Research has shown that small children and other people view old age and the elderly very negatively. Unless parents and teachers begin to initiate changes in thinking, old age will be a tragedy for most of today's youth. In this study, 67 second graders and 59 sixth graders in Mississippi responded to a modified Children's Attitude toward the Elderly Scale. They answered questions about aging and older persons and reacted to polar adjectives used to describe the elderly. Results indicated that sixth graders were more negative in their attitudes toward the elderly than were second graders and that boys were more negative than girls. Statistically, the attitudes of white sixth-grade boys were significantly more negative than those of black sixth-grade boys. All of the children responded negatively to questions about their own aging. Children expressed more positive affective feelings toward the elderly, with most negative reactions being related to physical characteristics. White children had more contact with elderly persons outside their families, but only 2 percent of the entire sample helped the elderly or engaged in activities with them. These results imply that intervention programs should be implemented in schools to enhance children's attitudes toward the elderly. (CB)