Education

When people think about education, they gradually think about the traditional school, and about their own personal experience. Education functions in all settings of modern society, however, and educational forms have changed over the years. During the industrial revolution, the advent of formal education undermined the authority of older people because older people's knowledge of farming, rural life, and crafts did not prove useful to young people working in factories in growing cities. During the mid-twentieth century, the first gerontologists saw lifelong learning as a rare experimental program and worried about the loss of the educational function of grandparents. Parents worried about entrusting their children's education to their own parents, fearing they would be out of touch with the rapid pace of social change. As retirement became commonplace and longevity provided more healthy years of leisure, many older persons looked for educational opportunities through special programs and at institutions of higher education. The advent of the information age brought many older persons into learning again with computer technology, though this time it was often grandchildren helping grandparents learn the new technologies.