I went last night to an event at Channel 4 which dealt with new technology and lifelong learning in the context of an ageing society. The panel was chaired by Lord Puttnam, and included Charles Clarke, former Secretary of State for Education, Trevor Phillips of the EHRC and Michelle Mitchell from AgeUK.
Much of the debate focussed, quite rightly, on how technological advances might help older people carry on learning, and give them access to opportunities which they otherwise wouldn’t have had. The event was sponsored by the OU and by NIACE, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, and both of these have done much good work in this area.
I used the opportunity to ask about death, how we learn to deal with it, and what these excellent providers of education and information are doing on the topic. In every society everyone dies; but in an ageing society many more people have a lot more time to think about it, and maybe get ready for it. Moreover the extension of the period leading up to death affects many more people than just the dier (if that’s the right word): families and friends are also involved, in many different ways.
To my surprise, several people came up afterwards and remarked on the palpable unease they had sensed in the audience when I asked the question. One even congratulated me for my courage in asking it, though it had never remotely occurred to me that it required any bravery to raise the issue. It is true that the chairman seemed to me to pass over the question quite quickly (though he himself gave interesting references to films which deal with death), but I had no idea that this might possibly be to do with the topic being taboo in that kind of forum.
In any case, it seems to me a major issue where a lifecourse approach can shed important light. Debate on the Third Age is very well launched – today sees the outlawing of the default retirement age in England, Scotland and Wales. But the Fourth Age and death are much less discussed, despite the evidence of the increasing incidence of the former and the inevitability of the latter.