Prejudice is a big problem in today’s society.  Many problems throughout history,
which would’ve been easy otherwise to solve, were ignored or worsened in favor of using different social prejudices to find a scapegoat.  An example is how Germany was impacted and responded to the great depression.  Sure, Hitler technically did bring Germany out of it, but by blaming their problems on the Jews and other supposedly inferior races, the Germans actually managed to make their problem worse.  Now, you may be thinking about how when Nazi Germany went to war, they not only brought themselves out of the Depression, but also several other countries, but the response you need to hear from that is that while it did temporarily solve their problem, it wasn’t a solid and permanent solution.  The Nazis got the money to fight from their concentration camps, but what would they have done in the event that they won, but ran out of victims?  As it was, they took away from the might of their war machine and ended up ultimately losing the war because of it, and when they lost the war, they were in far worse a shape than when they had started it.

Another, perhaps even more important issue is that of ageism.  I’m not trying to say racism, sexism, or other forms of prejudice aren’t just as bad, they are, to say otherwise is to lie, but ageism, at least as far as I can see, is going to be one of the big things of the future, and I will outline why.  The big issues presented by ageism include discrimination of various types in education, jobs, healthcare (among other social services), and even how one person gains an opinion about another.

The first issue presented by ageism is in education.  I say education is discriminatory based on age because of the automatic assumption that when a child is a certain age, they will need to learn certain things and be taught at a certain pace.  I would encourage you to think for a moment about just how smart and well educated we could become in the event we did away with the idea of a set grade level and instead embraced the idea of learning at your own pace on your own level.  For instance, this would allow a kid to be in say English IV and pre-algebra simultaneously.  Another added benefit is that this would keep kids interested in learning, rather than being bored in classes that are either far too hard or way too easy for them, which is important if we want to lower our rate of 25% of all incoming freshmen not graduating high school on time.  {11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates}  In fact, classes could possibly be done away with altogether, using technology to fill the role of lecturer and grader, while the teacher takes a more mentoring and supervisory role, helping students on difficult subjects where lecture fails, and convincing children to actively challenge themselves and go at a higher pace rather than stick with a slow and easy one.  While this may cause a sort of a breakdown in social interactions due to people always using technology instead of the normal classroom interaction you see today as they learn the material, this could be made up for by taking the time you save by having people learn at their own level and giving them more social time.

Ageism in jobs can be seen in various places.  On one side of the battle, the elderly are less likely to be employed, because although there are laws in place to try and prevent this sort of thing, employers take on an attitude of thinking that just because someone is old, they won’t be able to put out work at the same pace as a younger person, or learn new skills needed, as such, 4.1% of people over the age of 55 are unemployed.  {Lydia DePillis}  The other side of the battle is trouble with youth getting employment, supported by the fact that 52.7% of all people 16-24 are unemployed because of a perceived lack of experience and therefore skill.  {Employment and Unemployment Among Youth Summary}  While side jobs such as mowing the lawn are good, they do not provide the same pay nor experience getting an actual job would.  These side jobs are usually seasonal, and as such, when it isn’t in season, they don’t produce any pay.  Now, you may be asking, why do kids need money anyway?

My answer to that is almost as subtle yet obvious as the question, and that answer is for two reasons, the experience and the future.  Many kids, when they get money or their first job, don’t really know how to spend it.  They may be smart with it, they may go out and blow it all within a day.  By allowing kids to work from a younger age without having restrictions put into place by business policies or government labor laws, you could give them a chance to earn this valuable experience working and handling their own money, while at the same time potentially bolstering the economy.  As for the future part of the argument, consider this, our children currently rely far too much on chance as far as determining our futures.  An example of this is the fact that a large majority of children, even after being told the odds, still insist they are going to build their lives around getting into a career of professional sports.  Another example is the fact that if asked, many college hopefuls say they are going to get through college on a full-ride scholarship of some sort, a reality many times not met.  By allowing children to get jobs at an earlier age, they might be able to afford college, without the necessity of a scholarship in order to cover the cost, as well as avoid that pesky debt so many of the current generation of young adults are experiencing.
The next example of ageism is found in healthcare.  It isn’t necessarily a problem for the young, rather the old, but if we are ever going to truly address the problem of ageism, then we need to do so for both the young and the old.  Have you ever noticed those commercials where one person is worried about whether or not he will be able to afford life insurance because of his health?  We hold the common stereotype that all old people are less healthy than their younger counterparts, and in some cases this even prevents doctors from performing risky yet potentially life-saving operations and treatments.  I’m not sure where everyone else stands on this, but I’d rather when I get old not die when I could’ve lived, just because a doctor was too scared to try something on a “frail” old man to try and save him.

The final example I have of ageist stereotyping to leave you with are our social expectations.  Whenever someone says that old people are grumpy, they are flat out wrong.  Sure, some old people are grumpy, but others are sweeter than most people give credit for.  Every time someone says that I won’t understand something because I’m not an adult, it stirs resentment inside of me.  We need to abandon our assumption that the young are incapable of grasping complex bits of information, along with all of our concepts about age being something useful to use in making assumptions about people, so that we can all step into a brighter and better tomorrow where people are judged on merit, not how long they’ve been around.

Citations

11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates: https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates

Employment and Unemployment Among Youth Summary
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm

Lydia DePillis
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/30/losing-a-job-is-always-terrible-for-workers-over-50-its-worse/