TLP 549: Expectational Education, Part 2 | The Importance of Maturity

Maturity is more than physical age. Maturity also requires cognitive development.

But the most important form of maturity is… Parenting isn't about us. In fact, parenting isn't even about our kids.

Parenting is just one way Christian dads and moms are to worship God. So welcome to the Truth, Love, Parent podcast, where we train dads and moms to give

God the preeminence in their parenting. Welcome back to our discussion about Expectational Education.

I am your host and the creator of Expectational Education, Aaron Michael Brewster. I've been teaching in various venues since the age of 15.

I am or have been a Sunday School Teacher, Martial Arts Instructor, Elementary School Teacher, Regional Training Manager for Panera Bread Company, Acting Teacher, Homeschooling Parent, Junior High Teacher, Coach, Improv Instructor, Mentor, Disciple, Senior High Teacher, Biblical Counselor, and Preacher.

Education is super important to me because it's eternally important to God, and I believe the

Bible makes it clear that we all, in one way or another, are expected to teach. Therefore, we should all be interested to learn how to teach in Christ -honoring ways.

And I believe Expectational Education needs to be part of that process because Expectational Education is all about glorifying

God by doing our best in our education. So last time we talked about what expectations are and how incredibly important they are to our learning, and we started and ended with the observation that the most important expectations are the appropriate high expectations we have for ourselves, the internal expectations.

And it's the question, how do we help those we're teaching to internalize the appropriate high expectations that will move us into today's talk about maturity.

All educators, all parents, all pastors, all people in positions of authority must understand the difference between physical maturity, cognitive maturity, and spiritual maturity.

An unfortunate and yet avoidable failure in modern education, and I'd even say within the church, is that authority figures have forgotten that one's spiritual maturity and one's physical maturity are not dependent on each other, and in fact, they often develop without any direct influence from the other.

In a similar way, a student may have great cognitive ability but lack spiritual maturity, or the student may have weak cognitive ability and yet possess significant spiritual maturity.

Therefore, the belief that spiritual maturity is directly tied to physical maturity, cognitive maturity, and or age has created an insurmountable wall around personal growth that keeps students incarcerated within a system that doesn't appreciate how

God created them to learn and grow. But the knowledge that the spirit can mature apart from physical maturation has the ability to absolutely revolutionize education, and I'm talking about all forms of education, including what happens in the church and parachurch organizations.

So let's talk about the three forms of maturity so that we can have a better appreciation for the roles they play in education.

Number one, physical maturity. Physical maturity is just that. It's a biological measure of the individual's age.

Various measurements can be taken, including how tall a person is, how gray their hair is, whether or not they've gone through puberty, how many wrinkles they have, how much baby fat they still have, and so on.

Of course, these measurements are often confused. I have a first cousin once removed who looks much older than she is because of her height.

I've had friends who grayed prematurely. My wife has always looked much younger than she is.

In fact, it's gotten to the point where my wife, our two kids, and I will go out somewhere and people will think it's a dad and his three kids.

Thankfully, there are better measures for a person's physical maturity. I think the easiest is simply observing how much time has passed since the date on their birth certificate.

That's probably the most accurate, but that doesn't stop people from using biochemical tests called the epigenetic clocks or DNA methylation tests.

But there's a widespread misunderstanding that a person becomes more overall mature as they become more physically mature.

This is due to the fact that for the longest time, the only factor that was considered in regard to maturity was how old the person was.

But that, my friends, is erroneous thinking. But more on that in a minute. Biblically speaking, physical maturity carries with it one inherent expectation.

The scriptures are clear that older people should be respected. In Leviticus 19 .32 we read,

You shall rise up before the gray haired and honor the aged and you shall fear your God. I am

Yahweh. Proverbs 23 .22 tells us, Listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Lamentations 5 .12 laments, Princes were hung by their hands, elders were not respected.

1 Timothy 5 .1 -2 identifies that we should treat older men and women as we treat our parents with honor.

And there are other passages that celebrate the joys of old age. But then we find passages like Job 12 .12

which says, Wisdom is with aged men, with long life is discernment. And I would argue this is a proverbial truth.

Obviously, that's the way it's supposed to work. The Bible is clear that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another.

And as that happens over time, as our bodies age, we should be maturing in other ways as well. But just because it's supposed to work that way, and just because there are examples that it does work that way, it doesn't mean that it will always work that way or that it has to work that way.

How many older people do we know who are very foolish, sinful, destructive individuals?

I can think of one right now who happens to have a very powerful position in the United States government as we speak.

So, please recognize that just because someone is a certain physical age, it doesn't mean that they are inherently mature or even as mature as other people their age.

As a school teacher, I can easily attest to the fact that not every 12 -year -old is equally mature. Now, I'm going to talk later this season about the truth and lies of developmental stages.

