The secret of teaching
is to appear to have known
all your life
what you just learned
this morning.
- Source Unknown

Young children seem to be growing up faster than ever. They seem to be maturing physically more rapidly than in the past. But their social and emotional maturity seem to be lagging and it may indeed be slower than it's ever been in the past.

Some people say that this is a result of the influence of television and the mass media. They may be right in their conjecture. The bottom line is that it is important for us to realize certain facts that although the child sitting before us may look mature that he may be less mature than ever and we might have to treat that child accordingly. In other words, that child may foil our expectations and we have to realize what we should really expect of the child so that we will be able gear our class accordingly.

If we would simply look at the child and expect the children to be as mature as they look then we might prepare a lesson which would be out of their reach. If on the other hand, we realize the children's natural limitation and the fact that they only look mature but really they don't have too much to show for their appearance then we can teach the class accordingly.

Nonetheless, we may be surprised or shocked at some of the statements that they make in class and some of the issues that they know that we as teachers did not know until much later in life. This is again part of their exposure to the mass media. But their knowledge of things that are way beyond our experience does not mean that behind it they have a level of maturity that might be expected.