Retirement Communities

The extension in affluent societies of average person's life span to seventy-five or more healthy years at the same time when government, business, or pensions enable people to retire in their sixties has resulted in conceptualizing the stages of life into three almost equal stages.

1. A first stage of physical and intellectual development of about thirty years. Although most physical development occurs in the first fifteen years of life, intellectual development often continues with bachelors, masters, and doctorates, and even postdoctoral residencies.

(In my own case, high school was followed by two years of Jesuit novitiate. It was a good preparation for being a contemplative serving others.  College at Saint John's University followed. They were at the forefront of liturgical and church reform during the Vatican Council. An interdisciplinary doctorate in social psychology was followed by postdoctoral research in psychophysiology formed the biological/social and personal framework for organizing my thinking. A postdoctoral residency at Saint Elisabeth in Washington D.C. provided experience in working in a complex social and organizational environment)

2.  A second stage of mature participation in society in the form of paid work in the economy and unpaid work in households including care for family members. The stage may be shrinking toward thirty years as it takes people longer to complete their education and as early retirement becomes more available. 

(In my case, the combination of postdoctoral research, one-year teaching positions, and postdoctoral mental health residency in my thirties led to a career in applied mental health research, planning and policy making during my forties and fifties. My creativity flourished in many ways that it had not during my academic formation. I became integrated with my family and served four years as a voluntary pastoral staff member in a parish in Toledo, Ohio which shaped my notions of community.)

3. A third stage of retirement from work and family production.  As people retire earlier, live longer, and remain healthy, those who retire at age sixty could experience thirty years of healthy active life.  

(In my case, my experiences as a pastoral staff member in Toledo, plus the ability to retire at age sixty under the Public Employee Retirement System, led me to take that opportunity and earn a MA in spirituality from Notre Dame. For the first fifteen years I was in very good health begin at age seventy I have had a balance problem which limits my mobility somewhat. Now at age 83, I could reasonably have an active intellectual life until ninety.) 

 

 Basics of the Theory of the Third Age

Peter Laslett (1915-2001), a British historian, established his rather positive aging theory of the Third Age in the 1980s. In Laslett's (1987) theory, one's life comprises four ages, and the culmination is in the Third Age. The phrase Third Age came from French universities, les Universités du Troisième Âge (the Universities of the Third Age), which since the 1970s have offered study opportunities to seniors relatively healthy and active, and entered English-speaking countries (Laslett, 1987)

Previously, most researchers tended to conduct their aging studies focused on negative viewpoints, such as decline in mental/physical function. Once Laslett advocated theory of the Third Age, however, his theory prevailed rapidly among developed countries, and researchers conducted positive aging studies (e.g., effects of social activities, including learning, in the Third Age [Saddler, 2006]).

According to Laslett's (1987, 1991) theory of the Third Age, one's life consists of four ages, and its culmination comes at the Third Age. Those in each age are called first, second, third, or fourth agers, respectively (Carr, 2009). The respective ages have characteristics:

First Age: an era for dependence, socialization, immaturity, and learning

Second Age: an era for independence, maturity, responsibility, and working

Third Age: an era for personal achievement and fulfillment after retirement, and

Fourth Age: an era for the final dependence, decrepitude, and death

In Laslett's (1987, 1991) theory of the Third Age, old age further comprises two ages, the Third and Four Ages. That is, some elders are healthy and thus third agers, whereas others are frail and thus fourth agers.

In my opinion dividing old age into Third and Fourth ages is a mistake. It makes heathy Third Agers into an elite while it marginalizes those with health problems as the Fourth Age. Most third agers have the ability to not only fulfill themselves but also contribute greatly to the common good of society including caring for those who face dependency, poor health and death which eventually includes everyone. 

University of the Third Age Movement

Voluntarism in the United States is promoted both by educational status, and religious involvement. Those who participate in churches not only contribute time, talent and money to those environments, they also are like to do the same for the civil environment.

The University of the Third Age Movement can be seen as part of the development of life- long learning. It involved the recognition that we not only learn throughout our lives but we also develop the capacity to transmit our experience, talents, and gifts to others. 

Retirement communities can therefore be seen first as communities of scholars, i.e. learners and teachers. Scholar comes from the Greek work which means leisure. Philosophy, the love of wisdom can be seen as the crown of a life free from the necessity of earning a living and developing young people, the centers of life before sixty.  

u3a learn laugh live

One of the largest member organizations in the u k our members have stepped aside from full time work, learn together, make friends and have fun. What is absent from the largely secular Third Age Movement is concern for others, and society.

On the contrary politics, involvement in the social and cultural life of a city was central to the aristocratic ideal of Ancient Greece. Similarly in the Judeo-Christian tradition love for others, especially for the widows, orphans, aliens has been the essential complement to love of God.

While education is an important part of retirement communities, involvement in the social and cultural life of our society, especial at the local level is equally important.