Golden oldies

Re: “Lessons from the past”, (PostBag, April 3).

Jason A Jellison’s letter is way off. First, he is assuming that all retirees are “elderly” and over the hill. Wrong. Thailand issues retirement visas to any qualified seekers at 55 years old. The average age for teacher retirement in North America and elsewhere is 65. As for keeping up with technology, many retires can probably match or outdo Mr Jellison and leave him in the dust.

However, let’s concentrate on academic rather than technical subjects, which seems Mr Jellison’s contention. Teaching academic subjects has hardly undergone much change these past 50 or more years. What has changed is mostly the environment, from stone built universities to air-conditioned classrooms and dress codes. As for experience, he might live another 50 years before he could match me year for year.

I’d advise our exuberant, youthful, knowit-all foreign students to remember the old expression, “Youth is wasted on the young”.

RETIRED MANGO BA, MA, PhD (City University, New York)