ABSTRACT
This chapter is divided into two parts. Education for ageing conveys the notion that the ageing process goes on throughout a person’s life, and adaptation to it can be influenced by education — by teaching and learning which is aimed at the prevention of crisis situations arising at different stages in a person’s life and the achievement of a satisfying old age through the ability to deal with events and problems of daily life in a satisfying and effective manner. Education ‘about’ ageing, on the other hand, is used by the writer to describe the transmission of knowledge, values and skills relevant to the ageing process and the ageing individual, which is directed at the professional, para-professional or lay person working in the field of gerontology. The two thrusts overlap. Professionals may benefit from the learning ‘about’ ageing ‘for’ their own personal lives. The education ‘for’ ageing can stimulate the development of helpers whose work resembles that of the professional. The definition of education in the Dictionary of Social Science which speaks of ‘the transmission of knowledge for the purpose of stimulating people to think for themselves, to apply what they learn, and to gain competence in seeking and evaluating new knowledge’ 1 would certainly include both education ‘for’ and ‘about’ ageing. The term educational gerontology is of recent origin and comprises both aspects of education of the professional, para-professional and volunteer, and of the elderly and middle aged and the general public.
