Human Development By Linda Stowe
My B.A. is in human development, a nebulous term that could be about anything relating to how humans change over time. It could be focused on physiology, ranging from fetal development to aging. Or it could be about how we learn. Or how civilizations develop.
It is none of that. In my degree human development refers to how the individual moves from one stage in life to the next. It is literally about how we learn to crawl before we walk and what that means to us. As we grow and develop, life presents a series of tasks. As we master one challenge, we trade it off for the next with each accomplishment building upon the ones before. Newborns have a lot on their plate. There is so much to learn, starting with where to find the milk.
But we are never satisfied. Finding out where the milk comes from might elate the newborn for a while but once that is learned, it looks around for the next challenge. Like, what is that big face I see smiling down on me?
While it might seem that we resolve most of our challenges by the time we reach adulthood, we actually continue to develop throughout our lives. The achievements may not be as noticeable as taking that first step, but they are there if you look for them. The important thing is to keep looking for them.
Wordle guess words: about, trade, stage, plate, elate
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Polly here.
Well, here is the thing. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. For all my life, I have been in an ongoing stage of human development. I’m still trying to figure things out, one day at a time.
Human development is not simply the passage of time or the act of getting older. It is the lifelong process of becoming more fully human. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.
I think it is shaped by both biology and lived experience. Development comes to us all along the way. It comes along to us, not only through our own actions, but also through chance and good fortune. But it doesn’t come to us in a neat, straight line. It comes when it happens.
We grow. In a myriad of ways. The best part? If we are willing, human development never truly ends. At any age, we remain capable of learning and adapting. We can deepen intrinsically and become more ourselves.
