ABSTRACT
This chapter presents brief notes on the context of ageing in Britain and America: life expectancy and demographic changes, myths and ‘ageism’, poverty, dependency, ‘retirement’, social policy and the role of older people in society. It seeks to provide a context within which we can pursue our thinking about education in relation to gerontology. A great deal is known about the ageing process and about older people. In 1976, 2,000 federally supported research projects concerned with ageing were registered. Ageing has lost some of its significance and a re-examination of ‘old’ as a stereotype is required. Another facet of ageing is withdrawal from a sense of identification with those who are less fortunate, whether economically or physically. In social policy terms, there are marked similarities between the situation presented by ageing and retirement in Britain and that in the United States of America.
