Active ageing  as it is being addressed  in European policies is mostly about working longer beyond the legal retirement age and about bettering working conditions. It is about the concept of lifelong work. Further, it is also about flex security: access to lifelong learning and education, corporate responsibility and more efficient age management in companies. But what about active ageing or activity in old age, theory that started being shaped around the year 1952 arguing that the level of  older people’s satisfaction with life can be correlated to the level of their activity.

The position of older people in the society is socially constructed and their valuable cooperation with younger generations is possible only, if we achieve to have in society plural values. Besides, health, family friends and work, other values more typical of the third age , the post retirement period, should be valued and encouraged: being slow against  being quick (taking time for observing, sharing, transferring knowledge , values, taste onto other generations, having meaningful relationships, putting people first), being weak against being strong and aggressive( when one is weak one is more observant, careful also about the others, tradition( if we know where we come from we start being more cooperative with other generations, understanding ( understanding and appreciating relationships), etc. In work dominated societies older people and other social groups which are not in the mainstream of the society slowly find themselves squeezed out of the society to its edge.

The position of older people could change, if stereotypes about older people were slowly transformed (they are always in  a bad mood, they are expensive, they keep complaining, they are not interested, they do not manage new technologies) and banned.

Active ageing was researched at the Slovenian third Age University. We were interested in our formulations of active ageing and we have discovered that: being active in old age means » being surrounded, progressing in different directions, also in gaining and using knowledge, being able to guide younger generations and others who are in the need of advice, being interested in who we are and where we are headed, being interested in transferring values onto other( younger)  generations and peers. Oddly enough in  ex-socialist countries being active in old age does not mean ( at all) being an active citizen and a lot of education leading towards organised voluntary activities for the benefit of the society would be needed.

• Preparation for active ageing must start before retirement; it should be part of education and training provided by the employer.
• To age actively means to keep learning and to be able to change together with the changing world.
• Active ageing is more than just continuing to work  in one’s profession or providing care for the helpless elderly peers.  It means being independent, stable and capable of giving and advising.
• The three priority occupations of  the participants in the meeting are active care for their families  ( parents, partners, children, grandchildren), spiritual growth, learning/education.
• Can efforts for spiritual growth (search for the meaning of life, contemplation of nature, contemplative meditation etc.) be regarded as active ageing? Is work the only positive value of the man in the European culture?

LEARNING AND EDUCATION IN THE THIRD AGE

• The basic characteristic of learning/education in the third age should be joy. It is not only an intellectual activity, it stimulates building of social networks, friendships and solidarity.
• Study circles organized for the elderly should take into account the wealth of their knowledge and experience. There should be more debates and discussions than proper lectures. The senior participants’ initiatives should be followed.
• The Ministry of Education should be formally approached with the request to enable senior citizens to pursue higher education courses on a regular basis free of charge.
• In the third age women tend to be involved much more often than men in educational activities. Men experience a shock when they retire and tend to retreat into passivity. More effort should be made to attract them to join study circles, perhaps by offering some more »male interest« oriented subjects.
• Discussions about active ageing, the possibilities of voluntary work, involvement in civil society should be held within the Third Age University study circles on a regular basis.

INTERGENERATIONAL COOPERATION

• Intergenerational cooperation creates new knowledge and new activities. It should not be equated with solidarity, which  means giving.
• The younger generations can learn from the older the importance  of having  time  for  things  outside work – building of relationships, following traditions, learning and passing on knowledge.
• Younger generations can learn from the old how to live in a  community.

PAID AND  NON-PAID VOLUNTARY  WORK

• Older people possess a great deal of knowledge and experience. The society should implement the necessary infrastructure to enable them to make use of their competences.
• Older people know what a local community needs and can take on a number of activities/services without waiting for local authorities to organize everything.
• At present, older people can provide help to younger generations in inter-generationally organized clubs, through school coaching and similar private initiatives. Older people could help young parents with babysitting and picking up from school in housing community based programmes (»rent-a grandma«).
• The Third Age University could organize »knowledge-exchange”, preparing a list of older people willing to provide help (a service) based on their skills and knowledge on the one hand and a list of people who need help of a certain type on the other.

You can see the photos of the pictures here.

The students were asked three questions; here are some of the replies:

1. What is meant by the third age?

By selecting the students’ replies we got the opinion of the majority, which is, that old age begins after the age between 50 and 60, and that it is in fact an undesired age.

It is the age of most difficult experiences, perception of being rejected, waiting for the angel of death in the premises of gloomy old people’s homes.

The replies on the part of those who are persons with fine prospects indicate that in fact stereotypes in connection with the third age people must be altered promptly and thoroughly, especially through the instruments of the government which ‘the golden generation’ deprived of their dignity and belittled their merits that have been won during their life.

2. Does belonging to the third age group mean being intellectually old?

NO – the common reply of the secondary school students.

Both generations plead for active ageing because it is ageing meeting high standards.

People who belong to the third age group could hear, examine and try out all that what they have not managed to do because of their job and family obligations. They should meet socially, travel, learn foreign languages and transfer their wisdom and life experience to the young people.

3. How young people can help people of the third age?

One has to communicate more with the elderly, visit their grandmas and grandpas more frequently. The elderly should not be abandoned but help them when being sick, and, as much as they can, also financially. Show them that they are loved and that we need them.

Some secondary school students’ replies singled out:

* The old age is a period in which people frequently became depressed, because they think that nobody needs them any more.

* The old age is not there just to lament, the old age is there for the reason to repeat our youth and to experience, once again, all that we went through in our childhood, and our grandchildren help us with all that – with them we go to the kindergarten again, watch cartoons, go to school, enrol to secondary school, graduate college, and if necessary get up early again….

* Then we are on holidays that last as long as we’re alive.

* The old age is the golden age where the winners are only those people who do not give up on themselves!

On the 22nd of February 2011, 14:30-17.30, in the Generationnentreff (Generations meeting point) in Ulm / Neu-Ulm, the first Panel on the subject “Active ageing in Europe – Solidarity between the generations” took place.  Over 30 older citizens from Ulm, Neu-Ulm and surrounding areas discussed in small groups in the style of a “World café” on the subjects Education, Voluntary Work, Old & Young, Health Prevention.
Videoclip_Buergerforum 1 in Ulm

Education

How can education contribute to active ageing? Can education contribute to participation and independence of older people? What kind of education offer do older people want?
View and discuss the thesis

Voluntary work

What motivates older people, to engage themselves in voluntary work? Do they have to engage themselves in society or do they have a right to a “later freedom” to be left in peace?
View and discuss the thesis

Old and young

What forms can the relationship between young and old have? Can meetings of the generations influence image of age in a positive way? Can solidarity between the generations be lived?
View and discuss the thesis

Health prevention

What helps older people, to get old in good health?
View and discuss the thesis