This lesson encourages the children to think about what life will be like for them in about 60 years time. Through a combination of a learning strategies, the lesson explores changes that may happen in Ireland and in particular, what impact the increase in the number of older people in Ireland will have on society. The lesson also considers again the concept of retirement and looks at some of the key factors that affect how happy older people are in old age.
The overall aim of the theme Nuair a bheidh mé aosta is to encourage the children to:
The objectives of this lesson are to enable the children to:
For Activity 3 in this lesson, the children will need writing materials. You may want to explain the following words: multicultural society, national budget, mobility.
| Lesson plan | Finish
the sentence Discussion Discussion Role-play |
By
2060, there will be a change in.... What population changes will happen in Ireland? What makes us happy? Older, wiser and full of advice |
| Online activities | Pop-up facts | Being
older in Ireland |
Creative writing Worksheet Internet activity |
I'm alive and well in 2060 Older workers Older people and the Internet |
|
Survey Survey Project |
What matters to older people? Important changes in the 20th century A new product for older people |
Organise the children in a circle, preferably where they can all see each other. Explain that the objective of the exercise is to think ahead to what life will be like in Ireland when they are old, for example, in their sixties and seventies. Ask each child to complete the following sentence: "By 2060 there will be changes in..." For example, "by 2060, there will be changes in air travel - fares will be much cheaper and there will be a lot more smaller airports." Encourage the children to keep the focus on Ireland and to consider political changes, changes to urban and rural areas, changes in work, changes in technology etc. Write every contribution on the blackboard.
When each child has contributed, discuss the suggestions on the blackboard. Think about the impact of each suggestion on the lives of the older people - which at that stage, will include the children themselves. In addition to suggestions from the children, you may also like to include some of the following (if not already mentioned):
Ask the children how they can prepare themselves for these changes and what society should be doing to prepare everyone. For example, advances in technology may be mentioned - discuss the importance for everyone to keep up to date with changing technology but also the responsibility of the state (the government) to make sure that money is available for education and training of adults, to help them keep up with changing technology. You could then discuss the challenges faced by the older people today with the use of computers, for example - most people in their 60s and 70s did not have access to computers but now are dealing with computers in many ways e.g. scanning of products in shops, all information produced by the tax office and banks is computerised, phone/electricity bills are generated by a computer, most household products are driven by a computer chip, etc. Should there be special technology training for older people?
There is a creative writing exercise on this theme in the Online activities, in Have a go, Activity 1.
Ask the children to answer or guess the answer to the following questions:
What percentage of the population today is over 65? They may already know that there are around 414,000 older people, approximately 11% of the population.
What percentage of the population is currently under 20 years old? Approximately 33%.
Are there going to be changes in the population of Ireland in the next 20 to 50 years? Yes, the percentage of older people will increase and younger people will decrease. See the table below, at the end of this activity, for details.
Why will these changes happen? Some reasons include: in the 1950s, there was a lot of emigration of younger adults out of Ireland - these people would now be the older people in Ireland but most have not returned to Ireland. Hence, the proportion of older people in Ireland is currently significantly less than the European average, which is around 15%. This emigration was then followed by a baby boom in the 60s and 70s - these people will be reaching retirement age from 2020 onwards. And finally there has been decrease in average family size in recent decades, so fewer babies are being born.
What effect will the increase in the number have? Allow the children to suggest answers. Here are some suggestions that may be helpful:
Increased pensions - who will pay for these if there are fewer people of working age. What do we need to do to prepare for the higher pension fund required? Note that in 1999 the government set aside some of the current budget surplus, which arose during the Celtic Tiger period, to fund the future pension bill of public servants (those paid directly by the government) and others. If necessary, explain how pensions are funded (see the theme Work and play if necessary). Ask the children whether they think that those at work should be expected to/have a duty to contribute more tax to fund the pensions of older people. Look at the Online activities in this theme, in Take a look, for some related facts.
Impact on health system - we will need more hospital beds and more long-stay beds - this will have health funding implications.
