Old age and youth as elements of education. Childhood, adolescence, adolescence, maturity, old age

Chapter 1. Childhood

Childhood, childhood is the period of a person’s life from birth to adolescence (from birth to 11-12 years). During this period, the child goes through the greatest path in his individual development from a helpless being, incapable of independent life, to a child’s personality fully adapted to nature and society, already capable of taking responsibility for himself, his loved ones and peers.

In the first decade of life, the child’s psyche goes through such a “distance” in its development that no other subsequent age can compare. This movement is determined primarily by the ontogenetic characteristics of age - childhood, in its essence, is oriented by natural prerequisites towards the intensification of development. However, one should not think that self-development determines this movement. Natural prerequisites, only when combined with social conditions, promote each child in childhood from one age stage to another.

During childhood, the child’s body develops intensively: growth is accompanied by maturation nervous system and brain, which predetermines mental development. During this age period, the child develops in terms of mental functions, communication, will and feelings. He begins to realize his uniqueness and express himself as an individual at crucial moments in life.

Having gone through the path of achievements in subject, game and educational activities Having mastered reflection on oneself and others as a way of identifying with the ideal and with real models, having learned to accept a position of responsibility, the child becomes able to reflect on the entire totality of life phenomena. Of course, he still needs the companionship of an adult, but he is already making successful attempts to independently penetrate into the deep essence of nature and human relations.

In childhood, there is nothing more natural for a child than the feeling of love and security in his family. For a child, family is a source of trembling emotional experiences. Therefore, no matter what futurologists interpret about the institution of the family, as long as the family exists, for those who lived their childhood years in it there is nothing more sacred and more beautiful. In retrospect of life, every person who had a family hearth in childhood, the selfless love of loved ones, with heartfelt affection, gratefully remembers this happy time.

It is in childhood that those deep-seated differences between children begin to take shape, which largely predetermine the future essential characteristics of their individuals, and, consequently, the choice of life path.

Age stages of mental development are not identical biological development. Age periodization has historical foundations. Each society defines the boundaries of childhood based on the traditionally established age periods of a person.

Society makes its demands on childhood as a period of child development in the context special attention to him of society and family. Although public institutions are focused on the needs of a person of each age period, childhood in modern civilized countries acts as a period that requires special attention from society in the field of health, physical, mental and spiritual development, as well as providing social protection to the child. This responsible position of the state and the public is connected not only and not so much with the culture of humanistic expectations, but also with the urgent need to prepare for a change of generations precisely in the sensitive period of childhood. Hence the task of protecting motherhood and childhood, providing for children up to school age state kindergartens and private institutions, providing conditions for primary education.

In fact, each child’s individual life highlights its own special social situation: for some it envelops them with pure love, develops spiritual and mental abilities; for others it appears in the form of alienated conditions of existence with all the ensuing disastrous consequences. However, no matter how the individual conditions of a child’s development develop, he or she follows a path that is close to some general development trends in all major periods of childhood. Let us turn to the consideration of the stages of the most important age, which largely determines the structure of the soul, mental culture and even the future fate of a person.

1.1. Early childhood (from 1 to 3 years)

The child’s activity capabilities contradict the emotional nature of his communication. Appears shared object activities of a child and an adult. During this period, children's cognitive activity develops very quickly.

Early childhood- a poorly studied period. Only descriptive, and only negative, characteristics are known. A child is a slave of visual perception (Stern). I attract objects to a child (Levin).

A child cannot discover socially developed ways of using things.

It is not “written” on things what they serve.

An auxiliary tool is different in that the action with it must be subordinated to the logic of this tool.

The weapon and the way it is used when removed contains the purpose that can be achieved by this object.

The child follows the actions of the adult, and tentative actions appear. Tests are observed in young children.

During this period, solving intellectual problems is typical, and speech develops. Communication with adults begins.

Crisis of 3 years

A symptom of negativism. A child's negative reaction to adult proposals.

Stubbornness is a reaction not to a proposal, but to one’s own decision.

