By Ray Smith Retired. Formerly Area Specialist with the Australian Science Education Project and Senior Lecturer at the Regional Educational Centre for Science and Mathematics. Malaysia. Co-author of the series of Headstart Science books.
The tallest woman on Earth, Yao Defen, died because she didn't stop growing. The cause turned out to be a cancer in her pituitary gland There are stages in the growth of all people. The first is physical growth to the early teens. During that period there is much learning of facts and a mental growth through what are called "concrete" stages of learnings. After that, the physical growth should stop, and be followed by a mental growth - that which psychologist Jan Piaget calls the "formal" thinking stage. As in Physical growth, there is a need for challenges and exercises in mental growth to achieve this formal level of thinking*.
