<p>“Mini. I agree, they mature earlier physically, but many are less intellectually and socially mature, especially the boys.”</p>
<p>Yes, but whose fault is that? During WWII, when dads and older brothers went off to war, 15-year-olds ran farms, businesses, stores, did all accounting, coped with rationing, and generally played major roles in keeping families functioning well. They had all the freedom that responsibility could provide. (and when the older siblings came back from the War, they had to compete with the younger ones for jobs, and brides, and were less equipped than their younger siblings. Hence, the modern invention of “teenagers”, a term first coined in 1941, and which only gained popularity in the late 1940s.)</p>
<p>“Isn’t that the direction we are following anyway? Have such poor high schools that the first 2-3 years of college become a glorified exercise in remedial courses, and graduating students with degrees that are barely above what a HS should be, only to see the GRADUATE schools turn into our real colleges?”</p>
<p>Do you really have such a low opinion of CMC?</p>
<p>“What do we have here? A country that rejects early vocational and technical schools and WANTS to send everyone to college.”</p>
<p>Actually, what the country “wants” is to keep them out of the workforce, and keep them consuming.</p>