The symptom is devalued. Children begin to call their beloved mothers, grandmothers, and fathers with abusive words.

1.2. Preschool age

The social situation of a child’s joint activity with an adult is resolved by the form of an ideal life together with adults. The main activity is play.

Units, game components:

The role of an adult that a child takes on.

An imaginary situation created for a child to realize his role in life.

Game actions. Play is of great importance for the development of a child’s personality. Transferring knowledge in a game is a path to symbolic thinking. Obedience to the rules of the game is a school of arbitrary behavior. During the game, the child “spins” and changes his position. It is necessary for the child to study according to a program drawn up by an adult. Thinking during this period is visual and figurative.

Preschool age- a time of intensive development in children of the orienting basis of their actions.

The crisis of a 7-year-old child is the child’s loss of spontaneity.

1.3. Junior school age

The leading activity is educational. Being sociable in its meaning and content of forms, it is at the same time carried out purely individually, its products are products of individual assimilation. Obedience to the rules forms in the child the ability to regulate his behavior and thereby higher forms of voluntary control of it. The main new development of primary school age is abstract verbal and logical thinking. After primary school age, the critical period of 11-12 years begins, and then adolescence and early adolescence.

Youth

Youth (Period of life self-determination and self-determination, time to complete studies and enter into independent life)

In youth two phases are distinguished: one on the border with childhood (early adolescence), the other on the border with maturity (senior adolescence), which can be considered as the initial link of maturity. The first phase of adolescence is characterized by preparation for an independent life path (accumulation of necessary knowledge, search skills related to the choice of profession, acquisition of certain personality traits, etc.). For the second - participation in productive work and the use of acquired professional skills and knowledge, the desire to further improve skills and moral qualities of your personality.

A significant characteristic, especially for a teenager, at this age is a change in attitude towards oneself, which colors all his actions and is therefore quite noticeable in most cases, although sometimes disguised, which, however, does not destroy its effective role. This was precisely the motivating reason for, when studying adolescence, to follow the study of anatomical and physiological changes with the question of the idea of ​​oneself at this age.
Youth is an important stage in the development of mental abilities: theoretical thinking, the ability to abstract, and make generalizations develop significantly. Qualitative changes occur in cognitive abilities: students are characterized by a non-standard approach to already known problems, the ability to incorporate specific problems into more general ones, etc. The development of intelligence is closely related to the development of creative abilities, which involve the manifestation of intellectual initiative and the creation of something new. Also a characteristic feature of junior students is a tendency to exaggerate their intellectual abilities, level of knowledge and independence. The most important condition for increasing the self-organization and activity of students is regulated intellectual load, carried out at a high but accessible level for the student.

The features of the intellectual sphere of the individual are directly related to all its other substructures and the personality as a whole. The development of thinking creates the prerequisites for the formation of a worldview, the stability and motivation of which ensures personal advancement. As a result of the integration and differentiation of motives and value orientations, life plans are formed, professional self-determination and the formation of an active life position of a young person.

In this material we will tell you what adolescence, childhood, and youth are. Let's take a quick look at each period. human life, we indicate generally accepted age boundaries.

Childhood

Ah, childhood... It’s a bright and beautiful time when a little person grows up. Step by step he gets acquainted with the world around him. This is the period when the baby begins to develop skills: he learns to speak, walk, read, count, and dress independently. At this time, the baby also begins to recognize, study and assimilate those cultural skills that are inherent in the society in which he exists. In different eras of human development, among different peoples, the period of childhood implied unequal social, and most importantly, cultural content. Over the course of history, the understanding of childhood changes. As an example, we can cite this proverb, which is often ancient Rus' applied to at this stage: “From birth to five years old, treat your child as a king-father, from seven years old to twelve - as a servant, and after twelve - as an equal.” Currently, the sciences that study the period of childhood include pedagogy, psychology, sociology, history, ethnography, each of which examines this age period in its own way.

