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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Growing old

Every chance I get I tell my students that they will be the first generation with a bimodal death age. Those who are wealthy, take care of themselves eat well and exercise will live to 120 (I would stress wealth and eating habits)  and those who don’t… well… diabetes, cholesterol will make sure they die at 50 – 60. I finally run across a piece that provides evidence of it. It is related to retirement,  but worth reading.

I challenge my students to think about career paths when they will have to work 100 years. It becomes important to do something that you enjoy.  Who could stand to be a lawyer or banker for 80 years?  Who could be good at some trade for so long?

 I also challenge my students to think about graduate school l when they are not 30 but 55 or 65.

I want to challenge Universities about the same. At a time when many schools are rethinking themselves,  are we ready to attract and receive the new mature-adult student? Do we know what they need to know?

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