Illinois

Third-grade teacher Tracey Lazzo projected lessons from her computer onto a new SMART Board at Chelsea Intermediate School, while her pupils matched up geometric shapes by touching and dragging them across a classroom-sized screen that even talks back. The board is the latest and greatest in classroom technology, Lazzo said. "When you add something like this to the curriculum it adds excitement," Lazzo said. "It broadens the scope of what we do." Her classroom got the high-tech board last year after Lazzo pitched the idea to the Frankfort District 157C Foundation's board. After seeing its success, the foundation -- which …

The Franklin Grove Park Board will be sponsoring the Lincoln Highway Car Show from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 in downtown Franklin Grove. Registration is from 10 a.m. - noon.
Preregistration by April 19 is $10. Registration the day of the

Noted University of Illinois at Chicago biodemographer S. Jay Olshansky is the author of two essays assembled by The World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on an Ageing Society to address the challenges and benefits of population aging.<br /><br />Olshansky's work is part of a book titled "Global Population Ageing: Peril or Promise?" released at the World Economic Forum meeting today in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The book consists of 22 essays divided into four themes: setting the stage for policy decisions on aging; investing in ourselves; pursuing healthy aging; and redesigning our environment. The central theme that emerges is the increasing need to adapt to population aging, identify and take advantage of the opportunities it offers and find ways to unlock the human capital resources that population aging and longer lives make possible.<br /><br />"The book is designed to change the way the world looks at the aging of individuals and populations," says Olshansky, who is professor of epidemiology in the UIC School of Public Health. "The traditional view is one of loss, decline, decay, and high cost. The new view is to look at aging as an opportunity."<br /><br />Olshansky's first chapter is "The Elders," about a small group of independent-minded elders brought together by Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, Desmond Tutu and others to actively engage in society to resolve global issues at the highest levels. The group, as Olshansky shows, provides an example of leadership attributes common in older people that should be nurtured.<br /><br />In the second chapter, "The Longevity Dividend: Health as an Investment," Olshansky, John R. Beard and Axel Börsch-Supan advocate investing in health to live better, not just longer. "The economic value of a rapidly growing healthy older population is so large that healthy aging should be aggressively pursued, on its own merits, as a societal investment," say the authors.<br /><br />The Ageing Book is available at:<br />http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC_GlobalPopulationAgeing_Report_2012.pdf<br /><br />Olshansky can be reached at <a href="mailto:sjayo@uic.edu">sjayo@uic.edu</a> or (847) 537-7278.<br /><br />For more information about UIC, visit <a href="http://www.uic.edu">www.uic.edu</a>.