The pattern that we see today of adults returning to school to be trained for different careers will only intensify in the coming years. People are living longer and staying healthier, and more and more adults – by choice, necessity or some combination of the two – are working well into what used to be known as the retirement years (Freedman, 2007). In this final chapter, I discuss lessons that I learned from working with increasingly age-diverse groups of teacher candidates and what teacher training programs and institutions of higher education can do to better meet their needs. I describe the need for careful mentoring of new teachers and for rethinking teacher staffing models to allow expert and novice teachers across the age spectrum to work in teams. I make a case for creating a shared vision for lifelong learning that encourages individuals to experiment with new ideas and different types of work, regardless of where they are in the life cycle. We will see what our society stands to gain from recognizing the creative potential of older adults and from adopting policies aimed at helping people to prepare for a variety of careers at different points in their lives.

Needed: A Compelling Vision for Later Life

In his book, Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, Marc Freedman (1999: 231) contends that we lack ‘a compelling vision for later life in this country, a vision both that reflects the new hopes and dreams of third agers and that is capable of inspiring this group to assume new roles in society’. Our society celebrates youth and considers growing older a bad thing. Aging is often associated with decline and decrepitude, and we spend a lot of mental and physical energy seeking to look young. Consider the flourishing ‘anti-aging’ industry, which ‘made a disease out of getting old—and made billions’ (Weintraub, 2010).