National Academy for Teaching and Learning about Aging

The National Academy for Teaching and Learning about Aging (NATLA) works to connect younger and older generations by changing the extent and nature of information about the aging process that is provided in K-12 public schools.

Founded in 1983 as the Center for Understanding Aging, NATLA is a collaborative effort of UNT's College of Education, Texas Institute for Research and Education on Aging and Department of Applied Gerontology, and the National Retired Teachers Association, a division of the American Association of Retired Persons. NATLA provides training, resources and technical assistance to organizations across the United States to promote education about aging-related issues. Support is provided by the Administration on Aging and the Retirement Research Foundation.

NATLA's mission is to promote a life span approach to increasing understanding about aging issues through education and intergenerational cooperation. A life span approach is one that does not focus solely on the study of the first 30 years of life. NATLA's goal are to:

• increase public awareness that education in aging issues is essential for youth;

• promote the use of information about the later years of life as part of college preparatory courses for K-12 educators and administrators;

• improve the quality and quantity of K-12 aging-related instructional materials;

• assure that the curricula and the content of textbooks used by all disciplines and grade levels include a life span approach;

• collaborate with education and gerontology professional organizations at the national, state and local levels in promoting K-12 education about life span issues; and

• develop applied research on education about aging and research on intergenerational understanding.

KATHY PETTIFORD, Director kathyp@scs.cmm.unt.edu

Other web resources:

• www.unt.edu/natla

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