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Discrimination against the Aged in Young Children's Literature

Some negative feelings of children toward old age have been noted by researchers and critics. Children as young as six years of age are reported by Jacobs (3) to have unfavorable feelings about old people. Hickey and Kalish (4) found that third-graders have a more pleasant view of young adults than of the elderly. Simone de Beauvoir relates conversations with young girls in which they express their fears about growing old: " 'I shan't get that far ... I'll kill myself first' " (5: 4). To determine whether young children's literature contributes to this unfavorable view of old age, a study was made of one hundred books for children of preschool age through Grade 3. Literature was analyzed because it is an important means by which the attitudes and the values of a society are communicated to children (6: 7) at a time "before other socialization influences (such as school, teachers and peers) become more important .. ." (7: 1126-27).