DR. WALLACE: I just learned that our high school is giving out awards and prizes for good attendance records! I thought the purpose of high school was to learn and prepare for college or a future job, not to be rewarded for simply showing up. I thought attending high school was merely the baseline of minimum expectations, not something to be celebrated.

Why do you think our high school is doing this? — More Interested in Learning, via email

MORE INTERESTED IN LEARNING: It's great that you have the mindset that you do, and I'm rooting for you to do very well academically at your high school and beyond if you choose to seek further education.

Having said that, however, I do agree with high schools offering attendance bonuses or prizes if the school administrators feel it will encourage attendance and limit the dropout rate. Some students do face multiple challenges to being able to regularly attend school for myriad reasons. Not everyone is as fortunate as you are to fully be able to show up at high school every day, eager to learn, which is indeed a very good thing.

Any motivation that benefits students, parents, guardians or other family members to ensure that their high school-age students attend school regularly is a very good thing in my book. I trust there is a good reason why this program exists, and hopefully it is producing the desired results.

HIS MATURITY AND PERSONALITY DO NOT MATCH HIS ACTUAL AGE

DR. WALLACE: I'm 22, female and a senior in college. To my utter surprise, a guy I met a couple of months ago who looked and acted at least 20 or 21 turned out to only be 18 and a college freshman!

When I first discovered this, we were already on our second date, and my reflexive instinct was to cut him loose immediately. But his maturity, character and countenance drew me in and helped me overcome our four-year age difference. And to be quite specific, we are actually three years and eight months apart in age, but at the moment everyone would consider us to be four years apart.

So now I feel like I have a bit of a dilemma and certainly a conundrum to deal with. On the one hand, I do want to continue hanging out with him because he's a fantastic person, wise and mature beyond his years, and he treats me very well. In fact, he's earned my total respect and more. However, I'll admit that I'm not looking forward to telling any of my close friends or relatives his exact age. In fact, I'd prefer to keep that on the down-low, if you catch my drift. What do you think I should do here? — Truly Have Feelings for Him, via email

TRULY HAVE FEELINGS FOR HIM: You asked for direct advice, so I'm happy to give it to you. Continue seeing him, and don't immediately volunteer any information about him at first to anyone, other than how mature is, how much you like his character and how well he treats you.

Seek first to establish this baseline of his character and maturity in the minds of your friends and family members, knowing that at some point a discussion about his age will inevitably come up. And when it does, don't deflect or lie; be brutally honest and explain your rationale to your friends and family just the way you did to me here in your letter.

There's no shame in two adults entering a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship, and four years in your instance doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me, so don't overthink the matter or seek to be deceitful about it. Start with his maturity, respectfulness and character, and I trust everything else will fall into place, especially over time. He deserves your honesty, and you will know it's right in your gut to be forthright about his age and maturity when it comes time to disclose it accurately.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Feliphe Schiarolli at Unsplash