Its time to attend to adult development!

How many of you have taken a course on child development? There are a lot, right? How many of you have taken (or even heard of) a class on adult development? Very, very few, right?

How many of you have heard of Piaget's theories? Most college grads have. How many of you can discuss a theory of adult development? Most college grads cannot.

WHY?
1. There has never been the degree of study relative to the way adults can and "should" evolve.
Anyone acquainted with psychological works knows that the amount of ink used to write the studies relative to child development would fill Lake Michigan. However, the studies relative to adult development are nowhere near as vast or comprehensive.

2. We have a lot of agreement on the "shoulds" of child development. Talking about how an adult "should" evolve gets us into a lot of heated disagreement.
While we argue about some specifics of child developmental paths, we mainly agree on the direction and speed of the paths. How an adult evolves, mentally, morally, spiritually, emotionally, however generates huge arguments. Is Sarah Pallin an"evolved" adult? Is Bernie Madoff and "evolved" adult? Is Karl Rove? How about Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, Tom Cruise, a Jesuit Priest, a Buddhist monk, Hulk Hogan, Demi Moore? It is a fascinating question.

3. We agree on the developmental levels of child development--we know what a 10 yr. old (for example) "should" look like physically, emotionally, morally, cognitively, etc. We have no consensus for what an evolved adult would look like.
Developmental milestones are established for the growth of a child physically, emotionally, cognitively, morally and any serious deviation from those milestones is something parents and educators are encouraged to look at closely. We have no research based idea on how a 23 yr. old would look different from a 33 yr. old, or how a 53 yr. old would look different from a 43 yr. old. Often we believe there would be no significant difference.

4. For some reason we don't believe we need to care about development beyond 18.
We tend to believe that since an adult is an adult she/he gets to develop or not develop beyond 18 to whatever degree they may want. It is true that parents have a moral obligation and somewhat of a legal obligation to attend to the development of a child. After 18 no one has that obligation. Does this mean we are served by no longer caring. We do little to encourage development. In fact, we tend to glamorize or at least normalize idiocy (see most commercials), promiscuity and dishonesty (especially if it makes money). Does an evolved adult seek to make money while not producing anything of value?

Does all this serve us as a society?