I would go the other way, and say it's 22. Every single teenager I knew at that age was FAR from being mature enough to be called an adult. It wasn't until the majority of college was under the belt that they became any approximation of an adult. That kind of maturity comes with actual life experience, not just however many candles you have on your cake.
There are always the kids that grow up too fast, because of terrible things that happen to them. Personally I'd probably had more shit happen to me by 18 than most people by 30 -- but I still didn't have the truly important experiences to make mature decisions until I was 20. By then I'd already fucked my credit over (which at 27 I'm still suffering from) and had to move back in with my parents.
Personally I don't think the US should allow students under 20 to enroll in universities, unless they can prove they're stellar students. I know the first year of "general education" is supposed to weed out the good from the bad, the serious from the fuckoffs, but there are a lot of kids that fuck up in that first year that really do want to be there, the curriculum is just so dumbed down they stop trying. Those are the rare kids that came from a highschool that really prepared them. And once they fuck up that first year, usually that's it -- it's next to impossible to get back on the right track.
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Date: 2009-02-20 06:09 pm (UTC)There are always the kids that grow up too fast, because of terrible things that happen to them. Personally I'd probably had more shit happen to me by 18 than most people by 30 -- but I still didn't have the truly important experiences to make mature decisions until I was 20. By then I'd already fucked my credit over (which at 27 I'm still suffering from) and had to move back in with my parents.
Personally I don't think the US should allow students under 20 to enroll in universities, unless they can prove they're stellar students. I know the first year of "general education" is supposed to weed out the good from the bad, the serious from the fuckoffs, but there are a lot of kids that fuck up in that first year that really do want to be there, the curriculum is just so dumbed down they stop trying. Those are the rare kids that came from a highschool that really prepared them. And once they fuck up that first year, usually that's it -- it's next to impossible to get back on the right track.