Optimal Aging Through Research at GSA

As the only SFSU gerontology student at last year’s Gerontological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting , I became (by default) GSA Campus Ambassador, which involved promoting GSA membership and activities, re-activating our gerontology honor society (Beta Xi chapter of Sigma Phi Omega), obtaining Careers in Aging Week (CIAW) award, etc.  Eager to retire from Ambassador duties, I was pleased when seven classmates joined me at last month’s GSA annual meeting in New Orleans (birthplace of Benjamin Button, who looked like an old man at birth, so he was abandoned on the porch of a nursing home and then he kept growing younger)!

President’s Welcome Reception & Exhibit Hall Opening – enjoyed Mardi Gras and muffuletta

What a difference a year makes (getting wiser with age and experience): last year, I was ambivalent about starting over again with a new career and now I feel more confident about this change. Instead of being all over the place like last year, I am now more focused on health promotion, home- and community-based services to support aging in place, and elder rights protection. 

Optimal v. Successful Aging

Adapting to change has a lot to do with Optimal Aging, the theme of this year’s GSA annual meeting.  According to The Optimal Aging Manual author Dr. Kevin O’Neil, the definition of optimal aging is necessarily subjective as it takes into account psychosocial factors like resiliency, adaptability, good self-esteem, positive attitude, self-efficacy, as well as spirituality. 

Unlike Rowe & Kahn’s 1997 definition of successful aging (based on avoidance of disease and disability, the maintenance of high physical and cognitive function, and sustained engagement), optimal aging recognizes that people can age well in spite of disabilities or chronic conditions.  As Dr. Kenneth Brummel-Smith wrote in his 2007 Annals of Long Term Care articles on Optimal Aging, “almost all older people are interested in a life that is meaningful, fulfilling, and relatively independent,” and “much of optimal aging is under the individual’s control; however, ideally, society provides support and assistance in helping its members achieve optimal aging."     

Successful Aging: Successful for Whom? (HS) panel took exception to a universal application of Rowe & Kahn’s criteria for successful aging, which might be more appropriate to non-Latino white Americans.  Basing successful aging on physical function has the effect of alienating minorities who experience higher burden of chronic disease due to multiple stress (weathering/allostatic load) over their life course.  For example, today’s cohort of African-Americans age 50+ lived the dehumanizing experience of structured and systematic disadvantage from Jim Crow laws that separated races and restricted housing, education, employment and other opportunities.  Because their social networks are protective in persevering through adversities, Kia Jeffers proposed defining “successful” according to social context and self-evaluation (self-perceptions guide behavior). 

In The Gerontologist’s December 2013 article, “Perceptions of Successful Aging Among Diverse Elders With Late-Life Disability," a diverse group of On Lok seniors in San Francisco perceived Successful Aging as accepting limitations in ADLs/IADLs; adapting to optimize functions that are important to them (e.g., “if I cannot walk, I’ll use a walker.  If I can’t use the walker, . . . I will use the wheelchair”); trusting in God; and shifting priorities (focus on positive)—rather than rejecting their new reality by clinging to the notion of successful aging as being forever young or middle-age, which is arguably ageist. 

Ageism

“Standing in the way of optimal aging, however, is that familiar foe: ageism.”

-- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services blog post, Ageism: How Negative Stereotypes of Aging Impede an Inclusive Society

The term ageism (discrimination based on age) was coined in 1968 by Robert Butler, the subject of a new book (Robert N. Butler, MD: Visionary of Healthy Aging) by Andy Achenbaum (no-show at this year’s meeting).  Chronic stress from ageism can accelerate subjective aging (age identity), or make one feel older than chronological age, by lowering both positive affect and sense of control.

 

Chronological Age Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story: Current Directions in Perceptions of Aging Research (BSS) looked at older adults’ subjective perceptions of aging and consequences for their functioning.  In Subjective Aging and Cognitive Functioning: A 10-Year Prospective Study, Yannick Stephan (photo above) found that more stressors and poor health make people feel “older,” which is a risk factor for cognitive deficits.  “Younger” subjective aging is associated with lower mortality risk, better life satisfaction, better self-rated health, and better physical functioning.  In When Feeling Different Pays Off:  How Older Adults can Counteract Negative Age Stereotypes, David Weiss discussed older adults’ self-protective responses of distancing, differentiation, and shifting to alternative age identities (e.g., generation).  