Boyhood

The next stage that follows childhood is adolescence. The child grows, develops, learns and begins to learn to communicate. This stage can be roughly divided into two segments: Primary School when the leading activity is teaching, and high school- here communication is dominant. The age of adolescence has changed in different historical periods; now this period is determined from seven to fifteen years of a child’s life. This stage of a child's life is also called adolescence. What is adolescence? This is also the period of development when a person becomes sexually mature. Irritability and increased sensitivity, easy excitability and anxiety, aggressive self-defense tactics and melancholic passivity - all these extremes in this combination are characteristic of this period of life. Modern society is structured in such a way that every teenager strives to achieve the status of an adult as quickly as possible. But alas, such a dream is hard to come by. As they say, year after year, at our own pace. Therefore, as often happens, a teenager at this stage of his life acquires not a sense of adulthood, but a feeling of inferiority.

What is adolescence? This period is characterized by the influence of sign systems: the teenager becomes a consumer. Consumption is the meaning of his life. To maintain his sense of personality and gain significance among his peers, a teenager becomes the owner of a certain set of things.

Youth

After adolescence comes the time of youth. The main and most important feature of this period is the transition to independent adult life. The so-called maturity stage begins. By the end of adolescence, around the age of twenty-two, the process of maturation of the human body is completed: growth, puberty, formation of the musculoskeletal system. Facial features become more defined. During this period, the degree of personal maturity is significantly inferior to the maturity of the organism. Professional self-determination It is at this stage that it is the leading criterion. This moment is a significant step towards independence. Many types of mental functions, such as attention, sensorimotor reactions, and some types of memory, reach their maximum development. The ability to lead an independent lifestyle, which during this period requires responsible behavior and initiative from boys and girls, is the main sign of social adaptation and generally shows a positive course in the development of a young person’s personality. Personal attachments are given priority over collective relationships.

So, childhood, adolescence, adolescence are the most important years of formation of a person’s personality.

Growing Up Years

All three stages can be broken down into the following approximate time frames:

• Childhood, which covers the years of a child’s life from birth until approximately the age of seven.
• Adolescence spans the years from seven to fourteen.
• From fourteen to twenty-two - twenty-three years of age, time belongs to the stage of adolescence.

The age limits described are not strictly defined; for each culture and country they may be slightly shifted. But in general, the picture of age differentiation looks exactly like this, and it is currently well-established.

Instead of a conclusion

So, in the article we looked at what adolescence, youth and childhood are. Each of these stages of life is important based on the influence it can have on the formation of a person’s personality as a whole, the determination of his professional development path, his assimilation of universal human values, the formation of moral consciousness and the choice of a civic position.

Period of adulthood- the longest period of ontogenesis. There are three stages of adulthood:

• early adulthood (youth - from 20-23 to 30 years)
• middle adulthood (maturity - from 30 to 60-70 years)
• late adulthood (old age - after 60-70 years)

Signs of adulthood(according to G. Craig):

• new development, less associated with physical growth and rapid cognitive improvement;
• the ability to respond to changes and successfully adapt to new conditions, positively resolve contradictions and difficulties;
• overcoming addiction and the ability to take responsibility;
• some traits (firmness, reliability, honesty, etc.)
• social and cultural reference points (roles, relationships, etc.) to determine the success and timeliness of development in adulthood.

Youth(from 20-23 to 30 years) - approximately this is the period of life from the end of adolescence to 30 years. Youth is the time to start a family. This age is characterized by an optimal combination of psychological, physiological, social and other factors favorable to choosing a life partner and starting a family. This is the time when a woman's body is best adapted to the birth of her first child. Youth can be considered a sensitive age for starting a family. From how it turns out family life, the general thing largely depends - his spiritual growth, development.

Choosing a life partner and starting a family is one of the aspects of the social situation of development in youth. The second side of the social development situation is mastery of the chosen profession.

The central age-related neoplasms of youth can be considered family relationships and a sense of professional competence.

