Final Report: Why Grow Up? -p. 192 Kenji Matsumura

Introduction:

Susan Neiman discusses a wide range of topics within her book, Why Grow Up. Among these topics, I was assigned to elaborate on the meaning of her thoughts on maturity, and why we should grow up. It’s important to remember that the target audience of this book ranges from teenagers to young adults, and that many of the ideas and examples used throughout the book are meant to help this age group guide themselves through life. In this blog post, I will write about the state of maturity as viewed from Susan Neiman’s point of view, the effects of generations on maturity, and the nature of maturity. Within this post, I have also included links to and tangents to articles that I believe back some of the claims I build upon from WGU. I hope you enjoy it!

Mixed messages about maturity:

I’m sure that we all have had this experience before. We’re all told to take life by the reins and drive ourselves toward success. The “American Dream,” or so they call it. However, this type of view is warped and usually doesn’t account for the natural influences of our society. Immanuel Kant picked up on this idea back in his times. In his essay titled “What Is Enlightenment?”, published in 1784, Kant discusses how individuals often remain in a state of self-imposed immaturity due to a lack of courage and resolve to think for themselves. He highlights the importance of freedom to use reason publicly in all matters, and he encouraged individuals to have the confidence to think independently. However, this is not the case for most people in today’s world. Susan Neiman draws upon this claim, saying that half of the mixed messages we hear are to stop dreaming and accept how the world is, while the other half blasts us with products and suggestions that are meant to keep us young. In the same way, maturity makes no sense in the way that it is displayed in contemporary society. With no right or wrong ideal, it seems like everyone is aspiring to be something that doesn’t exist.

Since I reference Kant frequently in this post, I thought that adding a little comic strip to describe his character (although very extreme) would be a fun addition to the post.

Read more about how to deal with these messages about maturity here: "The Lifelong Journey of Personal Development" by Ilene Strauss Cohen, Ph.D

 I find that the Ph.D. explains a lot of these topics better than I do!

The Topic of Maturity Regarding Our Generation:

Here’s an interesting quote I found referencing a problem Rousseau had with growing up: “It’s impossible to create fully active and responsible citizens in a society that undermines adulthood, yet it’s impossible to create another society without a fairly large number of responsible adults.” The eternal loophole of people saying we need to take responsibility while they criticize those who do take responsibility is a tough problem for society. How are we to combat this prejudice toward responsible humans while making progress towards the future of our countries? To this, I present an example. Can you imagine a president emerging from our generation? It feels so far away from the present, and somehow it also feels like it would be impossible. Next thing we know, a mandatory two-hour reels session will be replacing nap time for kindergarteners. It makes me wonder if the generation before us felt the same way. It’s hard to trust people, especially those from the same age group as ourselves, and this is the root of the problem of growing up. Kant saw this problem emerge before us, and he presented the opinion that “growing up will never be complete.” He believed that it was the work of generations, and that everyone is limited by an education that they could not choose. The best that we can do is take something from it and free ourselves from the rest. As we grow from generation to generation, our knowledge expands, and our freedom prevails even if society around us changes. Rather than focusing on what the people around us are doing and fearing the idea of becoming an adult, we should focus on our education and minds in order to nurture our upcoming generations to our best abilities. “Even partial liberation will leave the next generation a better place to start.” Every unspoken action that we’ve taken to make the world better is certainly another part of growing up.

Learn more about the true meaning of being mature here: "What It Really Means to Be Mature" by Loriann Oberlin, MS, LCPC

On Maturity:

What does it take to become mature? You may think that it takes a suit and tie, a job, and a family with multiple kids. Sure, those are all great persuasions that back up the idea of being a mature human, but do they necessarily equal maturity? You can be forced into maturity. For example, a war or family tragedy will prematurely thrust someone into responsibilities they wouldn’t normally accept. But that in itself can be problematic because it gives birth to fearful people rather than self-determined courageous adults. That brings me to my next point: a quote from Why Grow Up, “maturity cannot be commanded, it must be desired.” This quote speaks volumes to me, and I believe it to be solid as stone. We must desire to become greater than we are now in order to grow into something more desirable, and this quote solidifies this claim. We can try and present models of maturity, and while compelling to a certain degree, it doesn’t change the will of a person to become mature. As kids, I’m sure we all had a role model that we looked up to, whether that was Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Mr. Rogers, or Thomas the Tank Engine. Even though we looked up to these figures, there may have never been a point at which we decided to become mature because of them. While it does foster the idea of maturity within the young minds of children, and while that in itself is a positive impact, there is no way to force someone to simply mature humanely. People must bring themselves to the battle and prepare themselves to become mature. So that the next time someone asks you what you want to eat, you choose something rather than saying, “I don’t know.” If you’re hungry, respond to the urge and pick something to eat. If you’re losing money, figure out why you’re losing that money and do something about it. That’s the basis of maturity. It’s taking initiative and finding the solutions to problems that are yours to solve.

Here's to role models! I personally watched Thomas the Train growing up, but I went with the popular pick here and chose Dwayne Johnson since most people know him pretty well. I even added a link to an article showing how Dwayne Johnson changed someone's life: I Tried Dwayne Johnson’s Daily Routine (And It Changed My Life)

Learn more about how to nurture your own path to personal growth here: "The Path to Personal Growth" by Robert Puff, Ph.D

Conclusion:

Now that you have read the synopsis of the last chapter of WGU, I’m sure that you know what it means to be a mature individual. It takes effort and initiative to increase your knowledge and decision-making skills, and while maturity may never be a complete work, every step that we take to become more mature is another step in the right direction. Our generations are built off of the work of our previous generations, and next up is our turn to add onto the tower of humanity.

This video inspired my post greatly: Susan Neiman Interview on Why Grow Up

In this video, Susan Neiman explains some of the ideas and thought processes that went behind the creation of her book, and I found that learning her intentions and inspiration to write this book to be really interesting to learn about. 

To the left, I've included a picture of Susan Neiman, the author of WGU.