Edukacja do starości młodzieży szkolnej

Abstract

Demographic research shows that modern societies are ageing, and Poland is one of the countries described as „demographically old”. According to reports prepared by the Central Statistical Office, people in the post‑working age constitute about 18% of the population of our country and this process will be progressing. Meanwhile, as gerontologists write, there is a growing prevalence of social exclusion and aversion to old people as a social group. Also among seniors there are visible problems with good adaptation to changes associated with the aging process. In this situation an important role may be played by the education towards old age, carried out already at school age, thanks to which it is possible to prepare early for the numerous changes associated with the process of aging and to shape positive attitudes towards seniors. The monograph discusses the problem of old people and their place in the Polish family and contemporary society in the context of demographic changes; it presents life styles of seniors, factors conditioning adaptation to changes related to the process of aging of individuals, opinions of children and adolescents about old age and their attitudes towards elderly people. The author presents the role of educating towards old age in a comprehensive school as an environment for teaching and educating adolescents, who live in times of demographic change. She analyses the content related to seniors, the process of ageing and factors conditioning good adaptation to changes related to old age found in scientific literature and primary and lower secondary school documents, i.e. the core curriculum, curricula, methodological guides for teachers and school textbooks for students. The author also demonstrates the role of the teacher‑educator as a person directing the didactic and educational process, shaping the attitudes of young people towards seniors and preparing them for their own active and healthy old age. The results of empirical studies conducted in elementary and middle school are a source of knowledge about the process of educating towards old age carried out in the comprehensive school. The information obtained from the surveyed students and teachers‑educators presents the effects of this education, i.e. the attitudes of young people towards seniors and their knowledge of the aging process.