Friendship and love during this period reach a new qualitative level. Friendship, unlike simple friendly relationships, presupposes some kind of spiritual closeness.

The main aspects of life in youth develop differently and have different contents when different lines ontogeny.

When a person is selfishly oriented in creating a family, the egoistic motive (material wealth, prestige, power, etc.) dominates in creating a family. A profession, as a rule, is not a value in itself, but acts as a means of realizing this egoistic. Due to the lack of deep interest in one's business, manifestations become impossible.

With the spiritual, moral and essential orientation of the individual, a desire for the essential content of the main aspects of life is manifested. In friendship, for example, it is the consonance of two people, the essence of their relationship, that is decisive.

The crisis of 30 years is called a crisis of the meaning of life, which arises as a result of the unrealization of life's plans. It is expressed in a change in ideas about one’s life, sometimes in a complete loss of interest in what was previously the main thing in it; there is a reassessment of values, entailing introspection and critical revision of one’s own personality. The entire crisis marks the transition from youth to maturity.

Maturity (from 30 to 60-70 years) is the longest period of life for most people. Maturity is considered to be the time when a person fully blossoms, when a person can realize his full potential and achieve the greatest success in all areas of life. The ancient Greeks called this age and state of mind “acme”, which means peak, highest level.

In E. Erikson’s theory, maturity is the age of “committing actions”, the most complete flowering. The main lines of development are generativity, productivity, creativity (in relation to things, children, ideas) and restlessness - the desire to become a better parent, to achieve a high level in one’s profession, to be a caring citizen, a loyal friend, a support for loved ones.

Work and care are the virtues of mature people. In ( , ) central importance was attached to the process of self-actualization of an adult. According to A. Maslow, self-actualizing people are not limited to satisfying basic needs, but are committed to higher values, including truth, beauty, and goodness. They strive to achieve heights in their business.

Early adulthood is characterized by increased development of mental functions. Stabilization is observed in the period of 33-35 years. Value orientations have a great influence on the preservation of cognitive functions. A focus on improving one’s skills and searching for information contributes to the development of imaginative, practical, verbal and logical thinking.

The most important factors for optimizing the intellectual potential of adults are: level of education, type and nature of professional activity.

Childhood

Lasts the first thirteen years of a person’s life. No living creature has such a long stage of maturation. A human child is born more helpless compared to animal cubs; in addition, he has to live in an extremely complex and changing environment - society, hence such a long development period. In childhood, up to about 5 years of age, 70% of personality is formed. As soon as you are late with socialization, irreversible processes begin.

Youth

Starts at age 13. During this period, important physiological changes and mental shifts occur - a tendency towards the opposite sex, increased aggressiveness, risk-taking, the desire for independence, independence. If children are obedient and evaluate the world through the eyes of their parents and teachers, then teenagers strive to create their own value system. In youth, the creation of the social “I” is completed and a worldview is formed. The main difficulty is role conflict. Legally, teenagers are considered as children; psychologically, they are already ripe for making important decisions. Role disenfranchisement and lack of experience push young people towards extreme forms of behavior: crime, drug addiction, sexual freedom, etc.

Maturity

Signs of the onset of maturity are the economic, political and social independence of a person. A very important indicator is marriage, because for the first time a young man turns from an object of socialization into its agent - first in relation to his spouse, then to his child.

Socialization of adults has its own specifics. The American sociologist O. Brim Jr. showed that it is expressed mainly in changes in their external behavior, and in the course of the socialization of children, the formation of value orientations occurs. Socialization of adults aims to help a person master certain skills and takes the form of retraining. A.I. Kravchenko claims that this process breaks down into two stages: Stage I - desocialization - unlearning old norms, values, roles; Stage II -- resocialization -- learning new norms, values, roles. Sometimes a person gets into such extreme conditions that desocialization goes too deep, destroying moral principles personality, and resocialization can neither restore what was lost nor give something new. This happens to people who end up in prisons, colonies, concentration camps, psychiatric hospitals, and sometimes in the army.

