YES, ESL_IN_ASIA,

As usual, your facts are pretty accurate, but as for classifying the USA as being "age tolerant," I fear REALITY presents quite another story. Yet, in comparison to other lands -- especially throughout Asia -- I reckon you could say the USA is, quite paradoxically, an "Eden" in this respect. This business of corporations making use of the elderly and females had its grand debut during WWII, when all of the younger generation were getting their limbs blown to smithereens on the Pacific and Atlantic fronts. But when 1945 and victory came our way, those very same revered oldsters and females, having so greatly treasured their moment in the spotlight, were quickly hastened back to their rocking chairs and kitchens.

As you probably know by this time, I am 67 years of age, and I've been a busy boy throughout my careers in music, writing, and ESL instruction. Perhaps I had been too vain to know what I was recently forced to realize -- that I am considered by many as too old to compete in a young person's world, this being one of the reasons why I can no longer afford to be overly selective in my choice and location of employment ... or employer, for that matter. Alas, for those of us who are unfit for retirement, too damned poor to invest in our own enterprises, and customarily passed over for the DECENT gigs in the marketplace, one can only have pity on us for our unenviable plight. Of course, there are those who will argue that an instructor with 20 years of teaching experience behind him/her would be worth his/her weight in gold to ANY school. Perish the thought. The questions of applicable salary, health insurance, etc., etc. evidently matter greatly to the majority of institutions, both public and private. YES, there are laws here in the USA which supposedly protect the rights of those over 35. Unfortunately, employers are, by this time, expert in "The Art of Evasion," and have had their fair share of practice in the marketplace in making a rejection seem both unavoidable and acceptable to their victims. Christ! EVEN I was beginning to buy the circumstances meant to justify one of MY OWN rejections -- that is, until I suddenly awoke from the miasma so skillfully created by that pleading s.o.b.!

THE ANSWER to age discrimination? Search me. I have naught but to keep on a-truckin' and keep on a-hopin' during the remainder of my professional plight. In essence, the one thing I HAVE managed to learn is that, albeit there are far too many employers plagued by an ide fixe concerning the world's preference for youth, there are still those who both recognize and respect the value of age and experience. For those of us over 35, however, sending out our rsum is usually a crapshoot. Yet, pray we NEVER find the game tiring, for there's ALWAYS something out there to, at least temporarily, satisfy our needs. Amen.

The Arrogant One