Social Psychological Perspectives on the Implications of Ageism for Health and Health Care Professions (BSS) symposium by Age UK researchers included Hannah Swift’s Being Old and Ill Across Different Countries: Social Status, Age Identification and Older People's Subjective Health: in European countries where older people are perceived as having lower social status, strongly identifying with the old age group is related to higher levels of subjective ill health; in countries where the status of older people is perceived as higher, there was no relationship between age identification and self-rated health.  (UK law includes age as "protected characteristic" in its Equality Act of 2010, though this ban on age discrimination in the provision of goods and services does not extend to financial services.)

In An Applied Test of the Contact Hypothesis: Exploring the Effects of Contact with the Elderly on Care Workers’ Attitudes, Libby Cuthbert found that while positive contact between age groups reduces prejudice (i.e., less explicit ageism, less dehumanization, and more empathy), outcomes of negative contact (more dehumanization) were more enduring than positive.

Meeting Together

GSA Executive Director James Appleby welcomed 3,300 meeting registrants

GSA President Dr. Larry Rubenstein announced GSA will host 2017 IAGG (International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics) meeting in San Francisco! 

Keynote speaker Bruce Clark, a marketing specialist focused on baby boomers and mature consumers, set the agenda for GSA attendees of the world’s need for our “expert voices” to counter “sound-bite” mentality.  In this blog post, I’ll attempt to provide bite-size expert voices. 

Dr. Rubenstein, a marathon runner in all 50 states, shows off fancy foot moves.

 

2012 Kleemeier Award recipient Eileen Crimmins of USC presented lecture, Lifespan and Healthspan: Past, Present and Promise.  She concluded that increasing lifespan and healthspan should not depend only on scientific discoveries, but opportunities to substantially increase life expectancy with behavioral changes, improvements in early life circumstances, and reductions in health disparities.

Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP)

Dr. Brummel-Smith identified the evidence-based CDSMP as a societal approach to optimal aging.

Living Well with Chronic Illness: Comparing Research and Policy Developments in Australia, Canada, U.S. and China (BSS) – Living Well with Chronic Illness refers to the well-being paradox, or one's satisfaction (subjective) in face of poor health (objective).  CDSMP is offered in 25 countries.  In Australia, the policy focus is on younger participants rather than older adults.  Just the opposite in the U.S., where ARRA (American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009) provided funding to implement CDSMP, as an initiative led by the U.S. Administration on Aging, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

National Dissemination of Evidence-Based Health Promotion for Older Adults: Successes, Challenges and Impact (SRPP) symposium with Marcia Ory (Texas A&M), Janet Frank (UCLA), Kristie Kulinski (NCOA), and Michele Boutaugh (ACL).  Discussant Michele Boutaugh mentioned that grant funding is not a strategy for expansion, but we need to build delivery into healthcare (both referrals and funding) for sustainability.

Last year’s GSA President Nancy Whitelaw of the National Council on Aging (NCOA) collaborated with CDSMP developer Kate Lorig and Texas A&M researchers Marcia Ory and Matthew Lee Smith, in the national evaluation of CDSMP in the U.S. 

Unbeknownst to me while at GSA meeting, California Association of Area Agencies on Aging (C4A)—which held its annual meeting at the same time in Los Angeles—presented San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services an award to San Francisco Healthier Living Coalition for sustainability! Woo-hoo!

Self-Management of Disability and Optimal Aging: Current Trends in Research, Policy & Practice (SRPP) symposium included Outcomes of CDSMP for Persons with Disabilities presentation by Phillip McCallion, who found CDSMP participation improved outcomes for persons with disabilities that significantly impair daily functioning.  His next study will examine persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities participating in CDSMP adaptation, as there exist versions of CDSMP tailored to particular groups.

  

Aging in place

Aging in Multiple Environmental Settings:  What Factors Contribute to Optimal Aging? (BSS)  Check out presenter Anne Glass’ Elder Cohousing website! 

The Village Model: A Unique Organizational Approach to Fostering Aging in Place? (SRPP)  The Gerontologist’s December 2013 issue published “A Tale of Two Community Initiatives for Promoting Aging in Place: Similarities and Differences in the National Implementation of NORC Programs and Villages" article authored by panelists Emily Greenfield, Andrew Scharlach, Amanda Lehning, and Carrie Graham.  This research team also created a companion website, Aging and Community: A National Study of NORC Programs and Villages.

