Question

From the previous lesson, you have learned about stereotyping which may come in different

forms such as age, culture and gender. Choose one of the following situations and express your
agreement or disagreement. Explain your answer.
1. Women should wash the dishes.
2. llocanos are thrifty.
3. Older people contribute little to the society.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Let's work with the third situation:

3. Older people contribute little to the society.

Let's disagree with it. It is hard to think of a person who has lived long as someone who has little to offer. Some people seem to spread this type of stereotyping focusing mainly on the fact that older people get to retire. They seem to view work as the main or only contribution anyone has to offer.

First, we could argue that older people have already done their part. They have worked - often times much more than they should have. I know of older people, for instance, who started to work when they were only 11 or 12 years old - of course, times were different then, and that was acceptable. So, claiming that retiring means not contributing is quite hypocritical.

Besides that, we can also think in terms of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Although younger generations are tech savvy and have a more tolerant view of the world, they will never have certain experiences, will never understand certain situations or acquire a certain type of knowledge (unless they learn it from an older person).