Reflection Post: Ageism

Upon doing this project, I had no idea what ageism was or where it originated from. After looking in the dictionary ageism can be defined as discrimination against persons of a certain age group; a tendency to regard older persons as debilitated, unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment. This is a topic that is underrepresented in the children’s literature field. It is a topic that needs to be spoken about and taught about. There are a lot of books out there that can exemplify this topic; however a voice needs to be spoken. I sat at the Library and read just about every children’s book that I could find about this topic and from those books, I choose the books Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs by Tomie de Paola, Grandpa Had a Stroke by Dori Hillestad Butler, Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest, and The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy. Some of the books that I have chosen are books that I have heard about and books that I have not heard about. Each of these books that I have chosen represents a relationship between a child or young adult and an elderly. With these relationships we see the differences between children and elderly and I think these relationships help illustrate the regards to older persons. If we, as future teachers, can incorporate this topic then we can become that culture that has become consumed with the ideal of not only youthfulness, but aging as well.