I don’t think (but I could be wrong) that OP was planning on using his youth rights beliefs as a basis for his college essays. And I think (but I could be wrong again) that arguing the merits of those beliefs is somewhat besides the point here.
@austinmshauri I am not able to take on those responsibilities right now because of the systemic ageism that affects me. Can’t pay for college working 18 hours a week for 7.25 an hour. It’s hard for us to get a leg up in this job market with these restrictions. I do want the responsibilities, but we can’t take on the responsibilities until we have the ability to, which is limited because of the restrictions. If the restrictions are lifted, then we can take on the responsibilities.
I’m very sorry you had that type of experience in education. It’s a shame. I think that it sounds like once you get the right environment, you might just love school. I truly hope you find a great match for college. One thing, there are so many different types of colleges out there. I don’t know which would fit you best. Have you read books or websites about colleges? This site included, there are many good ones out there than can help you match what you want to do with the types of schools out there. I went to a high ranked LAC for college but have taken college courses here and there at many different schools of all different levels and a grad program at a school that isn’t very high ranked but is very unique. The best courses I had were those at this regional state school which has amazing math teachers. I think the quality of a college class is in large part based on how passionate the professor is and that person’s depth of knowledge. The thing about the regional state school is, though, that there were fewer serious students in the classes than I think there were at some other colleges in my own experience. I sat in the front and other older people tended to do the same. once a typical aged college student asked a couple of us older than 30 students, “why are all you old people always in the front? I don’t get it. In every class there are a couple of old people right in the front row!” I turned and told him, “that’s because we had stupid jobs in the past and we don’t want to have stupid jobs again.” He looked briefly terrified and walked away. lol I did find even at that school quite a number of people who were serious students who liked to talk about idea. If you look those people are there in most any school. But some colleges would be a better fit for you than others. Babson might be a nice match because you get aspects of a liberal arts education with a business-focus. Finance is big there. I think these aspects of liberal arts can round a person out and help them in their career. I really don’t know what is best for you.
I think another thing is that you can keep doing what you have done which is to continue learning on your own while you wait to get to the college you choose.
One more thing, it would be too bad to rush to get to college early and end up at one that fits you less well than one that you would click with and love. when are you applying? Did you already apply?
I haven’t thought that much about the issue of young people’s rights in the terms you have. I have thought about children deserving loving, supportive homes and parents who want the best for them and protect them. I have seen heartbreaking situations over the years. With my child, I treat him with respect. I always let him have choice in things since he was little. But he doesn’t always have the life experience to know certain things. It is like looking out from the peak of a mountain while he is looking out from a lower part of a mountain, his view blocked by the mountain itself at least on one side. I tell him it isn’t that I’m right and he is wrong but that sometimes his father and I do know things he doesn’t just from being alive longer. I think because we give him a lot of freedom to choose things and treat him with respect as a person equally important to us, when we tell him we think he is making a mistake, he tends to listening to what we have to say. I don’t know if how we parent would meet your standards or not. I wasn’t going for perfection, just hoped to not do some of the things my parents did to me and I managed to meet that goal. My son things we did a good job with him. I think we could have done better but did the best we could.
This is a long way to get at saying, if you yourself had life experiences that made you feel strongly about this issue, I am sorry. I hope you didn’t have bad childhood experiences at home. It doesn’t quite sound like you did, but then again, most humans do in at least some way. If you have seen other young people mistreated, I’m sorry for that.
I do think that young people have a lot of value to society, otherwise I wouldn’t be a teacher. I don’t know what rights you think young people should have that they do not, but in my experience as a teacher, no matter how amazing the young person, most at certain ages are not ready for all the responsibilities of adulthood (heck, half of adults or more don’t seem ready for those things, either.)
I think I typed way too much. Again, best wishes to you!
This is where you lose people. Ageism affects older people for many more years than young people. Its simple math.
