Old People in Fairy Tales

Gray Heroes by Jane Yolen

I have always loved Jane Yolen's work. I find it especially appreciable now that I'm studying gerontology. Of course she would have edited a work specializing in multi-cultural stories about elder heroes.

It's unimaginable to me that this would be out of print, but apparently it is (that's a sarcastic tone I'm using there - I've studied enough on ageism to understand that many beautiful works relating to older people are undervalued).

I'm definitely putting this on my wish list for my birthday. I can see how it would be invaluable to examine the representation of old people in fairy tales, as fairy tales represent so many archetypes, which inform our subconscious cultural attitudes (such as ageism).

What do you think?

White House Conference on Aging

Yesterday, we had a great lecture about the Aging Network, which touched on the history of the AOA, Administration on Aging. The AOA, which oversees the Aging Network, was created as a result of the passage of the OAA, the Older American's Act in 1965. According to the site, the OAA:

The original legislation established authority for grants to States for community planning and social services, research and development projects, and personnel training in the field of aging.

Ever since the passage of the OAA and subsequent creation of the AOA in 1965, there has been a once-a-decade White House Conference on Aging. President Bush was notoriously absent from the most recent White House Conference on Aging, which was held in December, 2005. Instead of having a speaking at the conference, as all of his predecessors have done since its inception, President Bush was stumping the successful passage of the Medicare Part D law.

The website for the White House Conference on Aging is pretty thin on info... essentially a splash page that doesn't so much as highlight successes of conferences past. It does, however offer a webcast of the most recent conference... I find it more than mildly disturbing that the webcast is hosted via "Kaisernetwork.org." Can you say "conflict of interest" anyone?

The main takeaway from the White House Conference on Aging site is the executive summary the most recent, 2005, conference, which was entitled "The Booming Dynamics of Aging." Here's the direct link, should you prefer to copy and paste:

http://www.whcoa.gov/Final_Report_June_14nowater.doc

National Bureau of Economic Research

One of my questions about study on Universal Mid-Life Crisis seems is a little satisfied. I'd asked why economists were performing the study. What I meant by that was why economists and not psychologists, since it seems to be about a relatively "soft" topic of subjective states, as opposed to "hard" definable topics like numbers.

The study looks like it was done at the NBER via their

Here are some handy links:
http://www.nber.org/programs/ag/ - Great synopsis, state of the state-type overview of economics and aging in the "Program Report" on this page.

Also, you can sign up to receive a free email copy of the quarterly Bulletin on Aging and Health here

You can view the latest copies of the Bulletin here.

Finally, you can request a CD of 3 years' worth of related studies here.

Handy Glossary of Terms

I found this great glossary of terms while hunting for a good description of normative vs. interpretive perspectives.

http://website.lineone.net/~tmheath/glossary.htm

I like that this glossary was created by someone who was posting their notes and assignments while studying for their master's in Education. Great minds, I guess.