Theoretical and Empirical Developments in Understanding Aging in Place & Relocation (SRPP) covered continuum of care from homeless to housing to assisted living to skilled nursing facility.  People make choices based on a cost-benefit analysis of where they are to alternatives that consider value of stability/status quo; the most vulnerable are those “stuck in place.”

Inspiration

At last year’s GSA meeting, I really didn’t know anyone other than SFSU professors but found it easy to connect with other attendees.  This year’s meeting was like a reunion as I got re-acquainted with my favorite gerontologists! 

Bobbie Yee with Giyeon Kim, who chaired Mental Health Disparities in Racially and Ethnically Diverse Populations (BSS) symposium.  At this year’s American Psychological Association meeting, Bobbie received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the field of racial and ethnic minority psychology.  Giyeon is mentee of Bobbie’s hubby David Chiriboga, who received last year’s GSA Minority Mentorship Award. Wow, Gerontology Power Couple Award should go to Bobbie & David J.

Task Force on Minority Issues in Gerontology (TFMIG)’s Outstanding Mentorship Award Presentation & Reception, sponsored by Senior Service America, Inc. (SSAI) - sliders

SSAI Executive Director Tony Sarmiento with Keith Whitfield, co-author of Handbook on Minority Aging.  Tony also hosted Concept Coffee, with continental breakfast (beignets), to discuss career path options.  

ESPO Awards Presentation & Reception – eat a rainbow of veggies!

 

Tara McMullen spoke about Self Advocacy: Finding Your Balance at ESPO Presidential Symposium Total Professionalism in the Emerging Stages.  At last year’s GSA meeting, Tara had inspired me to consider returning to public service after hearing her speak about her policy/advocacy work at CMS, so it was cool seeing her again in person to thank her as I had just secured my internship with U.S. Administration for Community Living!

Humanities & the Arts Committee Open Meeting & Reception – I adopt SEA FOOD diet:  I SEE FOOD & eat it!

SFSU representation 

Classmates Maggie and Diane with SFSU Gerontology Professor & Program Coordinator Brian de Vries, after he delivered his presentation on Resistance and Resilience Amongst Adversity: Finding Meaning Among LGBT Boomers.  As second-year graduate students, we think he’s the coolest because he’s the only faculty member who’s ok when we call him by his first name, Brian J. 

SFSU Social Work Professor Rashmi Gupta took a break at ESPO lounge.  Professor Gupta co-chaired two symposia, Caregiving and Culture: Richness in Variations and Values (which included Brian’s presentation on Expectations of Care-Receipt: A Focus on LGBT Persons, and Harry Moody scheduled as discussant but was no-show) and Home Care of the Aging and the Dying: Challenges and Issues of Family Caregiving in Asian Countries (which included her own presentation, Health Care Decision-making and Well-being among Older Adults and Caregivers in Allahabad).

SFSU Gerontology Professor Darlene Yee (missing from this year’s GSA meeting because she was attending CANHR’s 30^th anniversary celebration) will co-chair GSA annual meeting in 2015, which marks the 50^th anniversary of the Older Americans Act!

Exhibit hall & poster session

 

At poster session, National Association for Professional Gerontologists (NAPG) Executive Director Donna Schafer stood in for SFSU Gerontology Professor Anabel Pelham to discuss Assessing Gerontology Competencies: A Pilot Study – which involved graduate gerontology students (including yours truly) responding to essay questions in this research to measure competencies, as part of a larger plan to credential gerontologists.

Dear Aunt Polly and Uncle Pete are therapeutic older couple dolls created by a psychiatrist.

Judy Berry founded Lakeview Ranch, which provides specialized dementia care in rural Minnesota.  When trained staff provide holistic and humane care to persons with dementia—tending to not only their physical needs, but emotional and spiritual needs as well, they avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and overmedications.  Judy also founded Dementia Care Foundation, a non-profit to help low-income seniors gain access to specialized dementia care.

GSA & NIH (National Institutes of Health) booths offered useful research publications.

  

Geroscience: Societal Implications of Delaying Aging

This meeting was a follow-up to last month’s Trans-NIH Geroscience summit that explored the physiological effects of aging as a common risk factor for chronic diseases affecting the aging population.  Do aging biology (nature) or lifestyle (nurture) factors cause chronic disease?  Cancer, diabetes and obesity are found in younger populations, so it’s not like aging is a disease to attack.  The Fall 2013 issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (now included as GSA member benefit!) is devoted to The Longevity Dividend: Geroscience Meets Geropolitics. 

