Rethinking the category of over-65. The new “adults” of today

Abstract

“As from today, we will only become ‘old’ after 75”: the 63rd National Congress of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics has raised the old age ‘threshold’, highlighting how changed demographics and epidemiological conditions are leading to a redefinition of the seasons of life. The crisis in the objective indexes of the transition from adulthood to old age still demands a dynamic rethink of these two life seasons, so as to highlight continuities and discontinuities. Pedagogically, this means rethinking the discourse on education. The increase in longevity is indeed coupled with a widespread maladjustment to old age, which is in part the consequence of an inadequate educational process. This paper offers educational reflections on the over-65s as an active generation, a social category with emancipation desires, specific needs and requirements as compared to the past, with a special look at retirement as an “age experience” that opens up new hypotheses of existential redesign.