evolution of thought

there was another thought process from yesterday that just hit me, bringing back useful perspective. the mind, the intellect are constantly evolving, constantly growing. how much or how little they evolve depends on how open they are, how coordinated they are with the sense perceptions of the world, but that's not my point here. i realize that we must consciously allow for this evolution constantly (in us and in others) in our interactions with other beings. sometimes i feel that while we evolve and realize that we evolve, we tend to think that all else is frozen in time. like we think of our elementary school friends as still tiny and in bangs and pigtails.

the analogy that struck home was how a child evolves physically in so little time. in a few months he begins to turn over, crawl, then speak, etc. if we don't allow for analogous evolution to occur in others (though in less apparent ways), might we not make the mistake of thinking that their 'child' is still in the fetus stage?