Jay Olshansky and other geroscientists believe the period of healthy life can be extended by slowing the biological processes of aging, and hope to compress the infirmities of old age into a shorter time frame at the end of life. 

 

Aubrey de Grey delivered his expert opinion:  “I think we have a 50% chance of adding 30 years to seniors’ healthy lifespans within 25 years by damage repair, subject to funding.”

 Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez (Let the Good Times Roll)

The GSA meeting venue was split between Marriott (near French Quarter) and Sheraton (Central Business District) on opposite sides of Canal Street,  so we shuffled back and forth for sessions.  Food at both hotels quite good (better than last year's convention center food at San Diego).

 

Sampled Creole sauces in French Quarter store 

Took a break from information overload during poster session to visit nearby Lafayette Park. 

Lafayette Park’s statue of Ben Franklin (1706-1790) with his retirement planning advice:  “Save while you are young to spend while you are old; one penny saved is better than two pennies earned.” 

Between sessions, I stood in line to order hearty jambalaya for take-out at 75-year-old Mother’s Restaurant.

Rain on parade

As a thrifty graduate student, I took a red-eye flight out of SFO with stopover in ORD (Chicago) before arriving in MSY (New Orleans) to check into India House at $20 per night--just two miles from the crowds at GSA meeting’s official hotels at $200 per night.  

Smile-Traveling with Buddha mural in dorm room 

Love rolls thru. . . love your life 

The Scream in psychedelic colors

My daily two-mile walk from hostel to GSA meeting sites included passing by New Orleans Council on Aging (NOCOA), local Area Agency on Aging, located on 4^th floor of building with broken elevator.  “The best age is the age you are!”

Po-Boy ending

After last session ended on Sunday, I took the trolley over to Oak Street Po-Boy Festival! 

Po-boy recipes

Live music outdoors in sunny afternoon 

Panko and slaw on sweet potato waffle 

Lafayette Cemetery founded 1833, on National Register of Historic Places

Age-less

This month I spent two full Saturdays enrolled in a Diversity and Social Justice course on Ageism and Adultism.  Rather than compete in Oppression Olympics, these –isms are forms of age-based oppression that can result from segregation of older adults and young people who each become subordinated into “the other.”  The first Saturday (diversity education) assignment was a rhetorical triangle analysis of how the media represents youth and elders; and the second Saturday (social justice action) assignment was a paper explaining how I would intervene to stop age-based oppression.  Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr., I have a dream that we will one day live in a world where people will not be judged by their age, but by the content of their character . . . so here’s my call to action for a healthy age-less society:

Breaking the age barrier:  This consciousness-raising course reminded me of my bargain trip to Malta just months before it joined the EU in 2004.  Merhba (hello in Malti)! Unbeknownst to me, I had joined Grand Circle Travel, which served members of AARP and continues to cater to the age 50+ set.  In Malta, entrance fees were waived for seniors, who apparently were subsidizing the cost of my tour package because the tour director often had to single me out to purchase my adult admission ticket (“I’ll pay for this one”) everywhere we went—and sometimes I got away with youth admission! As a teetotaler, I was a popular dining companion giving away my complimentary glasses of wine during lunch and dinner (night cap).  Dining table discussions centered on health concerns.  Early to bed, early to rise, my senior travel companions would remind each other to take their meds during breakfast.  One senior sent this photo of “independent, intrepid” me--our group's lone younger adult wandering up Mt. Etna, the largest volcano in Europe, during a day trip to Sicily. 

                                                                                       

Though my grandmother had dementia, she remained physically strong and energetic into her 90s.  But within weeks of my grandmother’s reluctant move into a nursing home, we noticed sudden changes in her like weight loss, lack of appetite, slower gait, uncharacteristic quietness, etc.  When we discussed our concerns with the nursing home staff, they assured us that these symptoms were “just part of normal aging so nothing to worry about.”  In my grandmother’s case, nothing was done while her condition deteriorated until she died of pneumonia.  I believe the nursing staff’s stereotyping and negative attitudes toward aging as a process of “inevitable decline” permeates American culture, which equates good health with youth, and thus fails to value health promotion among older adults.

