Can maturity be taught?

A parent said to me that maturity is something that a child is born with. She said to me that maturity is inherent. She told me that I would not be able to teach her child maturity.

She’s right about the last point. I completely disagree with her first two points.

Maturity is not something that we teach our children but it is something that we can model. It is something that we can explain. It is something that we can practise. You don’t take a class in maturity - I get that. But if you want your child to pass their 4+ Assessment at a top school, they need to be able to go in and demonstrate maturity. And if they don’t, guess what? They most likely will not pass.

Many of you assume that maturity is either something a child has or hasn’t got. And I disagree. I believe that all of our children’s characters will be 50:50. They will have good days and they will have bad days. They will have days in which they are super calm and they will have days in which they are not.

So if your child is currently ‘not demonstrating maturity’, I invite you to make a note every single day of just one time in the day in which your child demonstrated maturity. At the end of the month, I guarantee your notebook will be full.

Perhaps your child says ‘You’re welcome!’ when you say thank you to them. Perhaps they hold the door open for you as you walk past, perhaps they give you eye contact and respond to your question in a really clear and concise manner.

All children have the ability to be mature. All children have the ability to demonstrate maturity. It just has to be practised.

So no we do not teach our students how to be mature but we do practise maturity in each and every lesson. And that is why when they go into their 4+ Assessments, they are able to go in and show mature behaviour and mature attitudes towards their learning. This is because they clearly understand that this is the expectation.

And yes, three year olds have the ability to do this! I see it year after year after year.