Old age

Adjustment to old age is not necessarily a process of growth. Personal development may cease or even be reversed due to the weakening of a person's physical and psychological capabilities, which often occurs in old age. With retirement, the status changes - from worker and breadwinner to consumer. IN modern society even the roles of older people are not clearly defined. The widow is no longer a wife, the official who retired is no longer the vice president. If in traditional society old people act as advisers, sages, mentors, then in modern society they do not enjoy special prestige or honor. They have a growing feeling of isolation, dependence on others, and life plans disappear. By the age of seventy, a person, as a rule, begins socialization for death - moral and material preparation for the end of life.

Agents of Socialization

Since socialization is divided into two types - primary and secondary, its agents are divided into primary and secondary.

Agents of primary socialization-- parents, peers, relatives, favorite teachers, personal trainers, family doctors, youth group leaders.

Agents of secondary socialization-- administration of a school, university, enterprise, army, police, church, state, employees of funds mass media(media), party leaders, etc. They are also called institutions of socialization.

Agents of primary socialization most strongly influence a person in the first half of life, although their influence continues to decrease in the second half. Socialization institutions predominate in the second half of a person’s life. The former each perform many functions (mother-guardian, administrator, educator, teacher, friend, etc.), the latter - one or two (media - information, indoctrination).

Among the agents of primary socialization, parents and peers - friends - are in a superior position. Parents want their child to strive to be like adults, and he learns to be a child from his peers. Parents punish him for wrong decisions, for bad marks, for violation moral principles, normal; his peers are either indifferent to his mistakes or approve of them. Peers perform an important function - they facilitate the transition from a state of childhood dependence to adulthood, teach them to be a leader, to achieve dominance over others - something that parents clearly cannot teach. Therefore, parents often look at their children's peers as competitors in the struggle for influence.

The functions of agents of primary socialization are interchangeable, institutions are not. This is explained by the fact that the former are universal, but the latter are not. Thus, the functions of parents and relatives are interchangeable, but the school director cannot replace the prime minister. In addition, the socialization activities of primary agents are not paid, unlike the second ones.

Initial (primary) socialization - the area of ​​interpersonal relationships and prescribed statuses - is basic in the process of formation, learning and adaptation of the social “I”. Secondary continued socialization is the area of ​​formal social relations and achieved statuses.

The three ages that appear in the title of this section constitute, in essence, the entire conscious life of a person. Let's take a quick look at them and identify the most significant features of these important stages, among which maturity is the longest, it covers the lion's share of the time allotted to us.

Youth The time allotted is not that long - from 14 to 20-22 years. This is a transitional period from dependent childhood to responsible and independent adulthood. The features of childhood and maturity often fuse in the period of adolescence and form an intricate amalgam, for example, when 18-year-old fathers and mothers nurse their children, while they themselves are still in the status of students and are completely in the care of their parents. In many primitive societies, adolescence as a special sociocultural period does not exist at all, because to adulthood people go through an initiation ritual and, having passed tests, radically change their “age quality” within a few days.

Youth is a time when a person, on the one hand, is looking for his “reference group”, those people with whom he identifies himself, and on the other hand, he is trying to find his own face, to understand, “Who am I?” During adolescence and adolescence, the discovery of one's own inner world- a person turns to himself for the first time, he begins to be occupied by the states of his own soul, he understands that he is unique, inimitable, different from everyone else. True, in early youth this difference in purely external expression is not always joyful: young man his body changes, sometimes it becomes disproportionate, his skin deteriorates, his facial features “float” and change:. It’s time to tell him a fairy tale about the “ugly duckling,” who will certainly later become a swan. But the “swan time” has not yet arrived, and young men who are experiencing a discord between the external and internal often experience a feeling of loneliness: no one understands me!

In youth, there is an awareness of the upcoming time perspective, and the question begins to worry, what is my future? The child does not think about the future, he lives for today and does not plan anything longer than a week in advance. In youth, long-term life plans arise related to choosing a profession, earning money, and starting a family. Of course, when adults ask a small child “What will you be when you grow up?” - and they often ask similar questions - the children answer them what they want to hear, but in our youth we do not expect such questions from our elders, but ask them ourselves .

