One of the running themes of the White House Conference on Aging is the difficulty with all of the words traditionally used in the field of aging. Nobody seems to much like "elders" or "seniors." Euphemisms like "mature" and "seasoned" sound like, well, euphemisms.
David Eisner, chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, acknowledged the difficulties in his keynote address, in which he discussed the challenges involved in harnessing the time and talents of baby boomers. Boomers, he said, demand a greater variety of volunteering opportunities, want their service to be meaningful, want to see results, want flexibility, want explicit recognition and don't like bureaucracy and red tape.
"Oh, and by the way, they don’t even like the word 'volunteering.' And they really don’t like the word 'senior,' Eisner said. "That certainly gives us pause, since my agency sponsors the single largest group of volunteer programs for adults over 55 – and it’s called 'Senior Corps.'”
--David Bank
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