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I think this is caused by how heavily age segregated our societies are, from education and child care to nursing homes and elder care.

pc86 11y ago
You're right this would be solved if we had babies in nursing homes and waited until someone was 80 to teach them calculus!
- danharaj 11y ago
  Or maybe child care centers and nursing homes could be colocated near public areas like parks and libraries. The old and the young are good for each other. And maybe people should feel comfortable pursuing further education no matter how old they are. Although that's not what i had in mind when i mentioned education. Grades: Grades are the segregation. We are conditioned from a young age to accept social structures that discourage socialization between people of different age groups. Studies have shown that children learn better when they are in groups comprising a range of ages instead of just a single age. Most people have an aversion towards camaraderie and integration with people who are significantly younger or older for way too long. Children are only supposed to have a few adult authority figures in their life until college, and even then it's weird to be friends with someone older than a grad student. When does age discrimination end? Pretty sure the article highlights evidence that it doesn't end. Alternatives? Not hard to imagine. In other societies past and present (and hopefully future) people of all ages have ample opportunity to make strong social connections with people of other ages. Our social structures actively discourage cohesion between age cohorts.
- true_religion 11y ago
  As an aside, I think that age-segregation in schooling results in behaviour problems. Teenagers want to take their behavioural cues from older children and young adults, but they simply don't have enough interaction with them so instead take their cues from what they believe to be true via mass media. Imagine how many fewer 15 year olds would ask "what can I do with calculus" if they had to brush shoulders with 20 year old engineering students and could visibly see what kind of projects you'd work on with a deeper mathematics background? Cross-polination programs do exist today, but its not the same thing as having it be systemic.
  - Negitivefrags 11y ago
    I totally agree with this. When I was young I lived in a very rural area and went to a school with only 20 children. It went from ages 5 to around 10. There was only one teacher and one classroom. I think a huge part of the advantage of a school like that is that the teacher from the very beginning is in the mindset that every child is going to be at a different stage and needs to be catered to individually. All the children were taught at their own pace and at their own level of ability. By the time I left that school I was happily doing work that was designed for children 2-3 years older at a regular school. I also had not had the drive to self-learn knocked out of me as seems to be common with kids from regular schools.

pc86 11y ago

You're right this would be solved if we had babies in nursing homes and waited until someone was 80 to teach them calculus!

danharaj 11y ago
Or maybe child care centers and nursing homes could be colocated near public areas like parks and libraries. The old and the young are good for each other. And maybe people should feel comfortable pursuing further education no matter how old they are. Although that's not what i had in mind when i mentioned education. Grades: Grades are the segregation. We are conditioned from a young age to accept social structures that discourage socialization between people of different age groups. Studies have shown that children learn better when they are in groups comprising a range of ages instead of just a single age. Most people have an aversion towards camaraderie and integration with people who are significantly younger or older for way too long. Children are only supposed to have a few adult authority figures in their life until college, and even then it's weird to be friends with someone older than a grad student. When does age discrimination end? Pretty sure the article highlights evidence that it doesn't end. Alternatives? Not hard to imagine. In other societies past and present (and hopefully future) people of all ages have ample opportunity to make strong social connections with people of other ages. Our social structures actively discourage cohesion between age cohorts.
true_religion 11y ago
As an aside, I think that age-segregation in schooling results in behaviour problems. Teenagers want to take their behavioural cues from older children and young adults, but they simply don't have enough interaction with them so instead take their cues from what they believe to be true via mass media. Imagine how many fewer 15 year olds would ask "what can I do with calculus" if they had to brush shoulders with 20 year old engineering students and could visibly see what kind of projects you'd work on with a deeper mathematics background? Cross-polination programs do exist today, but its not the same thing as having it be systemic.
- Negitivefrags 11y ago
  I totally agree with this. When I was young I lived in a very rural area and went to a school with only 20 children. It went from ages 5 to around 10. There was only one teacher and one classroom. I think a huge part of the advantage of a school like that is that the teacher from the very beginning is in the mindset that every child is going to be at a different stage and needs to be catered to individually. All the children were taught at their own pace and at their own level of ability. By the time I left that school I was happily doing work that was designed for children 2-3 years older at a regular school. I also had not had the drive to self-learn knocked out of me as seems to be common with kids from regular schools.