Yes, years of working allows us more income and savings than most teens but thats not ageism. Theres lots of teen actors and musicians making a ton more money than me. Are you jealous that you arent making that money? This has nothing to do with your age. Legally driving? Shouldnt safely happen until age 15 anyways so not sure when you want to argue that “right” to begin? I will give you 1 year of “ageism” on that one. Voting even based on NYR recommendations is only a 2 year “ageism”. Drinking, fine, you want to lower that to what, 18? Still doesnt seem discriminatory against children or youth. Legally trading on the stock market, cue the fact that most youths and teens dont have enough money like your privileged self with millionaire parents. Im certain most teens arent crying and upset about their feelings of discrimination about not being able to trade stocks and bonds. Working hours should be limited while attending school to ensure proper learning is occurring.
Graduate high school at whatever age you want. Apply to whatever colleges that interest you. Wait for the acceptances and rejections to come in. Pick your college and go. Being angry about being 15 doesnt help you at all in your college acceptances.
NYRA does state on their website that they want to lower the voting age to 16 and drinking age to 18 but those are just starting points. We don’t want to scare people away from our movement by saying “lower drinking age to 0”. But those of us on the inside do have further goals than 16 and 18.
I could responsibly operate a car a 11. I think that if someone can demonstrate that they can drive a car, they should be able to get a license.
I don’t think anyone is sitting around crying about any of these issues, however they are important and impact many people.
Maybe just Maybe if we were allowed to work and save up we would have enough money to invest in markets.
People should be allowed to work how many hours they want without the government intervening. How many hours you work should be between you and your employer, not the government.
Your thinking on these issues is quite insular. You have to think very deeply to understand this complex issue.
@Homeschooler14 Wow. Oh to be 15 again. Best of luck!
Does your school teach history? Or biology? You seem to have some very fundamental gaps in your education.
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@2plustrio “Wow. Oh to be 15 again. Best of luck!”
Wow. Oh to be teated like a dog again.
@austinmshauri The conditions faced in those times were horrible. Thankfully we wouldn’t have to worry about that if we lifted child labor laws because of regulations that the government has outside of child labor. Those conditions will never come back in the USA.
As far as Biology, there are Pre Pubescent humans and there are post Pubescent humans. Humans do not have an adolescence and studies have shown that teens are just as capable as so called “adults”. Fluid intelligence peaks in your late teens and declines from there. A 12 year old has more fluid intelligence as a 30 year old.
I guess your “elite” private schools education has some gaps.
Human puberty, or sexual maturation, is a multiyear process; it is not like one day you are a child and the next day you are an adult. The concept of adolescence overlaps with puberty in a biological sense, though it can include other types of physical and mental development. It can also include social factors and expectations which you appear to be fighting against.
So, I wonder why the insurance rates on young, male teen drivers are the highest (since they are fully mature, with good judgement and at the peak of intelligence)…
@homeschooler14, I would love to fast-forward a few years and see how you would react to your own posts when you are, say, fifty years old. I’d bet a few thousand dollars you’d be embarrassed (or at least amused) at your teen self.
I wish you the best.
P.S…oppression of women lasts all of a woman’s life. If there is oppression of young people, it is quite a temporary thing.
The brain is not fully developed until well into the mid 20’s or later. Judgement and decision making have not had time to fully mature. Risky behaviors and impulsivity can be exhibited.
Science will not support an 11 year old getting a driver’s license.
Ageism affecting older adults is real. Try working for 30+ years and then you will understand.
Your immaturity is reflected in the tone of your posts.
I imagine there are so many kids with extra time on their hands to explore their creative writing skills. Nice to see the fishing at this time of year is so bountiful.
Whether (and it is whether, not weather) you should include the activities may depend on what you’ve done. If you are writing letters to congressmen or attending conventions, go ahead and talk about those actions. If you are getting arrested for chaining yourself to a voting machine, I’d probably keep it to myself.
I bet that a lot of AOs have no idea what the organization is or what the members hope to achieve. You can introduce them to your group. There just aren’t that many 15 year olds applying to college so this would be a unique topic.
