ABSTRACT
Older Americans were for many decades among the most disadvantaged members of society. As a growing awareness was realised of the quickening pace of demographic ageing and the accompanying social problems that this would inevitably bring, it became apparent that there was a general disinterest in academe in the subject. Increasingly in recent years, as has been said, a distinction has been made between educational gerontology and gerontological education. D. A. Peterson's definition is very helpful, in the sense that he perceives that there is a relationship between adult education and gerontology. Battersby has rejected this view on the grounds that one of the many failures of the functionalist paradigm has been the silence of the educators and facilitators of third age learning themselves. Then, it is a matter of some importance to consider whether it is possible to be actively involved in facilitating third age learning without competence in social gerontology.
