Text Only Version
AGING IN AMERICA
COR ll0-J - SUMMER, 1999
SYLLABUS
University of Southern Maine
Bailey Hall 405 - Mon, Tues, Weds 8:15 - 11:30am
 
E. Michael Brady 400-B Bailey Hall 780-5312 mbrady@usm.maine.edu
Carol Lynn Davis 4th Flr Tower, Bailey Hall 780-5068 cldavis@usm.maine.edu
 
Course Description Course Requirements
Course Goals Other Course Policies
Required Readings Topical Outline and Course Outline
Periodicals in the USM Library
 
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The aim of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview of issues surrounding aging in contemporary America. An interdisciplinary focus will be utilized in examining these issues. Social and developmental perspectives will be explored in order to discover their assumptions about aging and their spheres of influence. These perspectives will be integrated by applying them to specific conditions encountered in later life.
 
 
COURSE GOALS
1.  To help students to confront stereotypes of aging in our society and their own preconceived ideas about aging and the aged.
2. To introduce students to the social and developmental perspectives on aging, including their assumptions, methodologies, conclusions, and implications.
3. To inform students about specific issues that confront older persons and that will confront them as they age.
4. To encourage students to analyze and critique current policies and their implications for aging in America.
5. To encourage students to develop their personal perspective for dealing with their own aging.
6. To encourage students to view each older person as an individual influenced by unique developmental and social factors.
 
 
REQUIRED READINGS
Annual Editions: Aging 98/99 (12th Ed.) . (1998).  Guilford, CT.: Dushkin Publishing.

Carter, Jimmy (1998). The Virtues of Aging.  Library of Contemporary Thought/Ballantine Books.

Sarton, May (1973). As We Are Now.  New York:  W.W. Norton

PERIODICALS IN THE USM LIBRARY
This is a partial list of aging-related journals located in the reference section of the Portland (P) and Gorham (G) USM libraries:

 The Journal of Gerontology (P)
 The Gerontologist (P)
 Research on Aging ((G)
 International Journal of Aging and Human Development (P)
 Generations (G)
 Educational Gerontology (G)
 The Journal of Gerontological Nursing (P)
 The Journal of Gerontological Social Work (P)
 Death Studies (P)
 Omega (P)
 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Students are expected to attend and actively participate in all class sessions.

2. Read! Students are expected to carefully read both required texts and handout materials as assigned. In addition books not specifically assigned, articles from scientific journals or other texts will need to be read in order to complete individual learning projects.

3. Each student will personally interview an individual 65 years of age or older. The interview should focus on gaining information about the person’s life, such as his or her educational and occupational history, health status, and family relationships. There is a two-part written assignment which follows from this interview:

a) Write a 4-5 page (double-spaced) summary of the interview, focusing attention on a discussion of at least three major issues/topics covered in class or in the readings and relevant to the interviewee’s life. Your discussion of these issues/topics should include application and integration of relevant research and theoretical concepts. Although you may wish to tape record and transcribe this interview, do not include a complete transcription with your summary.

b) For each of the three issues you choose, project yourself forward in time to when you are the age of the individual you interviewed. Using the key issues/topics discussed during the interview, compare how you believe your life will be similar to or different from your interviewee’s. Support your thinking with evidence from existent gerontological scholarship (i.e., journal articles, course texts, etc.) . This personal reflection paper, which you should attach to the 4 - 5 page interview summary, should also be approximately 4 - 5 pages in length (therefore, the total document that you hand in will be 8 - 10 pp).

Standards for evaluation:
a) Clarity of writing
b) Depth of understanding of issues selected
c) Ability to connect to current research (including class lectures, required course readings, and outside readings)

Due Date: Friday, June 25, 1999.  You may mail your paper to either Mike or Carol Lynn or drop it off in Bailey Hall 400 (either of their mailboxes).

4.  Each student will write two “Learning Synthesis Reports” (LSR’s) -  the first due on May 18 and the second due on May 25.  . These 3 - 4 pp.double-spaced LSR’s are meant to help you to focus attention on what you are learning and how this learning applies to your own life. There are four components you should consider while constructing each LSR:

  • Select the single most important idea you have learned thus far in the course (with your second LSR, choose the most important idea you've learned since the first LSR). How would you synthesize this concept’s meaning for you?  Why is it such an important idea?
  • How, if at all, does this particular idea in gerontology relate to your academic major?  To your own professional or personal future?
  • What are the interdisciplinary implications of this concept (in some cases this will have already been discussed in the component above)?
  • What important questions does this idea open up for your own personal learning agenda?