The most prepared old age in history

The intention of these posts is to delve into old age, into how this vital stage is lived in this specific context, in which older people are pioneers - never before have so many people lived so many years in these conditions of health and independence. It is a vital stage for which we are not prepared (how to age is not really spoken of) and our society is not characterized by age integration or by the facilitation of intergenerational links beyond the family - this is what we will talk about. As we have already seen, the group of people over 65 is very heterogeneous and we can undoubtedly say that they experience old age very differently than previous generations did. Within this heterogeneity, we are going to analyze their educational level today.

When referring to prejudices and stereotypes in a previous post, and how they work, we pointed out that in occasions we have preconceived ideas that we do not contrast and that make us be mistaken about the reality that surrounds us. Remembering the post, these prejudices were perpetuated because we tend to reinterpret the information we extract from the environment in a way that gives continuity to our beliefs. It is a way of reducing internal tensions and simplifying the enormous amount of information we receive and sometimes find it difficult to process.

About older people we have, like we said, a series of stereotypes that are sometimes tremendously unfortunate and that perpetuate negative ideas (even derogatory) of old age. We assume an untrue heterogeneity in which even data are blurred to reinforce preconceived ideas. And sometimes we even extract character traits (from the elders, for example, like Juan and his bad mood) from those definitions for which we have no real basis.

Some of these stereotypes and prejudices applicable to the sphere of cultural capital give us mistaken ideas about older people's interest in new technologies, for example, their form of leisure (which we unfairly reduce to petanque and soap operas, not to mention jokes about the works) or their educational level. Today we are going to talk about the latest. Using a qualifier that has been applied to other contexts: today's is the most prepared elderly in history.

In this respect, one of the most widespread beliefs is an excessive representation of people who cannot read or write among the elderly. And it is true that the level of illiteracy was always much higher among the older generations, who began to work much earlier, who were not lucky enough to live in a country where the education system is one of the pillars of the welfare state (with free education from 6 to 16 years). Undoubtedly, the elderly are and have been the most affected by the absence of inclusive education policies (aimed at both boys and girls).

It is for this reason that this age group (65 and over) is where we find the greatest presence of people who cannot read or write, or who do so with great difficulty: of the total illiterate population in Spain, older people represent 62.62% of illiterates (data from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing). But beware, these data need to be re-read and contextualised. Firstly, the percentage of people who cannot read or write is less than 2% - specifically, 1.57% - of people in Spain. That is to say, a total of 729,860 persons in Spain according to the 2011 Census data (referring to persons residing in households).

The truth is that at the national level there has been a notable improvement with respect to illiteracy, a sign of the improvement in living conditions, with the universalization, free and compulsory education (the Law of Primary Education, which makes it compulsory to study until the age of 12 is not promulgated until 1945). We will take advantage here - since they leave us - to demand better statistics on educational level: in the Census of population and housing it is asked, but as we know the censuses are every 10 years. There is no reliable way to compare how the level of education has evolved among those over 65 or what the level of education of institutionalized people is, for example.

Although the data are not the best, they do allow us to know that the level of education among those over 65 years of age has improved enormously over the years: the 1970 Census showed that 18.5% of the population over 65 years of age was illiterate. In 2001, 8.1%, and in 2011, 5.76%, rates that mostly affect women (which account for 76.02% of illiterates over 65). Improvements in the country's quality of life are unequivocally reflected when we analyze higher educational stages; in 1970 only 1.4% had secondary education, and a minimum of 0.7% had completed the higher level. In 2001 they reached 15.8% and 3.9% respectively, which increase to 27.73% and 7.55% for people over 65 in Spain in 2011.

The educational configuration of the elderly (2011 data) is shown in the following graph:

Level of education of the population over 65 living in households. Spain, 2011.

Source: Prepared by the authors based on microdata Censo 2011 (INE) No studies: they can read and write but they spent less than 5 years in school. First grade: people who went to school for 5 years or more without completing GBS. Second grade: with primary school certificate. Third grade: university studies.

But what seems most important to me when reading the above data is the enormous number of older people who have improved their educational situation when they were adults. The effort involved in going to night school and the illusion of learning when the children were old enough. Or what it means to study next to your grandson, who corrects your sentences. The empowerment that comes with learning to read and write, going back to school - or doing it for the first time - when you are an adult woman.

An 80-year-old woman told me how she learned to read when she was already an "young girl". In her childhood she could not go to school and as soon as she was old enough she left home to work and not be a burden at home. She was sent to Madrid to work as an assistant in a shop and, although she could not read or write part of her job was to make home deliveries. She could not read or know Madrid, but looking at the words that had been written on paper and the name of the street, she learned to relate the letters. And to get to know Madrid in order to make the shipments on time. Later, when she had the opportunity, she decided to go to an old people's school. How these schools work and why they made a key difference in education and quality of life for older people we will talk in another post.