In addition, youth often not only plans a banal, everyday future, but dreams of its own greatness, of exploits, adventures and discoveries. This is undoubtedly a contradictory position, but nothing can be done about it: sound plans and dreams go hand in hand here, and without the ambitious fantasies of youth, not a single successful career could take place.

Since a young person often quickly enters the “adult world,” the degree of his responsibility increases sharply. By the way, during periods of difficult trials, such as wars, children grow up much earlier because they begin to take full responsibility for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Youth is a deeply philosophical age. Children, as a rule, have little interest in philosophical questions unless their elders push them to do so, but already in adolescence, a person begins to ask himself: “Is there really a God? Where was my Self before I was born, did it really not exist at all? Does humanity have a higher purpose? In his youth, a person discovers that he is mortal, that death will be his lot just like all other people, and does not want to come to terms with it. Young people often play with death, flaunt it in front of it, wanting to prove: “I’m stronger than you, bony one!” Youth is looking for the meaning of life - its own and human life in general. But the answer to this question of youth is what happens to a person later - years and fate give everyone their own answer.

Mature age extends from 22 to 65-70 years, where the time after 60 is called “old age”, and the most active and active mature years are called “acme”. In adulthood, a person is actively and comprehensively involved in social life: he works, creates a family and raises children, is involved in public affairs, is interested in creativity, and has various “hobbies.” During the period of acme, people establish diverse connections with the world, make friends and love, receive maximum impressions, and fully realize their abilities. This is the time when a person is most adapted to the world, is independent and has all the rights.

Maturity is distinguished by a mature, formed image of the Self. In childhood, a person is busy with the outside world, in his youth he is only looking for himself, but in maturity he, as a rule, has already “found himself” - he knows his pros and cons, does not rush from longing to delight in about his own person, he knows how to calm himself down and, if necessary, stimulate him to be active - he has high level self-regulation.

Maturity is a pragmatic age. Now a person must provide for himself and his family, take care of children and, possibly, grandchildren, help elderly parents, so he actively sets practical goals, implements them, fights for good material conditions, shows ingenuity in matters of arranging a household and building a successful career. Romantic dreams and illusions are abandoned in youth, life has moved on to utilitarian tracks: an adult already knows the prohibitions that society sets for him, and is not inclined to attach mystery to either a fleeting smile, or vague words, or the moon in the sky, or a beautiful melody.

The emotionality of a mature person is usually reduced compared to youth, but logical abilities are demonstrated and sharpened, erudition is broad, and professional skills are developed. Mature people partially lose the ability to play. I mean a children's game that is self-valued and selfless, played solely for pleasure. But gambling, with the possibility of winning, is quite characteristic of maturity. At this time, art also fades into the background - sometimes people who are overwhelmed with work and home simply don’t have enough time for art galleries and theaters.

Maturity is the most unphilosophical age. People have no time to think about the fate of the universe; they are too caught up in their relationships with it. A mature person also remembers little about death - only when it is necessary to bury deceased relatives, but even then organizational hassles and legal formalities come to the fore.

I would not want, of course, for readers to decide that any mature person is such a cold, utilitarian monster. All people are different, and many retain throughout their adult lives the best features of childhood and youth: there are eternal dreamers, eternal philosophers, eternal storytellers; we only highlight and describe those characteristic features that time and circumstances impart to a person in the course of his personal temporal history .

It is worth noting that, while living through his mature period, after about forty years, a person often begins to get bored and see reality in gray colors. The surroundings have become familiar to him, and he no longer expects any bright positive impressions from fate. In this case, psychotherapists recommend meditating a little - remembering some beautiful, bright day of your youth or childhood and, as it were, living it again. This renews your perception and helps you once again notice the beauty and mystery of the universe around you.