More social care will be required - ideally, older people should be cared for in the community as long as possible. But there will be fewer carers of younger age, due to the demographic changes. Older parents will be less likely to live with or near their adult children. It is likely that more older people will be living alone - the figure is likely to go from 1 in 4 (25%) to 4 in 10 (40%) older people living alone, which is the current European average - what will be impact of that?
Changes in regional patterns of ageing- for example, there is likely to be big increase in older people in the Eastern Health Board area (Counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow) whereas currently the proportion of older people is greater in western counties.
Voting - will older people become a strong voice in elections - will they become a powerful lobby?
Transport - what changes will be required in public transport - e.g. in rural areas?
Budget priorities - will there be a transfer of budget priorities from young to old e.g. the focus at the moment is on investing in primary, secondary and third level education - will some of this funding move to funding activities, including education, for older people?
Who will be working? Perhaps more older people will be working - see the Online activities, in Take a look, for information on what has happened in the past. A skill shortage in Ireland is predicted, so society might want older people to remain working longer. We may need to reskill/retrain older people, make the work-place more older-people friendly, and perhaps introduce more flexible and part-time work. Also, older women still work mainly in the home but in the future they may want to work outside the home, given that more of these women currently work outside the home, whereas the previous generation of women worked in the home.
The table below gives population data for 1996 and predictions for 2016 and 2056. Note that in addition to a simple increase in the number of older people, the number of older people over the age of 80 is also predicted to rise from 2% to 8% of the overall population during this period - a four-fold increase. Ask the children to think about the impact of that increase.
| Current and predicted population figures | ||||
| 0-19 years | 20-65 years (at work) |
Over 65 years | Over 80 years* | |
| 1996 | 33% | 56% | 11% | 2% |
| 2016 | 27% | 59% | 14% | 3% |
| 2056 | 22% | 51% | 27% | 8% |
| *Note that the figure for over 65 years includes people over 80 also. | ||||
Ask the children to:
Discuss the contents of each list with the class. If you wish, (depending on your class size and the amount of time available), identify the most common items on each list. The suggestions may include being healthy, being wealthy (having enough money), having material possessions (perhaps expressed as "being able to watch TV/play with my playstation all day") etc. You may like to share your own top five with the class.
Next, ask the children to think about what they would not like to happen when they are old. For example, ask each child to finish the sentence When I am old, I would not like.... For example, "when I am old I would not like to have to use a stick to walk". Alternatively, you can ask the children to write down some ideas and then share the ideas with the class.
Write the ideas on the blackboard, grouping the ideas into related concepts. For example, you may have the following groups:
Ask the children what they think are the key concerns of older people today. At this stage, choose one of the following:
Some research completed recently in Ireland showed that although income and social contact (loneliness factor) are important aspects that affect the overall well-being of older people, health remains the most important factor. Healthier people are psychologically better off - that is, they feel better and are happier. In particular, mobility is a key factor that determines how well an older person feels - the more mobile (and therefore the more independent) an older person is, the better the older person feels.
Ask the children to think up of a few good slogans to emphasise that mobility and good physical health is the key factor in the overall well-being of the older person. For example, Be active, be happy; Health is wealth; Go for life; Getting older? - stay active, stay alive.
Discuss with the children what factors affect a person's health and mobility in older life. In addition to suggestions on healthy eating, healthy living, plenty of exercise, and no smoking or substance abuse, you can also share these facts with your class:
Organise some role-play scenarios, based on the topics discussed in this lesson. Encourage the children to introduce humour, without ageism, to the drama, if possible, and focus on older people advising younger people on how to grow old, healthy and happy. Here are some suggested scenario:
Discuss the role-play, noticing any ageist attitudes that surfaced during the activity.
This lesson provides opportunities for many cross-curricular activities and links directly to the curriculum for primary schools as follows:
| SPHE | Myself and wider world | Developing citizenship |
| Drama | Drama to explore feelings, knowledge and ideas | Exploring
and making drama |
The key questions for this lesson include: