Maturationism

Maturationism is a philosophy of early childhood education that treats children as growing organisms whose development is governed mainly by an inborn biological schedule, with genetic factors mattering more than the surrounding environment, and it holds that education should support this growth rather than try to fill the child with information from outside. The psychologist Arnold Gesell and his colleagues at Yale Universitys Clinic of Child Development charted developmental milestones across thousands of children, building the framework that treats maturation as a universal process that unfolds in the same order for everyone, set by each childs own genetic makeup. Maturationist programs also draw on psychodynamic theory, giving weight to how early experience shapes emotional, social and cognitive development, and focus on building competence and self-esteem as important parts of healthy development, within a broader progressive education outlook. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/