Thirdcloud Publications Surf City Strand Mag January 2016

Learning more about aging and what to expect helps everyone to resist the many inaccurate and negative stereotypes associated with aging—that education needs to begin in school at the primary grade levels and continue throughout. Critical to this educational effort is building intergenerational bridges. who disregard the harm and importance to our older community. The idea is simply for student’s to demonstrate their own resourcefulness and articulate these values alongside our more experienced community. In short, we want students to become advocates for public health—we hope it will someday be their own. We all need to avoid using terms and expressions that may perpetuate ageism. In other words, we can’t depersonalize older adults or ourselves by referring to them generically as “the elderly” or “our seniors.” On the side of vehicles we actually are marginalizing older adults with phrases like “Seniors On The Go.” We need to shift our own paradigm. The community should actively support organizations that address ageism—we all need to be part of the solution, so speak up about ageist language and images that marginalize or disrespect older adults. Our Community Service Commission needs to develop an educational curriculum to be brought into and taught in the school system. They should create a qualified ambassador delegation that includes health professionals and individuals responsible for helping our primary school students to understand the negative ways in which older adults are portrayed in news programs, commercials and television shows. We can help these young students to connect the curriculum values with student letter campaigns to editors and producers

Thirdcloud Publications Surf City Strand Mag January 2016 | Page 28