Wisdom

The intellectual maturity of today’s youth seems to have surpassed that of previous generations because of the enormous amount of information available. But many educators are questioning the validity of what passes for intellectual maturity in our educational system. Memorizing data and repeating it does not bring about intellectual maturity. Young people need to be challenged to reason, to deduce and to be creative.

Yet this type of maturity—the ability to solve problems, to reason through and foresee the consequences of one’s actions—is not necessarily taught in schools. Educators call it intellectual or cognitive maturity. Everyone else calls it common sense. The Bible calls it wisdom. Many teenagers are trying to become adults without it.