In my experience the best way
to promote intergenerational communication in society is through mentoring
relationships. In such relationships an
older person cultivates a close friendship relationship with a younger person
to the mutual benefit of both. A
mentoring relationship is more egalitarian than a parent-child, or a
teacher-student relationship. In such
relationships both learn from one another and both are changed by the other.
There is a general
consensus in the literature that emerging adults benefit greatly from a
mentoring relationship with a member of the older generation. A
mentorship relationship is one, which provides company for emerging adults,
which shows respect and caring towards them, and which supports, challenges and
inspires them in a context of ongoing dialogue with them. Older adults in these mentoring
relationships relate to emerging adults in such a way that both their strengths
and their vulnerabilities are acknowledged.
Mentoring relationships
between older and younger people are made possible by the fact that older and
younger generations need each other and complement one another.
This is evident from parent-child relations and teacher-student
relations. Children cannot grow
up unless parents nurture them and
students don’t learn unless teachers teach them. But the converse is also true: parents cannot be parents
unless they have children to raise, and teachers cannot teach if there are no
students to educate. Generations
complement each other and that is an important fact to note when dealing with
intergenerational communication.
When enough of these relationships have been
established, a society takes on the character of what Daloz-Parks calls a mentoring
community. Mentoring
communities such as families, schools, places of work and churches provide much
the same mentoring services to these young people in a communal fashion. The tasks of mentoring communities toward
emerging adults, mentioned in the literature are manifold, but they all appear
to come down to encouraging them to grow up with foresight and vision. In an ongoing authentic dialogue with them
mentoring communities are to show hospitality to their potential of
becoming. Older adults in these
communities are expected to recognize and honour the strengths of emerging
adults but also to challenge them to face their problems. Mentoring communities give emerging adults
practical support and a place to belong.
Most of all they are expected to anchor the promise of their future by
providing them with an inspiration for the long haul. In the main, mentoring communities offer emerging adults security
for the time being and a viable hope and vision for the years to come.
Mentoring
relationships and communities envelop emerging adults into a network of
belonging in which they feel safe to wrestle with the big questions of life and
in which they feel free to explore worthy dreams about their future. In these communities they can come to terms with the paradoxical nature of
human life, where things are hardly ever as they ought to be and in which they
can practice some of the skills they need to function as contributing adults in
the society in which they live.
No comments:
Post a Comment