Overview of Obair agus imirt for Fifth and Sixth Class

This lesson focuses on work, retirement and income for older people.

Aims

The overall aim of this theme Obair agus imirt is to enable the child to understand that:

• We all can and want to take an active role in work and play
• The type and amount of work we do changes over life but never stops
• The nature and amount of play we do changes over life but never stops

The objectives of this lesson are to enable the child to:

• Understand the concept of retirement and explore other options for older people
• Learn about sources of retirement income
• Explore the impact of retirement on older people

Resources

For Activity 4 in this lesson, you will need to print out a copy of a worksheet Paying the bills that is available in the Online activities, in Things to do, Activity 1. The children may use a dictionary during the lesson.

You may need to introduce the following phrases: limited mobility, self-worth.

Lesson Content

Activity 1: Brainstorm - Work and play in the child's life

Revisit the concept of work as paid or unpaid and the fact that people of all ages work and play. Discuss work and play as it affects the children now and discuss how this will change throughout life, using a sequence of questions such as the following:

1. Do you work? Where - at school? helping at home?
2. Do you enjoy this work? Why or why not? How would you feel if you couldn't work, for example, if all your friends were coming to school every day and you were left at home?

   Possible answers include:
   Left behind: wouldn't know the latest facts, sports skills and so on. So, work is important for feeling of personal development and self-worth.
   Excluded: wouldn't see friends so often and might be left out of conversations. So, work is important for social reasons.
   Useless: not contributing - again, self-worth.
   No money, if they get pocket money for doing chores. So, work is a source of income.

3. What do you do in your free time? What pastimes and leisure activities do you enjoy?
4. Why do you enjoy these activities? Among other answers, elicit that enjoyment of leisure activities comes from the personal challenge, fun, feeling of participation and belonging.
5. How do you pay for these activities - do your parents contribute?
6. What would you like to work at when you grow up?
7. How will that work differ from the work you do now? Among other answers, elicit that work that adults do is usually full-time and that work tends to be the sole source of income for adults.
8. What do you think you will do in your free time when you are grown up?
9. How will those activities differ from the leisure activities you enjoy now? Possible answers include: As adults, they will not need supervision, they will be more independent and will be able to organise their own leisure activities; the children may also believe that adults tend to have more money to spend on leisure activities than children.
10. What will you work at when you are older, that is, in your 60s and 70s? Possible answers include: Voluntary work, tending a flower garden or vegetable garden, caring for grandchildren, DIY.
11. How will that work differ from the work you do now? Possible answers include: Work is less likely to be a source of income.
12. What do you think you will do in your free time when you are older?
13. What will be different about those activities from the leisure activities you enjoy now? Possible answers include: Reduced fitness or concentration or limited mobility may change ability to participate, but not necessarily stop participation; failing hearing and eyesight may curtail independence, but not necessarily; they are likely to have less money available to spend on leisure activities than as an adult - maybe, similar to the amount of money they have now as children.

Summarise: We work because it's enjoyable and rewarding and because it provides income. (Note: some children may not come from families where parents work.) We play for many reasons:

• Social: feelings of participation, inclusion
• Personal satisfaction: physical (sport) or mental (chess)
• Interests - bird watching, flower arranging
• Relaxation: read a book, play music or sing, yoga

Older people are no different - they need the same things from work and play.

Activity 2: Group work - Retirement

Divide the class into groups. Ask the groups to discuss each of the following questions and to share their thoughts with the class.

Note Early retirement is retiring before the age of 65 or 66 and involuntary retirement or enforced retirement is forcing workers to retire by the age of 65 or earlier. Depending on your class, you may wish to ask each group to find the meanings of the following words and phrases, using the dictionary if necessary: retirement, involuntary or enforced retirement, early retirement, redundancy, voluntary redundancy. Ask each group to make sentences with the words and to share with the class.

Conclude this activity by asking the groups to think of positive slogans that could be used on a poster to encourage active retirement. Share the slogans with the class and allow the children to vote on the best slogan.

You can extend this activity to an Art class, allowing the children to design and create a poster to encourage older people to join a local active retirement group. If you wish, you could invite a member of a local active retirement group into the classroom to review the posters and share his or her thoughts with the class.

Activity 3: Discussion - Retirement income

Start by asking the children about where older people get money - ask the children to list the sources of income older people may have; they include:

Part-time work
Pension - state pension, state contributory pension, work pension
Savings and investments
Grown-up children who are earning

Explain each of the different types of pensions, using the blackboard as required:

• Before 1909, there were no pensions available.
• Non-contributory pension - paid to people aged 66 years and older, this is a means-tested pension - that is, if an older person has significant other income, he or she will not receive this pension.
• Contributory old age pension - paid to people aged 66 years and older, who have enough social insurance contributions, that is, who have paid a tax, PRSI, for many years while working. Note that an older person can continue to work and receive a contributory old age pension. The contributory pension is somewhat higher than the non-contributory pension
• Retirement pension - paid to retired people aged 65 who have enough social insurance contributions (Pay Related Social Insurance - PRSI) paid. It applies for one year only, until the person reaches 66 years.

Ask children whether they think older people are likely to be well-off or poor. Explain that older people are likely to be poor, especially those who rely on non-contributory pensions, because these pensions have not increased in line with wages. Obviously not all older people are poor but in addition to not having enough money many older people are excluded, for a variety of reasons, from activities in which the rest of us take part. Reasons why older people are excluded from such activities include lack of transport, lack of access for people with physical disabilities, pace of activity is too fast for older people (for example, shopping in busy shopping centres). Exclusion is another form of poverty - discuss this concept with the children.

Activity 4: Worksheet - Managing on a retirement income

You may choose to complete, in the classroom, the worksheet Paying the bills that you will find in the Online activities in Things to do, Activity 1, as a follow-up to the previous activity on retirement income. The worksheet explores whether John and Mary Murphy can manage comfortably on their retirement income.

Distribute the worksheet Paying the bills printed from the Online activities in Things to do, Activity 1. Allow the children to study the worksheet and write answers to the questions. Here are possible answers to the questions on the worksheet.

1. It is always difficult to manage their money.
2. A contributory pension.
3. For example, one of John or Mary might need to go to hospital in Dublin and the other person might want to stay near the hospital.
4. For example, sell apple pies or vegetables at the local market; breed pups or kittens
5. Increase pension payments. It is society's responsibility to do this, because of the contribution made by older people to society throughout their lives; and also because society should provide for all of its members.
6. Their diet is quite healthy. The doctor told John to reduce his cholesterol, to keep his blood pressure down. Mary has problems with her teeth and finds it difficult to chew some foods.
7. Start saving. Develop a skill that can be used to work part-time in older age. Contacting the local TD and campaign for increased income for older people. Join an organisation that campaigns for older people.

Curriculum Links

This lesson provides opportunities for many cross-curricular activities and links directly to the curriculum for primary schools as follows:

Key Questions

The key questions for this lesson include:

1. How are older people different from you in how they feel about work and play?
2. Why do older people need an income?