69, they appear less frequently than their male counterparts in books.  In the materials surveyed that were published prior to 1965, there was a noticeable lack of portrayal of older adults.  When they did appear, they were unrealistically developed.  During the next decade some individualization was given to older characters, particularly males.  Since 1975 their inclusion in books has increased, but they are still not represented in proportion to their actual numbers in society.  During the 1990s, authors and publishers have become more sensitive to including older persons.

When older characters appear in literature, the vast majority are white.  Ethnic and racial minorities tend to be stereotyped to an even greater degree, assuming roles that are even more typecast than whites.  While some behaviors are not inaccurate, they are shown in exclusion to others.  For example, Asian-Americans operate laundries or gift shops or participate in dragon festivals, while African-Americans appear in servile roles.

Until recently, older characters have rarely been visible as main characters.  They have been peripheral, introduced irregularly in minor roles.  Their major characterizations have been as grandparents or other relatives.  Grandparents are generally cast as bedtime storytellers and then disappear.  In children's picture books, older people outside the family structure are seldom represented.  The situation is somewhat improved in adolescent and adult literature, but it is still uncommon for an older person to be depicted realistically or to assume a significant role in the story.

With the mobility of our society and with the growing number of single-parent homes, some children and young adults have little, if any, contact with the older persons.  Literature is one means by which they can come to know older people and to learn that they are valuable contributors to everyday life.

The majority of older characters are placed in indeterminate occupational roles or those that require only passive participation.  Fishing, walking, and listening are examples.  When there is obvious employment, the positions require little mental acuity or are outside the experiences of the average student.  Women's roles are repetitive.  They are generally engaged in housework or gardening.

To foster the idea that they are contributing members of society, older persons should be shown in a diversity of meaningful occupations and employment settings.

The types of behaviors exhibited by older people in literature tend to be routine and mundane.  In children's picture books, older persons usually create problems rather than solve them.  All levels of literature portray the aged as less self-reliant and less healthy than other adults.  Thus, a gloomy cast to the aging process is instilled in the reader.

Women have been portrayed in two distinctly opposite roles, both stereotyped instead of realistic.  They have been either the subservient nurturers, helping and serving their family, but never being developed as individuals in their own right, or they have acted too aggressively, resulting in the "nagging wife" or the stereotyped "witch."

Individual behaviors do not suddenly change when one reaches a certain age.  A goal of literature is to provide a variety of behavioral characteristics among older characters.

Older characters are rarely given full developed physical descriptions.  Instead, they are described by three adjectives--"old," "little," and "ancient."  "Old" is used approximately seventy-five percent of the time.  No other generation is completely described by the use of one word.

Like their physical traits, personality descriptions are limited to four adjectives--"poor," "sad," "wise," and "dear."  These terms suggest an ambivalence to growing older.  However, this juxtaposition does not give older persons a full range of emotions with the opportunity for continued growth.

Older characters appear less frequently in illustrations than their younger counterparts.  They generally are shown with others rather than alone.  It is extremely rare to have them portrayed in social communication with their peers.  When they are seen in picture books, grandparents are often illustrated as being unrealistically old, when most five-year-old children do not have tottering, white-haired grandfather carrying a cane and wearing clothes reminiscent of another era.  In all levels of materials, features of older persons are accentuated to the point of being grotesque, thus providing a frightening effect instead of one of endearment.  Encouragingly, some recent publications have contained life-like illustrations and photographs lending reality to these individuals.

In summary, literature has contributed toward educating child to the beliefs that older people are unimportant and that the later years are not an enjoyable time of life.  This is also damaging to older persons, as it destroys their self-esteem.  Stereotyping of our older population is so subtle and so pervasive that replacing current ideas with factual information and positive attitudes is an enormous task for teachers.  Educators should not condemn all the literature containing stereotypic images or remove these books from the shelves.  They must be sensitive to the issue of ageism and utilize critical reading skills in evaluating prejudice.