Artificial Maturity

Today's Generation iY (teens brought up with the Internet) and Homelanders (children born after 9/11) are overexposed to information at an earlier age than ever and paradoxically are underexposed to meaningful relationships and real-life experiences. Artificial Maturity addresses the problem of what to do when parents and teachers mistake children's superficial knowledge for real maturity. The book is filled with practical steps that adults can take to furnish the experiences kids need to balance their abilities with authentic maturity.

• Shows how to identify the problem of artificial maturity in Generation iY and Homelanders
• Reveals what to do to help children balance autonomy, responsibility, and information
• Includes a down-to-earth model for coaching and guiding youth to true maturity

Artificial Maturity gives parents, teachers, and others who work with youth a manual for understanding and practicing the leadership kids so desperately need to mature in a healthy fashion.

Before You Read Anything Else . . . v

1 What is Artificial Maturity? 1

2 We Didn’t See it Coming 15

3 Who is Generation iY? 33

4 A Balancing Act 49

5 The Problem of Atrophy 65

6 The Problem with Talent 83

7 The Pull to Be a Karaoke Parent or Teacher 97

8 Turning Artificial Maturity into Authentic Maturity 116

9 The Future of Parenting and Education 132

10 What Will Kids Look Like in the Future? 152

11 Correcting and Connecting 166

12 Becoming a Soul Provider 186

13 The Big Picture 205

14 Passing the Baton 219

Notes 233

Acknowledgments 243

About the Author 245

About Growing Leaders 247

Index 249

THE AUTHOR

DR. TIM ELMORE is the founder and president of Growing Leaders. Through Growing Leaders, Elmore and his team teach middle school, high school, and college students the skills they need to become authentic leaders. He has shared his insights in more than thirty countries and has written more than twenty-five books, including Habitudes ^TM: Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes and Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future.

Today’s Generation iY (teens brought up with the Internet) and Homelanders (children born after 9/11) are overexposed to information at an earlier age than ever and, paradoxically, are underexposed to meaningful relationships and real-life experiences. This overexposure/underexposure produces artificial maturity. For many of our young people, the speed at which data reaches them has slowed down their actual maturity.

Artificial Maturity gives parents, teachers, and others who work with youth a manual for understanding and practicing the leadership that kids so desperately need to mature in a healthy fashion, including practical steps adults can take to furnish the experiences kids need to balance their consumption of information with true development. These steps are centered on four keys for transforming artificial maturity into authentic maturity:

• Provide autonomy and responsibility simultaneously
• Provide information and accountability simultaneously
• Provide experiences to accompany teens’ technology-savvy lifestyles
• Provide community-service opportunities to balance self-service time

Also featured are helpful ideas, projects, and traditions gleaned from parents, teachers, and others who affect children’s lives, which enable the kids under their care to mature and become healthy adults.

Discover more at www.GrowingLeaders.com