I think becoming emancipated at 16 would be evidence for your group that you (and others) are capable of adult responsibilities (and that would make a fantastic essay, that you wanted to be emancipated and you made it happen). You don’t want to join the adult ‘club’ because everyone else can’t? I can assure you not everyone WANTS to be an adult at 16; my kids didn’t and were happy to have me do their taxes and pay for their room and board and college and health insurance so they could attend high school and hang out with their friends, but if you want to be an adult, go for it.
Prove that you can do it successfully and then maybe the laws will change and you’ll be the trailblazer.
There is no law that says you can’t earn more than minimum wage. There are laws in some states that kids can’t work more than X hours on a school day, but most don’t have restrictions in the summer or after you’ve graduated. Musicians and actors make a lot more. If you are emancipated, you can earn boat loads of money. Do it.
I have been a college professor for over thirty-one years. What I pick up from the OP is an angry resistance to any opposing points of view. The wisest people I have had the pleasure of knowing have had a calm, open frame of mind to anyone presenting a new point of view. They filter that information and form opinions based on logic and the knowledge they have accumulated at that point. They respect expertise. I will grant that the OP is fifteen, but this dig-in-the-heels resistance to experience does not indicate a mind that is open to gaining wisdom. An inherent humility and respect for others’ life experiences and expertise can lead one to wisdom. That doesn’t mean kowtowing to dogma; it means accepting the limitations of our own minds in order to expand them by learning from others.
@CAClover Many people here angrily resisted my ideology when I introduced it to them. They called it an “internet ideology comparable to nazism”. You are quite biased.
Yes, “hire a teenager while he still knows everything.” This was a sign a friend had up in his house.
We have been your age but you have not been our age. Many of us have huge love and respect for teens and young adults. Thus we give our best advice and try to guide them with our experience so they can have the best life with the most options.
Again, you have said you have completed your high school graduation requirements. You are applying for colleges. You are working. Nothing has really seemed to hold you back. Graduate high school officially, this summer work as many hours as you want to help pay for your own college and living expenses.
Then start college. In 2 years you will have nobody to blame but yourself.
“The brain is not fully developed until well into the mid 20’s or later. Judgement and decision making have not had time to fully mature. Risky behaviors and impulsivity can be exhibited”
Yeah there’s a theory floating around that the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until 25. While there may be parts of the brain that don’t develop until 25, there are parts of the brain that don’t develop until 30, 40, 50. The brain is always developing.
We know for sure that the Prefrontal cortex does not affect behavior when its mostly developed. This is because in over 100 cultures in the world, there is no adolescence and children transition straight into adulthood. They have no problems with risky behavior or decision making when they’re 14 in these cultures. They are very mature and have jobs and support themselves.
Why would research like that the PFC doesn’t develop until 25 be conducted? Who would that advantage? What is the motive for wanting to find evidence that the brain doesn’t develop until 25? Its because they’re looking for evidence to validate the oppression of young people.
@inthegarden Car insurance rates are obviously the highest for the least experienced drivers and go down until you become elderly if you don’t have an accident. What are you trying to prove?
And, I would be willing to take that bet that I wouldn’t. I’ve believed in this forever and is a key part of my life. It’s not going anywhere. We have many 50 year olds and older in our movement.
How was I able to drive a car when I was 11? Even better and more telling, how was I able to drive a large boat (over 40 feet) in rough seas without supervision when I was 11? Now I’m 15 and doing it all the time.
All of your posts indicate your combative and negative attitude.
Put your very important extracurricular on your application. Do all the things you keep asking questions about. You are not looking for advice. You are looking for people to affirm what you want to do. You are stating your views and defending yourself against an imaginary enemy.
We don’t give a rat’s behind about your “ideology” and we aren’t “resisting” it. Please apply, because you clearly feel strongly about what you should do. But don’t come here asking for advice and then get angry when people give you honest opinions.
P.S. For reference, this poster’s previous threads have the same combative and dismissive tone.