Sunday 7 December 2008

The most graceful age


Summer born babies are said to be at a disadvantage to Winter born ones when it comes to education, says a report in the Observer newspaper. 

Being the younger ones in the year, children born at the end of the academic year, may struggle to keep up with their maturer class mates, not because of intelligence, but because of age.

I possibly agree with that. Being born in October, I was always older at school. But as soon as it came to university it swapped over. All the younger ones in the year tended to take gap years. Where as I didn't because my time was ticking. So we all leveled out in the end.

But then when you go beyond university, youthful careers and your glowing golden age at work, you turn into a wrinkly figure of discrimination.  According to the Observer newspaper today again, the number of people facing ageism at work have tripled within a year.

It appears that mainly women suffer most. It makes sense. All you need to do is watch this series of X factor. Female judges Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue have an average age of 31 years old. Male judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh have a rather larger average of 53 years old.

I would say Cheryl and Dannii find success partly due to their attractive looks. But I wouldn't say Simon and Louis made it big because of their stunning handsomeness.

The outcome? Perhaps increasing compensation pay-outs for those who feel discriminated against. Perhaps increasing plastic surgery. Or more ideally, perhaps a whole shift in the societies views towards appearances and age... 

The older should mean the wiser, the more experienced, the more confident. Not just the more wrinkles.

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