But for now, I don't want to pretend that physical maturity has absolutely no effect on a person's ability to learn.

Now, I'm not advocating for teaching calculus to infants or suggesting that 6 -year -olds should be allowed to drive automobiles.

However, I am going to say that we need to dispossess ourselves of the notion that physical age is a significant variable when it comes to learning most things in this world.

The vast majority of daily truth need not be compartmentalized into grades. There's far more information that should be taught to a 7th grader than shouldn't.

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Now let's talk about the difference between physical maturity and cognitive maturity. Number two, cognitive maturity.

Whereas physical maturity is a biological measure of the individual's age, cognitive maturity is a biological measure of the individual's brain power.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

Cognitive maturity deals with our brains and how we acquire knowledge. Now I don't want to dive into the fathomless ocean that is the brain sciences.

We humans haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what the brain is and how it works. But I do want to simplify some core concepts.

First, when we talk about brain power, we're talking about two quantifiable metrics. A, storage capacity.

This is already a hotly debated topic, but suffice it to say, we're not sure if everyone's brains have the same storage capacity as everyone else's.

I argue that even if it can be proven that we all have the same capacity, that doesn't change the fact that some people clearly have access to more of it.

And I believe it's relatively easy to demonstrate that those who have access to a greater percentage of their storage capacity are either naturally gifted, have learned to access it, or both.

And that should remind you of what we had discussed last week concerning the three kinds of geniuses. Since nobody but God can make you more naturally gifted, let's focus on what we can learn.

I do believe there are ways to increase one's storage capacity, or at least increase their access to it, whether that be what we refer to as the short -term or the long -term memories.

But there's another metric to consider when talking about brain power. B, computing speed.

Let's say that two people possess the same information, but one person can access that information much quicker than the other.

That is going to be a significant benefit to the one who processes their stored knowledge faster. Again, a higher computing speed can be the result of natural gifting, as well as hard work and practice.

So cognitive maturity develops as a result of exercising a healthy brain to increase the amount of information stored, as well as the speed at which a person can access that stored information.

When it comes to measuring a person's cognitive maturity, there are any number of methods to utilize, the most common of which involves testing, retention, recall, and systematization.

And I'm sure that most of you listening today have known people who were more cognitively mature than individuals who were significantly more physically mature than they, and vice versa.

This shows us that there isn't a direct and necessary correlation between the physical age of the brain and what

I call the maturity of the brain. Still, cognitive maturity is not the end -all to end -all.

We can't stop here and say, well, we figured it out. We need to focus on cognitive maturity if we want our kids to learn the best they can.

I will say that's part of the answer. Strengthening the brain is a very important and wise thing to do, but in the larger discussion of expectational education, it's not the most important form of maturity.

So let's consider our last category of maturity for today. Number three, spiritual maturity. Now, before I get too far in defining this,

I want to point out that when I'm discussing this point with unbelievers in secular educational settings, I refer to this as mental maturity.

Please understand that these terms are synonymous as I use them from a biblical perspective. However, I do prefer to use the word spiritual.

Contrary to popular belief, the mind is not the brain. The mind is not merely a process of the physical organ called the brain.

When God created Adam, he designed a body and breathed into that body a spirit. Scriptures are abundantly clear that the totality of the human soul is the unity of the physical body and the immaterial spirit.

It is of this spirit that the Bible is talking when it refers to the heart and the mind of the person.

For example, in Romans 8 -6, we learn that the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

And Ephesians 4 -23 teaches that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Now, if the spirit and the heart and the mind are all the same thing, then some of you will wonder why

Jesus delineated between the mind and the spirit in his discussion of the greatest commandments.

There is an answer, but unfortunately, this is not the place for that conversation. Suffice it to say, man is a dichotomy of body and spirit.

The spirit is the immaterial part of man that secular scientists refer to as the mind. It is the very core of man.

Therefore, let's focus on the fact that whereas physical maturity is a biological measure of the individual's age and cognitive maturity is a biological measure of the individual's brain power, spiritual maturity is a biblical measure of the individual's wisdom.

There are no biological tests for a person's spiritual -mental maturity.

None. And even though the world has created various secular cognitive tests to measure mental maturity, most of them fail because of their foundational philosophies.

They ignore what the Bible says constitutes maturity and they often advocate that very unbiblical traits are the actual marks of maturity.

For example, some believe that when a person is mature enough to throw off the foolish notion that a supernatural being created the universe, they have reached a new stage of mental maturity.

But as always, as our Creator, God gets to define what it is to be a mature human being.

Biblically speaking, the basic criteria of a person's maturity is how wise they are. Now, we talk a lot about what wisdom is in our

Circle of Learning and Discipleship Spiral series. Those, as well as the other resources I mentioned last time, will be linked in the description of today's episode.

