Old Age in Elementary School Readers

Early socialization is thought to be crucial in the formation of attitudes, beliefs, and values. Among socializing agents are reading texts. In this descriptive study, findings from two content analyses of elementary school reading textbooks are presented and compared with regard to content about old age and the presentation of old characters. A total of 47 books, primer through grade six, published from 1953 to 1968 and in use in the public schoob of Grand Rapids, Michigan, are analyzed in regard to text and illustrations and compared with a set of 33 readers all published in 1975 by the same publisher. More than 70% of the books contain stories with old characters. Fewer than 6% of the total characters in each set of texts are old. Although both sets of books are heavily illustrated, old characters are portrayed in fewer than 5% of the illustrations. The presentation of old characters is generally consistently positive in content and form across the grade levels of the textbooks but appears to be quite neutral and bland in the more recent set. Earlier and later texts are quite similar in portraying the aged; little change over time is noted. Basic demographic age‐sex distribution of the society is not reflected, nor is the existence of old minority group members given adequate representation. It is probable that text writers reflect their own attitudes and beliefs about old age and about the demographic facts of the society as content incidental to the purpose of the texts without realizing the potential misleading impact of inaccuracies. Suggestion is made that these misleading ideas and socializing potential could be corrected through conscious planning on the part of the writers. Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Meetings of the Geron‐tological Society in 1973 and the American Psychological Association in 1977.