This research needs extending into causes, but the reality of the phenomenon seems clear. Here's a synopsis: Mentor-protegerelationships: Age gap really does matter. And the cash value seems to be: "Older and overstretched mentors may be too far removed from their young proteges' experience to train them effectively. There is a disconnect."
This is clearly important in the design of educational experiences, though we should hold off too-agist a take on it: some of potential causes could affect the matter greatly: if it is to do with seniority, responsibility rather than empathy and identification then it may not be age as such but the correlates of age in institutional cultures.
The other intriguing possibility is the missional one: that clergy rarely seem to develop vocations or even 'conversions' in people more than 10 years either side of their own age ....
1 comment:
Yes, something I have noticed is that the most active members of congregations seem to be about the same age as the (senior) clergy.
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