But I will quickly lay down here the basic truths concerning wisdom. Wisdom is defined as taking what one knows and understands and using it in his or her life in a

Christ -honoring way. It's our cognitive maturity that relates to what we know and understand, but it's our spiritual maturity that will determine if we use that knowledge and understanding in the right ways.

Therefore, we could say that since wisdom is identical to godliness, and we should say that wisdom is the measure of how godly someone is, the more an individual submits themselves to the general and specific revelation of God, the more mature they are.

A person who can write on a test that addition is the combination of two or more numbers has a certain level of cognitive maturity.

A person who has been taught how to combine numbers correctly is even more cognitively mature.

But if that same person doesn't care to combine or forgets to combine correctly the numbers 40 and 4, so as to come to the number 44, they didn't use the information they had and are therefore foolish.

They're not as mentally mature or spiritually mature as they could be. Allow me to make one more observation concerning wisdom and maturity before we move on.

Maturity is specificity. The more specific, and I have to add here accurate in your specificity, the more mature you are in that concept.

In my life, I have interacted with many people skilled in many disciplines, and I have repeatedly found that the more information and practical wisdom that person had in their discipline, the more specifically and precisely they could speak on the topic.

This includes sports, the business of oil refineries, how cell towers work, flying planes, and the like.

In the addition example I just gave, the idea that addition is combining numbers is a broad truth.

It is much narrower and more specific to know how to combine numbers correctly, and it's even more specific to know when to combine numbers, such as the order of operations.

But when presented by 40 plus 4, the ability to bring that knowledge to bear on this particular specific formula would be more precise and specific than the previous concepts.

That was free, and I'm sure we'll talk about this more in the future. There are some significant practical applications of this truth that will benefit you as you put them to use in your home.

When it comes to education, the spiritual maturity is the part that does problem solving.

Problem solving is inherently the application of knowledge to a problem. Therefore, it's not our cognitive maturity that helps us solve problems.

It's our spiritual maturity. Therefore, an educational approach that believes that increased cognitive ability is the key to better living is completely wrong.

Yes, cognitive ability will help us learn more and access that information faster, but it doesn't guarantee we'll use it correctly as we face problems in our lives.

Consider Romans 1, 18 -23, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.

First, let's see that truth is key to godliness. Moving on, For since the creation of the world,

His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

They saw, learned, and knew that God existed. They understood it to such a degree that they are without excuse for everything that comes next.

Let's pick up our reading in verse 21. For even though they knew God, they did not glorify

Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of birds and four -footed animals and crawling creatures.

They had the cognitive knowledge and understanding, but they lacked the spiritual wisdom to use that knowledge to worship

God instead of their own inventions. Now, as I've said many times already, we can't get into all of the information in this short series, but there are a number of things you can do.

First, you can deepen your understanding of these topics by listening to the other podcast resources I've curated for you in the description of this episode.

Second, you could invite me to speak at your church or school, homeschool group, or organization about these topics.

And third, instead of meeting with me in a group, you could request for me to be your personal Expectational Education Coach.

I have frequently worked with individuals and couples to implement these concepts in their homeschools, Christian schools, and public schools.

You can request me to speak on a variety of topics at ambruster .com. You can also send an email to teamtlp at truthloveparent .com.

Now, let's conclude our episode today by pulling back out from all of this specificity to look at the big picture again.

Our world has proven itself to be immature in the field of education because it has too broad and general an understanding of immaturity.

They believe that a child's physical age dictates what they're capable of learning. But we need to do better than that.

We need to understand that we, our kids, and our friends should be maturing in our cognitive abilities. We should be regularly adding to our wealth of knowledge, and we should be learning to better access that knowledge.

So yes, your educational approach needs to have appropriate high expectations for your child or student's cognitive maturity.

But ultimately, the ability for anyone to truly benefit from their education, they need to internalize the appropriate high expectations and use them wisely to God's honor and glory.

They need to mature mentally to mature spiritually. These core concepts of expectations and maturity are the foundation stones of expectational education.

We need to understand the power, both destructive and constructive, of expectations, as well as understand that expectations are powerless in the hands of immature people.

So with that as our foundation, on the next two episodes, we're going to see the importance of both universality and individuality in our expectations.

Therefore, please share this with all your friends so that they can join us in this study. And if you need some personalized coaching or counseling, please write us at counselor at truthloveparent .com

or call 828 -423 -0894. I'd love to help you implement these truths into your home, school, church, business, or organization.

So I'll see you next time when we talk about why you need to consider the universality of expectations. Truth Love Parent is part of the

Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you worship God through your parenting. So join us next time as we study

God's Word to learn how to parent our children for life and godliness. And remember that TLP is a listener -supported ministry.