For use by educators, national and state education associations, textbook publishers, and others interested in promoting gerontology education in grades K-12.

AGE SHARE documents currently available on this site:

• Training Older Learners: Issues for the New Millennium - An aging workforce is not only an issue for employers, and older employees, but it is an issue that must be faced by younger workers and K-12 teachers.  Sixteen to eighteen year old high school students typically face the decision to go to work.   This decision may be based on fiscal needs or desire, yet in the coming millennium, students face a workplace that is substantially different from the workplace of their parents and teachers.
  
  
• Why Teach about Aging? - Children are too often exposed to unfounded myths about the aging process or stereotypes of older people. This brief article explains why it is important for children, at a very young age, to develop healthy and realistic views of aging.
  
  
• Goals for Aging Education - NATLA recommends three areas of focus for aging education. This education brief describes the three areas as guidelines for planning curriculum and developing learning activities.
  
  
• General Learning Objectives about Aging - Education for longer life involves three major areas of focus: attitudes, aging processes, and issues of an aging society. Included are learning objectives that can serve as guides for developing curriculum and instructional materials.
  
  
• Key Understandings about Aging - Students in general need practical understanding of aging that is applicable to daily life, but not specialized technical information. Educators can integrate these key aging-related concepts within appropriate disciplines and grade levels.
  
  
• Aging Education in the Classroom - This excerpt describes the extent to which planned instruction about aging appears in public school classrooms and provides a practice scale that can be used for self-assessment.
  
  
• Status on Aging Content in High School TextbooksInformation about aging should be a part of general education in elementary and secondary schools, but textbooks often lack pertinent content about aging issues or present false or misleading information. This research brief presents findings from a study that assessed aging content in widely-used K-12 educational materials.
  
  
• Children's Images of Aging - The way children view old age can affect the way they view older adults and their own aging. This research brief presents findings from a study conducted with children aged 6 to 11.
  
  
• Ageism in Literature  -  Ageism in Literature includes:  Problems of Ageism in Literature which is a brief, but comprehensive, position paper on the particular ways in which literature may adversely affect the reader's attitudes about aging and older people ; Analyzing Literature for Ageism offers a set of guidelines, and instructions ; Ageism in Literature Analysis Form which is a simple instrument for analyzing materials in terms of ageist content.
  
  
• What Do You Call Older People? - Words convey and influence thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Just as we are sensitive to word choices around other diversity issues, we need to be aware of connotations of terms used for older adults.
  
  
• Sample Elementary and Secondary Classroom Activities - Included are suggestions for how lifespan and aging concepts can be integrated into classroom instruction. Classroom teachers can use these ideas to trigger other creative activities.
  
  
• Test for Educators - Will K-12 students understand the process of aging before they walk across the stage in cap and gown to receive their diplomas.
  
  
• Manner of Presentation Checklist - Included are ten questions that can serve as useful guidelines for revising existing materials or producing new ones that adequately and fairly deal with issues of aging.