Ageism affects how we treat older adults.  Internalized ageism affects our own behavior as we age, our will to live and even how long we live.  Based on the Cycle of Liberation, here are steps I have taken, and plan to take, to stop age-based oppression:

1.  Waking up:  The nursing home staff’s apparent ignorance of my grandmother’s true health condition (which I strongly suspect was depression, as my grandmother always said she'd rather die than live in a nursing home) and inaction (perhaps neglect) was the critical incident that caused me to really challenge assumptions about what is “normal” aging versus serious health concerns that require appropriate medical attention. 

2.  Getting ready:  My consciousness-raising included learning from gerontology courses taught by Chief Nursing Officer Dr. C at the Jewish Home (Aging Processes) and Executive Director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform  (Ethical and Legal Issues in Aging), which helped clarify my perspective.  After my grandmother’s experience, I simply wanted to avoid nursing homes, but Dr. C’s Aging Processes class, which included a field visit to the five-star rated Jewish Home, challenged me to see how culture change is possible to empower nursing home residents to maintain or even improve their biological, psychological and social functioning. 

I will further my gerontology studies so I can continue learning while challenging misinformation by health care providers who may not be adequately trained to understand the specific conditions of old age.  For example, weight loss through dieting is not recommended for older adults, who tend to lose muscle mass in addition to fat.  Studies suggest that being a little overweight is actually healthful in later years, with a little fat “reserve” (e.g., on hips and buttocks of pear-shaped bodies) to be used in case of illness or padding in the case of a fall.

3.  Reaching out:  Knowledge from my Aging Processes class has empowered me to speak up to challenge negative attitudes toward aging and the aged.  As I often hear laypersons stereotype conditions like hypertension and central obesity as part of the “normal” aging process, I respond by pointing to studies showing that they can be prevented through lifestyle and environmental interventions.  Successful health promotion involves sharing information about the realities of aging that can affect sensation and perception so we can recognize when and how to make adaptations and accommodations to these changes.  For example, it is liberating to acknowledge vision or hearing loss so one can take corrective actions (e.g., obtain eyeglasses or hearing aids), which help maintain a sense of balance and reduce risk for falls that could otherwise jeopardize one’s health and ability to age in community.  

Jessica and Kayi of American Red Cross’ Asian Community Preparedness with high school student volunteers visit Ageism and Adultism class to discuss their intergenerational disaster preparedness program, Youth for Chinese Elderly. 

 

4.  Building community:  Working with others of different ages toward a common purpose may decrease ageism.  For example, American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter’s Youth for Chinese Elderly program connects bilingual Chinese youth volunteers with monolingual Chinese elders to promote disaster preparedness, which fosters mutual caring between generations.

Since health status is a reflection of lifelong habits and influences or life course cumulative disadvantage, I support intergenerational health promotion and disease prevention programs—particularly as the rapid rise of childhood obesity places the current younger generation increasingly at risk for developing chronic health conditions (heart disease, diabetes) at earlier ages and even premature death, so the younger generation can learn from the experiences of older adults.  We find common ground in the universal experience of aging.  As time goes on, most of us (who survive premature death) eventually will find ourselves as older adults so everyone is a stakeholder in intergenerational health programs that increase quality of life for all ages. 

5.  Coalescing:  Through a generous grant from San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services, I participate in the Healthier Living Coalition with allies to promote the evidence-based Healthier Living-Chronic Disease Self-Management Program workshops that are offered to adults with chronic conditions and their caregivers, which attracts participants from age 18+.  Organizing these free workshops presents an incredible opportunity to address the intersectionality of age, disability, gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, etc. to reduce health disparities in our diverse communities. 

This month’s SDA general meeting focus was on emergency preparedness for seniors and people with disabilities.  Carla Johnson from Mayor’s Office of Disability demonstrates $4,000 evacuation chair.

6.  Creating change and maintaining:  I want to improve quality of health care by creating culture change for person-centered care and gerontology training among health care providers who serve older adults.  As there is so much to do and so little time, I spread my time among different organizations involved in advocacy (Community Living Campaign, Gray Panthers, Senior and Disability Action), gerontology education (American Society on Aging, Gerontological Society of America) and health promotion for all ages (Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative, Healthier Living Coalition). 

