Students and Seniors Debunk ‘Age-Old’ Myths On Growing Up

WINCHESTER, Va. - "I feel like I can still get up on the floor with my cane, and shake this old booty," announced Jean McDaniel to a crowd of students and seniors at the ActiveLivingCenter on Thursday afternoon.

Both Shenandoah University (SU) psychology students and seniors with the Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging (SAAA) spent the afternoon commemorating a semester-long project aimed at reducing ageism.

"Ageism is when you have a prejudice attitude toward people based on how old they are,” explained Scott King, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at SU, and the mastermind behind the student project.

“For example, if you assume all older people live in nursing homes, or all younger people are narcissistic. These are both [ageism] stereotypes based on the generation we live in and when we were born that usually are not true."

For the project, students were paired with a local senior who helped them research different hypotheses about what it actually means to grow old.

 “Our myth was, ‘As adults get older, their social lives die down’,” said Garrison Fuller, a student at SU, as he sat next to his senior partner, McDaniel.

“I told him it wasn’t true!” she said, matter-of-factly. “I may be 88 years old, but I still got some pep left in me.”

The students also proved, with scientific research, that age doesn't necessarily mean bad health, it doesn't mean you're going to be lonely and it definitely doesn't mean you have to move in with your kids.

"I have two sons, and they're happy that I can get on and enjoy my life,” said McDaniel, who also noted that her sons have given her the nick name of ‘Miss Independent’ since she lives on her own and takes care of herself.

At the end of the afternoon, no matter a person’s age, both students and seniors agreed on a quote prominently posted on the way out of JamesBarnettPark: “You don’t stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.”

The students also spent the semester fundraising for the SAAA, and presented their senior mentors with a check for $3,000 dollars at the end of their afternoon together.

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