In adulthood - as at any other age - not all people are fully adapted to life. And it’s not just about economic poverty, but also about psychological attitudes. The figure of a neurotic person, constrained internally and difficult to communicate externally, is by no means an invention of psychotherapists. This is a fairly large part of the population of any developed country, where people are always in a hurry, compete for a place at the top of the social pyramid, are afraid of losing their jobs and money, and adhere to selfish positions. Neurotics feel misunderstood and unappreciated by the world, are in a state of constant anxiety, do not know how to love, and act according to obsessive patterns. Thus, mature age in itself does not eliminate all problems, although it gives a reasonable and sensible person a chance to independently seek and find ways to maximize the harmonization of their life.

Old age occurs after sixty-five and becomes the last stage within which a person continues to exist until his death. Old age is the only way to live long; humanity has not yet come up with another way. The main thing that happens in old age is the attenuation of body functions, a gradual deterioration in health, which leads to the inability to work, and a change in appearance.

Throughout human history, society has treated old people very differently. In primitive and poor societies, where many children are born who need to be raised, and there is not enough money for everyone, the elderly turn out to be ballast. Then they are destroyed or they themselves voluntarily part with their family, and then with their lives. It is precisely this kind of withdrawal from life and from the world that we see in the traditional image of the Indian sannyasin - the patriarch of the family, who, seeing that he cannot be useful, of his own free will goes into the forest - so as not to disturb the young.

And in those archaic societies where the experience passed on from generation to generation is especially important, old people, on the contrary, are considered as the “golden fund” of the clan or tribe, which must be protected and listened to. Thus, among most mountain peoples, old people are held in high esteem - they know all the secrets of the mountains.

In modern society, the status of an old person depends primarily on his material security. If an old man is weak and poor, he is assessed as “having fallen out of life’s race,” as an outsider, and his life is most often unenviable. If an old person is rich or simply well-off, then he, on the contrary, can be assessed as “free from the rush of life,” as someone who can finally do not earn money, but do what he wants: draw, write novels, travel around the world. If you maintain your health in a prosperous old age, it can bring many more varied joys and pleasures that you may not have even dreamed of in your youth.

Old age is characterized by the perfection of fate, embodied in the results of labor. As a rule, by this time a person has already, figuratively speaking, “built a house, planted a tree and given birth to a son,” that is, he has realized his strengths and abilities in different areas. This brings peace and satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment. In addition, experience has been accumulated in subjective form, which old people strive to pass on to new generations - children and grandchildren. Since in old age a person most often becomes frail, he withdraws from active professional and social activities. Pension laws different countries The time when citizens retire is determined differently, but in most cases, if they are in good health, old people can continue to different forms participate in public life. Great opportunities for self-realization are retained in old age by people of creative professions - writers, artists, theoretical scientists, whose creativity does not depend on large quantity superior conditions.

A very sad experience of old age is the understanding of a narrowing time perspective: a truly old person understands that he can live another 5-10 years, but is unlikely to live longer. In old age there is no that feeling of “endless horizons” that so inspires youth.

Different people They experience the state of old age very differently. There can be extremes here. So some old people are carried away by the past, the present does not interest them at all, others, on the contrary, live for today and still make plans; some easily accept their new look, believing that wrinkles and gray hair are normal, these are just signs of age, others strive to maintain a youthful appearance, and sometimes resort to a variety of means - from ordinary gymnastics to cosmetic surgery. Probably, the golden mean is a wise approach, in which a person strives not to grow old in body or soul, but at the same time does not artificially look younger, does not play “like a girl” or “like a boy,” causing the younger generations to laugh. Almost everyone has to get used to illnesses as the norm, adapt to taking a lot of medications and constantly maintaining health. Some people find real advantages in being old: the ability to understand life, free time, the discovery of the beauty of nature, which manifested itself when the passionate quest of youth became a thing of the past. In old age, people write memoirs, read books, go for walks—do things that they previously put off “for later.” Old age has only one fundamental disadvantage - it also ends.