LaborFest:  age-less Medicare and intergenerational literacy

Every July I look forward to LaborFest, which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year.  Before studying gerontology, I worked in the employee benefits field in the design, funding and administration of employer-sponsored retirement and health/welfare plans.  As my work involved consulting with employers on cost-effective ways to manage health care costs, I developed an interest in promoting health and wellness programs that emphasize self-care.    

From left: Steve Zeltzer, LaborFest founder; Charlie Andrews, healthcare writer; Brad Wiedemier, SEIU-UHW board member; and Steve Early, labor journalist. 

Today’s LaborFest program included a discussion of Healthcare, Wellness Programs and Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Labor.  The panel discussed the impact of cuts in healthcare as a conscious program of downsizing toward privatization, especially services to the vulnerable poor and elderly: 10% cut in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates (effect is actually around 30% for nursing homes when retroactive liability included), 8% cut in In-Home Supportive Services.  They also characterized wellness programs as part of a cost-shifting trend (“if you have a health problem, you pay more”) because of the emphasis on individual responsibility over social and environmental factors, and the effect of cafeteria plans as pitting the “healthy young” against older persons with chronic conditions.  Instead of the individual mandate in “capitalist-controlled” Obamacare, they favor single-payer, Medicare for all ages.

Maestra’s DVD cover shows army of uniformed volunteer literacy teachers marching with oversized pencils symbolizing the triumph of education when the 1961 Cuban National Literacy Campaign wiped out illiteracy within one year--remarkable when one considers that almost a quarter of the Cuban nation was illiterate prior to the start of Revolution on July 26, 1953.  

In 2001, I traveled to Cuba with Global Exchange to study its universal healthcare and education systems.  So immediately following the Healthcare discussion, I stayed put in the auditorium for a screening of Catherine Murphy’s Maestra (Teacher), an empowering documentary about the 1961 Cuban National Literacy Campaign that mobilized 250,000 volunteers to teach 707,000 Cubans of all ages how to read and write (though the film doesn’t mention teaching propaganda), which meant freedom—and especially female liberation just two years after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.  Almost half of the volunteer teachers were secondary and high school students, the majority were females who left their urban homes (one forged her father’s signature on her permission slip) for the first time to teach in the countryside where they also worked alongside campesinos in the fields.  It was so beautiful to hear (actually I read the film’s English subtitles) from one teacher, who volunteered at age 7 to teach an illiterate 58-year-old man: “He never treated me like a child, nor I treated him like an old man.  We were teacher and student.”  Another volunteer mentioned that older students were proud to have their own teacher, instead of being ashamed to be taught by a young person.  In 1962, UNESCO certified Cuba as free from illiteracy. 

Maestra filmmaker Catherine and Cuban social psychologist Norma Guillard, who is featured in the documentary sharing her experience as a 15-year-old literacy volunteer in Cuba.  I found Catherine age-less, looking pretty much the same as when we were on a Global Exchange Reality Tour of a very polarized Venezuela in November 2003, during the attempted recall of President Hugo Chavez, who was implementing his Bolivarian Revolution (similar to Cuban Revolution).  Catherine grew up close to her grandmother from Havana, where Catherine studied during Cuba's Special Period in the 1990s.  

Maestra panel included college educators who discussed the privatization of community colleges like the state’s de-funding of Older Adults and lifelong education programs (SB 173) in favor of a triage-like strategic plan that focuses on training a workforce for corporate employers, instead of higher education for all. 

Catherine, Norma and Steve are all smiles.  To learn more about literacy as a social justice issue, check out Catherine's The Literacy Project. 

Old like All, My old like smile?

In the service learning component of my introductory gerontology class, I volunteered with Project SHINE (Students Helping In the Naturalization of Elders) as an ESL Citizenship Coach to 30th Street Senior Center participants from Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, China and India.  I found dictation amusing: for example, the classroom instructor would dictate, “All people want to be free” and a senior would write, “Old people one to be free,” then I would politely correct, “All, not Old” and “want, not one.”  In my reflection paper, I wrote: 

I value my SHINE experience because coaching ESL reminded me of my own roots.  My parents escaped Communist China to immigrate to Hawaii, as adult refugees with no knowledge of the English language.  English was also my second language so we were all learning English—singing along with the Carpenters, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, etc.  I remember singing the opening of "The Sounds of Silence," incorrectly as, “Hello darkness, smile friend” when the lyrics are really, “Hello darkness, my old friend.”  Repeat correction:  “My old, not smile.”  I actually like both versions :-).