Defining Maturity

Maturity is commonly used word, but when asked what the word means many people simply shrug their shoulders. Maturity isn’t a word that has a clear definition. Being based primarily on one’s connotation, it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Personally I picked this word up through context. However, upon doing a careful study of where this word originates and other’s connotation’s, I feel I’ve achieved a relatively good understanding. Webster claims the word to mean “based on slow careful consideration,” but I feel there is much more to this word than that.

How can a word our society uses so much have such a loose definition. Teacher’s and parents refer to their children as mature or immature. But maybe one teacher’s definition of maturity is the child, —or adult, can press on while a fellow student is in trouble, to ensure he himself does well. While another’s definition is that the child expressed maturity for stopping and helping the other child in his decisions to avoid trouble. A common idea is that to show maturity one must weigh out all the possible outcomes and then ...