Do you know your own mind at 16?

[Sandra]

Our government (United Kingdom) are discussing plans to raise the age of school leavers from 16 to 18 and lowering the voting age from 18 to 16. Do you agree or do you think 16 years olds know their own mind? Did you leave school before 18, if so do you regret it or was it the best decision you ever made? Do you think 16 year old should be allowed to vote, or is that too big a responsibility for someone so young?

[meadow]

i think it should be 18 all around. school, voting, drinking, driving. i think once you turn 18 you should be considered an adult for everything, period. have it consistent and have it be an age where younger people actually are able to know what they are doing and why they do it. the difference between 16 and 18 is HUGE because of all the brain development going on. i know that for myself, 16 was much, much different maturity wise than 18.

i think part of it stems from the knowledge in this country that you are an adult at 18. you begin to prepare for it and look forward to it in life. i just think 16 is much too young to decide what you want out of life. what i wanted at 16 was quite different than at 18. of course, it's all totally changed in the nearly 20 years since that time.

[bermbits]

Eighteen for most stuff is fine to me. Drinking, however, should be at least 21. There are studies that have shown many males don't develop a sense of consequences of actions until into their 20s. In my weekly online column, I often refer to alcohol and other drugs as Stupid Pills.

[meadow]

but don't you feel that if someone is old enough to vote and join the military they should be old enough to drink? they can do everything but drink??? that just makes the stupid ones want to run out and drink even more and do it illegally.

i feel if you are going to die for your country in the military, you ought to be able to have a beer if you want. you can choose to kill people with guns then you can have a few drinks.

[bermbits]

Since you mentioned it, maybe the military enlistment age should be raised to 21. Then we wouldn't have the problem.

[van]

Kia ora Sandra

Here too, NZ, the Greens are trying this tactic
Interestingly the higher achievers in this age group are against the move
I left school at 16 and regret not having gone further
At that time a minimum pass of 60% was required in English, and as a new arrival I had my problems
To this day, English grammar defeats me, nouns,pro-nouns, verbs, adjectives etc are so much Double Dutch to me
Of my 6 kids, all but the youngest left at 15-16
3 have nothing to show for it, but 3 have themselves setup for the future whatever promises that holds
Having said all that, I am content with my life as it could have turned out much worse

Arohanui
Shalom
Bill

[solana]

Bermbits... I agree..

we should not send children to war


an 18 year old is a child.
somepeople 10 years older than that are not able to reason or see the big picture

21 for drinking, voting, armed services

18 for driving ,school decisions

[meadow]

i feel let 'em all at it at 18. it's sink or swim time in life and you gotta learn early on how to make important decisions. let 'em learn about the dangers of driving, drinking, going off to horrific wars and voting at 18.

i know that at 18 i knew the same things i know now about life and how the world chooses to operate. not much has changed but i wish i would have been better prepared by the knowledge that 18 is the real threshold. it's adulthood, period.

i think if more children were put out there to the harsh realities of life and their roles in it...there wouldn't be that babified sense of entitlement we have in generations now. i'm tired of seeing 22 and 23 year old ADULTS who are still treated like they don't have any clue. they might not but that's THEIR PROBLEM and i think a good, hard dose of reality is what they need more than pussyfootin' and coddling.

if you are old enough to vote, drive and leave school you should be allowed to fully be an adult. you can certainly choose to procreate at 18 and get married...you ought to be allowed to drink at your wedding or your child's christening!

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[Sandra]

Kia ora Sandra

Here too, NZ, the Greens are trying this tactic
Interestingly the higher achievers in this age group are against the move
I left school at 16 and regret not having gone further
At that time a minimum pass of 60% was required in English, and as a new arrival I had my problems
To this day, English grammar defeats me, nouns,pro-nouns, verbs, adjectives etc are so much Double Dutch to me
Of my 6 kids, all but the youngest left at 15-16
3 have nothing to show for it, but 3 have themselves setup for the future whatever promises that holds
Having said all that, I am content with my life as it could have turned out much worse

Arohanui
Shalom
Bill

I also left school when I was 16 then went on to college, I wish now I'd stuck in more, I agree with the age being put up to 18 here in Britain as half the kids that leave school just end up on the dole or hanging around the streets or more often than not end up in crappy jobs. My daughter is staying on at school until 6th year then she'll be 18 after that she goes to university for 3 or 4 years to graduate to become a teacher, I'm very very proud of her.

I do think the age limit should be increased to 21 for drinking in pubs , private functions maybe still stay at 18, too many young lifes have been ruined by alcohol as they start drinking at such a young age.

[AJRC_CS]

I don't agree. I think the ages for voting should be left as they are. At 16 politics just doesn't interest you, or very few are interested. At 16 all i was interested in was girls. It wasn't until i was 18 that i took an interest in politics, still very interested in girls, but politics entered the equation at 18. As for leaving school at 18, i don't think that's a great idea either. If you're not academically minded, another two years in school isn't really going to make that much difference. Those two years could have been spent earning a wage.

[bermbits]

To go a step further, kids today may be more mature than we give them credit for, but it may not be in a good way. The media and Internet allows immediate exposure to so much, but what so much means in a bigger picture is lacking. Technology has given them much but also isolated them more than ever before. There is less and less face-to-face interaction, and dealing with people is a crucial part of being mature.

[pilvikki]

yogi, that was off topic!

according to what i've been reading, the countries that make no big deal about drinking/age of majority have fewer problems with alcholism, poland being being the exception....

yet, alcoholism has been linked to genes, so perhaps the finns, the polish, the irish are perdispositioned towards it anway and so it would hardly matter if the drinking age was 45.

for the voting, i'm leaning towards assuming that only those interested would vote, just as they do now, regardless of age.

army? well, everybody is too young to die in battle.

[solana]

again..., I agree with you bermbits....

[kg5uc]

I think Solana came the closest to my opinion on the subject.

I think that, ideally, we should determine the point of adulthood on an individual basis. There are some who become quite mature at a very young age (though, of course, many of those are almost forced into it by being parented by my second classification of people which follows) and some that, quite frankly, will <i>never</i> become mature. Those that do mature early are punished by the assumption that they couldn't be old enough for those allowances, and the others should never be allowed to leave the nursery.

But of course the above is completely impractical. Who is it that should be designated to make that decision, even ignoring the impossibility of being able to accomplish it for every individual in a given country? Therefore, the only other remedy is to set an arbitrary age boundary that applies to all. Although 20 or 21 might be a better choice, giving the individual a bit more of a chance to <i>fully</i> mature, in this case I can go with the status quo of eighteen as a general boundary. I would also have to agree with 21 as the legal age for drinking because let's face it...there are <i>many</i> people who don't need to be drinking at any age.

[Silke]

we have two drinking ages; 18 and 20 (before it was 21). Workes fine by me.

I don´t think voting is that big a responsibility; those who want to should be allowed to at 16. Parents would probably have a big influence the first years anyhow. let´s face it: one vote doesn´t count.

... and about school. If I were forced to go to school until 18... I´d comitt murder I´m sure.