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Sergio Pretelli

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RESEARCH AND HISTORICAL MEMORY ST THE UNIVERSITÀ ADULTI/ANZIANI DI VICENZA

Sergio Pretelli
Università adulti/anziani di Vicenza


Research at the universities for senior citizens seems to be the natural evolution of the activities that these institutions, or at least the most serious ones, have devised and put into practice for many years.

Many adults have started or re-started reading, and have increased their desire to know and to travel in order to see and compare what they have learned with the reality: the authentic and preserved reality, the re-interpreted, re-adapted and re-applied reality.

"Research group " applied in our context refers to a group of students who have decided to go back to studying and to share their experience with other seniors.

The cultural choices made within the classes are precise and qualifying, in the sense that they take into account not only a particular theme, but also human, cultural and declarative skills of the lecturers. They have enabled many students to familiarize themselves, in a natural way, with the critical method in approaching texts, documents and people (other senior citizens, administrators, mayors).

A number of students have also found the right stimuli to create some works which have later been published.

Work groups

Once the group has been formed, the students make more and more suggestions, which is typical of educational activities: this was also the case in our experience.

The opportunity to be together with young people, teachers and experts twice or more times a week stimulates fantasy and gives rise to proposals and initiative.

Cultural visits bring together people with different social and cultural backgrounds for a longer period and lead to mutual enrichment through discussion, stimulating curiosity and friendship. These activities create curiosity about monuments and works of art. Then, as is inevitable for adults, the reflection upon one's past leads the students to find a coincidence with other people's past experience: although that may appear odd at the beginning, it then becomes a familiar process which links past, present and future.

This critical examination is an important achievement on their part, because they become aware of changes and get closer to "cultural codification"(culture of „life“: understanding past traditons and habits, recoverying one's historical identity in order to acquire a social role, and improve the quality of life), which is necessary for preservation of the eternal human values, even in a changing society. This way, the elderly go back to being reliable mediators who communicate between the generations.

This is also special role of the universities for senior citizens, which must work hard to be considered such mediators in the interdisciplinary dialogue.

Indeed, economists, social statisticians, demography experts and politicians know little about senior citizens: in their studies prevails the idea of a senior citizen as a number, a disabled or not self-sufficient individual of whom social services must care.